Michigan

[Olive Hill]

I would like to keep a few for breeding next year's crop of piglets, so that is why I was asking which breed would be best to keep year round.

Any of those I listed will be fine with basic shelter through a Michigan winter. Those with floppy ears (such as the GOS) are known for being slightly less cold hardy than those with erect ears due to the greater surface area through which they lose body heat on those big ears.

Do be sure you consider economics before you decide to breed your own though. Keeping a boar year-round for him to work one day a year is going to make for very, very expensive piglets. A mature boar will eat $600+ in feed per year. If you have one sow that you breed once per year with a heritage breed you're likely to average 10-12 piglets per litter. To put that in perspective: on the good side of things you've got $50 into each piglet the second it hits the ground just in feed for your boar. That doesn't count feed for the sow which will be more than the boar since at some points she'll be pregnant and lactating requiring great feed amounts. Count just the feed for boar and sow and you have more than $100 into each piglet the second it hits the ground. Then you have bedding, electricity to run the well for their water, fences (pigs need STRONG fences and those fences need continuous repair and upkeep if you're keeping them year round), feed and watering equipment (which also need repair and upkeep with pigs), you still have to actually feed out the piglets before they're ready to process so feed for them, shelters (which need repair and upkeep just like the fences and equipment, hogs are HARD on things), your time to do the chores, wormers, medications, vet bills if something goes wrong, medical and farrowing supplies, newborn piglet care supplies, etc, etc.

This is all on top of your initial purchase costs which -- if you're planning to breed -- should be substantial.

Then you have to consider that you risk infertility by only breeding your sow once per year. Their reproductive systems, in general, do not do well if left dormant. So you may decide to breed twice per year to ward that off, which lowers your per piglet cost for keeping your sow and boar but vastly increases the costs of everything else.

In a nutshell: keeping a couple pigs for family use and casual sales is not an economically sound endeavor.

And you don't even know if you like pigs yet. Many people do not. I think they're crazy, of course. Pigs are fabulous as far as I'm concerned, but you will find many people whole heartedly disagree with me and think they're horrid animals.

I don't want to discourage you, but I would really encourage you to start with a couple of feeders this year and see how it goes. Really crunch the numbers and see where you want to take it from there. That way you also get a chance to test out some different breeds if you want first. There are considerable difference among the breeds so if you're going to breed it'd be a good idea to see which you like best.

Good luck!

 

[chickflick]

Wow, this is so different. Gonna take some time to get use to. Had trouble just getting in. Had to dig out my password.

Got some new smileys too! I'm going to have to come back and play around a bit on this. Us old people don't like change so much.

Well, I'm taking a walk with the dogs and destress! Have a good one, all.

 

[NovaAman]

Ok, I get to be the first one to post in PURPLE!
AND NOW!!!!
I obviously have nothing better to do today.

Even though, I should go and get the last of the leaves out of the driveway and into the under-run.
I should go and get gas for my snow blower. I hate shoveling.
I should go and get new lightbulbs. BOTH burnt out with in 2 days of each other, so the chickens got to sleep in.
I think once I get this new version under my belt, it'll be ok.
Especially since I can do things like this!!
Wait until the kiddos figure it out. They're going to be worse than me...
Oh, and I see, if you are HTML savvy, you can write your whole post in HTML and make it do crazy things!​

 

[sj3364]

So I like the new site so far. Not much time to play around yet, as I'm supposed to be working.

The new wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) editor is pretty great.

Cadbury skipped laying yesterday and I would usually already have her egg for today in the next box when I let them out. No egg from her yet when I opened the coop so I started my morning routine of scooping the poop piles from under the roosts. (Coop is too small for poop boards.) She can in and said hi, which she usually does, but then went and started messing in the nesting boxes. I told her I would leave and let her go about her business but she left so I continued cleaning. Then I saw her trying to get under the brush pile! Yikes! No way is she going to lay her egg under the brush pile. So I shooed her out of there and put her back in the coop. But she was freaked out now. I figured I better just go inside and let her calm down. I sure hope she didn't lay under the brush pile. I guess I'll see when go back out there to check.

Enjoy our last nice day, everyone. Winter arrives tomorrow.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Whew. figured out how to get to my last post. that is much better. still not sure about everything, am interested how newer people adapt. I was so used to the old way, EVERYTHING is hard for me! Course i'm not really computer savvy, so i am biased. i seriously missed you all yesterday! I did a major cleaning of my coop, and cleaned the house,.... twiddled, ........tried to read...... At least it was a beautiful day to be cut off! There would have been a mutiny had it been cold and blowing! Thought there was, on the FB BYC, normally there's a post here and there but yesterday i went for hours, only to get back 4; i think they were posting as fast as i was reading

Anywho, i figured out what the magic ingredient on my food was: it's yucca. They put it in some brands of cat food to control litter box odor, and my showbird supplement has it. Makes sense; you don't want a stinky bird at a show! I have been thinking of switching to supplementing with regular calf manna, it's $30 a bag for 50# and i think mine is 10# for $5, and aside from not having probiotics and a slightly lower calcium content, they look similar. I give mine access to calcium grit, so i think i could? I will have to see if it has the yucca in it, but come summer i don't care anyway. I like doing the concentrated vitamins because i like to give them as much fresh food as my limited budget and garden can offer. I am hoping to have one of those 6 year layers! At any rate they are soft as a baby chick, that stuff really shines them. I wish i could take them and have them tested, i really wanted to sell/give chicks and that's not really a good idea right now as it stands.

Well, i'm off to explore. I tried to write down names of people who sold types/colors of birds i was interested in, just in case, but I could not see archived articles. I too am interested in favorolles chicks, possibly. I really need a lavendar or two though to start my project....I can not go to chickenstock. I have to stay local.

 

[NovaAman]

I wonder if the yucca will help my 2 fart box dogs not stink so bad when the have flatulence...:/

 

[Olive Hill]

I wonder if the yucca will help my 2 fart box dogs not stink so bad when the have flatulence...

Is there a time when fart-box dogs don't have flatulence?

 

[RBahmer]

Going to have to go on my computer to figure this one out. Don't work so well on my phone.

 

[3forfree]

looks like pics work

 

[RaZ]

Mornin' all.
I'm glad to see we are back chatting together again. Good to see you back,
even you anti-change people.

The worst part was forgetting my password. But the reset feature took all of about 10 seconds, so I'm not complaining.

I like the new features, if you thought I was quirky or snarky before, just wait until I get all of this new stuff figured out.