Can pigs and chickens live together?

[curlyhairedwhit]

Can a 8 week old mini pig and 8 young chickens ( Brahmas and Orpingtons ) live together? Below are pictures of our newly built pen. It is a large pen, as you can see... my 8 chickens are in the pen in the pictures and are hardly visible. The chicks are about 3 months in age and are of larger breeds. I am scheduled to pick up my Emmitt in the morning and the closer to time it gets, the more I worry about his living arrangements! Any thoughts or ideas are welcome! Thank You

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

It really depends on the pig and the living quarters. For now, they will probably be fine, but you will have to find some way to restrict the pig's access to the chicken feed. Mini pigs (any pig that's a pet, really) needs to have its food intake strictly monitored to avoid obesity.

Some pigs will hunt if they are bored. So I have seen some pigs kill chickens even when not penned together. Some unfortunate chickens ended up in the pig pen and one thing led to another. Remember, pigs are omnivores and will eat meat if presented the opportunity.

I would probably consider building a separate pen for your pig as he gets older. Pigs can also be quite destructive and I worry that the fencing you have will not prevent the pig from breaking through. Even little guys can cause quite a bit of damage! I was always told the minis and potbellies don't root, but I've seen several cases where that was not true at all!

 

[313759]

Yes, I had two mini pigs living with 15 chickens. But they were babies, they got along well but when the pigs got older they kept chewing on the turkeys feathers but other than that they never had problems with each other. If you plan on showing the birds do not house with mini pigs

 

[Free Feather]

Pigs can eat chickens...They do not always want to, but I still swear that my mother's crossbred gilt ate my turkey poults.
I would make it so that there are plenty of places for the birds to get up out of the pigs' reach, and lots of room to get away from eachother.

 

[Free Feather]

Oh, and the chickens will rip up that small of a space very quickly on their own. A pig in the mix will turn that into a sloppy, muddy mess in a few weeks. Pigs really churn up ground.

 

[curlyhairedwhit]

My mini pig does attempt rooting, so I am sure he will continue to do it. I have had a problem with him eating the chickens food, so I am going to build something up off the ground for the feed which will also give them an area to get away from Emmitt ( the pig ). I do have 2 separate roosts built and they can get up on top of the dog house that is in the pen. I really love my chickens and I do not want them getting hurt or injured. They have been in the pen together for 2 1/2 days now and so far they seem to be getting along just fine. My only problem so far has been controlling my pigs food intake because he loves my chickens scratch feed. The Pen may look small in the pictures, but it is 26 ft long and 10 foot wide. I know when they get bigger we may have to expand the pen or build the pig to a separate pen. Thanks for the responses!