Pig People, Talk to Me!

[PineBurrowPeeps]

I'm surprising my soon to be 8 year old son with a female piglet for his birthday next month and I need any good links to pig info, and I also need advice on building a pig pen.
I picked a female because I figured if he does get attached to her (he's assuring me that he wants to raise her for bacon) and we can't eat her, then we can at least breed her and sell piglets. She is a Yorkshire/Spot cross.
I want her to have a nice roomy pen with wooden fencing, it cannot be an eyesore. What can you all reccomend for size? I read somewhere 10 X 10 but I want bigger than that... Maybe 14 X 14 or 16 X 16?
What type of shelter will she need for the winter? A run in shed type of deal? Will it need to have a door on it for some reason? I'm just trying to imagine her say out in the snow storm. Are pigs hardy enough to handle the winter with a run-in shed bedded with think straw or do they need more protection than that?
Please let me pick your brain!
Thank You!

 

[boilerjoe_96]

A pig pen that is not an eye sore..... Hmmm... they make such things? I have two pig... Had them outside since May 13th(ish) they have rooted and torn up a 16 X 40 area... no vegetation... a couple wallowing pits, full of mud and a strong odor of pig poop in the air.....

Now, it really doesn't smell that bad unless you are directly downwind, but eye sore...maybe too some....

16X16 works for raising a pig to eat, could even be smaller.... but how happy would that pig be?

 

[ozark hen]

Give me a few minutes Jenna, I found some very interesting facts on what you are asking on line. I need to find it again. I am trying to get my dh to do this for our two female piglets. I have dial up so be patient. LOL

 

[ozark hen]

Ok, here is one article that will give you the basics but there is another one that was very interesting that I am still trying to find.
http://extension.unh.edu/Pubs/HGPubs/pigraise.pdf

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

What I meant when I said not an eyesore was that I didn't want metal posts and welded wire, or hog panels, or just electric tape or what not as the building materials for the pen. I know the inside will be trashed, but the pen itself needs to be solid and nice looking. I live in a nice neighborhood with neighbors who are not farmers and we have alot of people who come over so it needs to be pleasing to the eye.
I'm trying to give my horrid neighbors a good impression of having livestock around.
I'm thinking like a mini horse paddock with the actual rail fencing and a solid gate. Then I could put some hardware cloth or something around the lower part to prevent the piglet from trying to escape...

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

Thanks Ozark hen!

 

[ozark hen]

Here is another good one.
http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/pigs.htm
The one I was looking for ...depending on how much land you have...you divide the section you want to keep the pigs inside into four equal sections. Surround it with a couple strands of electric wire and board fencing. Keep the pigs on pasture in one fourth section for one week and then move them into the second section for one week, meanwhile seeding behind them in the now bare section #1. Each week move them into the next section while reseeding the section they just left. By the fourth week they are back in section #1 and have new grass to eat. Now I don't know how fast the grass is growing or how this works for real but it sounded interesting. Personally, though, I found it is hard to move these guys if they don't want to be moved. LOL Mine do get out sometimes of their 20x40 pen and run amuck around the yard having a ball. They love eating the grass in the field but come when I call them. So far we have managed to get them back in their pen very easily, Lord knows what it will be like when they are full grown. Mine are about 2 1/2 months old now. I did put a plastic kiddie pool inside the pen with them as they love to play in the water. I also made them a huge mud section to roll and cool off in. At first we put them in a large sized dog house but they have outgrown it now. They just need a good size shelter from the elements. Hope some of this has helped?
I feed mine three times a day to keep them inside their pen. I read that if they have enough to eat they won't escape. They learn very quickly about the electric fencing.

 

[texasgirl]

We have a half circle pen built out of t-posts and 6 hog panels (16ft x 34in). It has a big tree in the middle for shade and they seem quite comfortable in it. You can really make any shape or size you want with the panels and we have never ever had an issue with them escaping, except for the piglets getting out, but they stick pretty close to mom and run back to her whenever they get scared.
We have another pen that's built from wood and they were really hard on it, rubbing and chewing on it. IMO panels are the way to go.
We don't have a bad winter so we've never been too worried about shelter, as long as they can get out of the rain they are fine around here.

 

[ozark hen]

If you are worried about how it looks, line the outside of it with flowers if you use hog panels. Anything else they can stick their heads through and eat them all up! LOL We use horse panels, I think they are called and they are reinforcing the chicken wire as it used to be the chicken run. It won't be the chicken run until after November...slaughter time for the pigs. Chickens all free range now.