how to keep a single pig over winter?

[folly foot]

A while back we bought 3 pigs and have kept them mainly keeping the thought in mind that in the end they would become food, but on of our females is such a darling we are thinking of keeping and breeding her in the spring (since we want more pigs next year. But our problem is first of all we don't know how to properly shelter her in the winter (we live in ontario... winters get pretty bad here) people keep giving shelter idea but with the amount of snow we usually get here I don't think it would be enough.... and suggestions? And second of all since we are considering breeding her is it better to raise the boar ourselves or buy it off of someone else?

 

[redsoxs]

I don't know if I'll have a satisfactory answer for what you should do with your single pig over the winter, but here's what I have done. I realize the winters where I live, Kansas, don't compare to an Ontario winter, but we get more than a few January and February nights where we dip into negative digits plus bitter windchill. I like to raise a couple pigs every year during the fall/winter/spring so as to avoid the heat, flies, and smell of summer time pigs. I have a pig hut that measures 5' wide x 8' deep x 4' (tapering down to 3')tall. I keep a lot of fresh straw in it for the pigs to bury themselves in it. They seem to get by fine and don't even seem uncomfortable. Last year I did this with a single pig. The only change I'm going to make this year is to board up about 2/3 of the open entrance. Even though the entrance faces south and away from the cold north wind, with snow on the ground and a south breeze, I wanted to let them get behind the board so they could at least they had wind protection should they want it. Like I said, the central U.S. isn't Ontario when it comes to bone chilling temps, but with enough good dry bedding, a sturdy, out of the wind shelter, and good nutrition, I think it's doable. You might also ask the folks in the Pig Forum on BYCs sister site, BackyardHerds. Hers the link http://www.backyardherds.com
Good luck and keep warm!