# Wintering ?



## Mike Fronczak (Dec 9, 2012)

I've been looking into raising pigs for a while now.  I was leaning toward getting mulefoots, if I could find them and at resaonable price.  I just came across some on craigslist for a great price, they were born in the spring so they should be big already (not like I'm getting a newborn in winter).  What do you need/recommend for a winter shelter. This will be good to break to the wife . She complained when we got the cows, then the chickens....but when somebody about it...it sounds like it was her idea.


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## Alice Acres (Dec 9, 2012)

Depends on where you live - what "winter" means!


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## Mike Fronczak (Dec 9, 2012)

Western NY, between Buffalo & Rochester, about 5 miles from Lake Ontario.  We average about 100 inches of snow per year, lowest temp is ussually about zero, and that's usually once or twice a year, for a very short time.


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## animalfarm (Dec 10, 2012)

A wind and water proof hut with the door away from the prevailing winds and large enough to hold the # of pigs you want to house. Fill it to the gills with hay so they can burrow into it to stay warm. As long as they have plenty of cover they will be fine. They will probably eat the hay so you need to keep shoveling it in there.  I drop a round bale in front of the door which also acts as a wind block and makes it easy to keep the hut filled with hay. On milder days the pigs just bed down around the bale. 

 I use 6 ml  plastic on hoop houses made from cattle panels and a piece of plywood for the back wall. That way I can move the shelters from the winter pens out to the pastures in the summer and just throw a cheap tarp over them for shade instead of the plastic and back wall.


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## secuono (Dec 10, 2012)

My three 25lbs pigs eat and flatten the hay overnight...I'd suggest straw or cheap hay for the hut, unless you want to spend a fortune on dinner that they also laze around on.


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## animalfarm (Dec 10, 2012)

Yep, crap hay. Not so sure there is cheap hay anymore.


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## Royd Wood (Dec 10, 2012)

Hey Mike that means your just down the lake from us 
Old horse trailers on higher ground work really well with some expensive crap hay around


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## Cornish Heritage (Dec 10, 2012)

> A wind and water proof hut with the door away from the prevailing winds and large enough to hold the # of pigs you want to house. Fill it to the gills with hay so they can burrow into it to stay warm. As long as they have plenty of cover they will be fine. They will probably eat the hay so you need to keep shoveling it in there.  I drop a round bale in front of the door which also acts as a wind block and makes it easy to keep the hut filled with hay. On milder days the pigs just bed down around the bale.


Good advice. Pigs like hay in the winter when there is no grass to be found and mulefoot, being a heritage breed, will really appreciate the greenery. They will eat what they want & then rearrange the stalky stuff to be bedding. Works great. We use hay all the time here - never bother with straw. 

Liz


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