Pig Pens

[SarahFair]

I am looking into getting a piglet or two and raise them as meat pigs. I would rather do it this winter to help keep the smell down.

Ive been doing reading here and there for the past few weeks and I am a little confused about the size of the pen and the material I need for it.

The type of fencing I have now is 5 ft welded wire tightened in 8 foot sections by 4" round posts. Id like to keep the fencing and posts matching throughout but am not sure this will hold a 200lb pig. I would also like to take height of the 2 sides of fencing I have to put up down to 3 - 4ft.
To help keep them in I was planning on putting up some electric fence about 3 - 6" inside the welded wire to prevent them from rooting under or pushing on it.

The size of the pen I was planning on a 16x24' pen for one pig. I have read go bigger and I have read that a 7x10' pen would work..
I havent found too much on housing yet. Any information is appreciated.

I was planning on keeping these pigs till they were 4-6 months and have them take the hard grassy soil and till it up for a garden. Come spring plant the garden and plant a section of the garden for the next fall pigs.
Anyone ever used their pigs to till their garden?
How muddy and stinky will it get and at what rate? (I know their stink level depends on what they eat..)


To keep the pen attractive (and somewhat out of view from neighbors) I was going to plant some double knock out roses infront of the pen. Would this entice the pig to escape?


Do you have pictures or examples of your pens?
Any advice, hints, stories of pigs youd like to share I would love reading.

Thanks

 

[wombat]

Use woven wire rather than welded wire. It is much stronger. You should be able to find woven wire called "hog fencing."

You should put a single strand of barbed wire at the top, and another at the bottom to discourage tunnelling under fencing. You can also use an electric hot wire, but don't use a hot wire on your gate, as the hog will learn to associate the "hot" with the gate area, and you'll have a hard time getting the hog through the gate!

Hogs are escape artists. Keep that in mind when putting up your fencing. It will take less time to do the fencing right than it will take to catch the hog ...

As for space, you'd probably be better off fencing a larger area. Hogs are quite clean when pastured in a large area, but they'll quickly turn a small pen to muck.

Don't plan on keeping any un-neutered boars. If you think roos get uppity when they start getting mature, they got nothin' on swine.

My info's sort of second-hand. My grandfather used to pasture a few hogs, I don't keep any myself. I wish I had the space, though ... bacon with actual meat on it!

 

[SarahFair]

Quote:
...Wait? That exists?

 

[Livinzoo]

Hogs are fairly clean animals and with a small pen like that you should plan on scooping the poo a few times a week. The good thing is they usually go in the same area. Otherwise the smell will be bad. Expect the land to become bare, they will destroy the grass being in a small pen. In a large pen the will destroy grass in areas of frequent use. The only way to prevent this is to rotate them to new pens often.

With hogs you can get away with two electric wires as fence. One will need to be placed at high nose level and the other at low nose level. I personally like the electric poultry netting so I don't have to worry about their nose heights changing as they grow.