Need a pen, quickly

[Martlet]

Great tips. Glad I joined this forum. Maybe I'll stick to a single wire low to keep from rooting under the fence.

 

[Martlet]

I raised 3 feeder pigs last fall and took them to slaughter in March. They were Large Black/Berkshire mixed. I built them a hut with the idea in mind of using it for other things after the pigs were gone. I built it on skids and right now it is in the back yard providing shelter for the lambs I weaned. Here is a link on the Hawg Hut.
http://www.backyardherds.com/threads/hawg-hut-or-goat-or-sheep-or-dhs-new-digs.32088/

and here is a link to my hog raising thread.

http://www.backyardherds.com/threads/feeder-pigs.32154/

Hope this gives you some ideas. Pigs aren't all that hard to raise and we are sure enjoying the bacon, sausage, chops, roast.....you get the picture.

Great info. Thanks! I was thinking of skipping the floor and using hay instead. The rest of it looks very similar to what I'm building. I'm thinking making the back a door to remove them when it's time to harvest.

 

[JakefromOhio]

Glad I found this thread. Don't i feel like an over achiever now... I'm also building my first pig pen in anticipation of a couple of feeders I'm getting. A "friend" told me I had to build an extremely sturdy fence and recommended I use no smaller than 6 inch posts at 6 foot apart. So, I built a 15 x 24 pen out of some posts I found on Craigslist described as 6 inch treated but turned out to be closer to 9 inch telephone poles. Oh well, It'll take a mighty hog knock it over now. I ended up pulling the center post and going 6 more feet out the back side with it. Good luck with you pigs and please make a thread, I have a lot to learn and I'll take any info I can get!

 

[Baymule]

Glad I found this thread. Don't i feel like an over achiever now... I'm also building my first pig pen in anticipation of a couple of feeders I'm getting. A "friend" told me I had to build an extremely sturdy fence and recommended I use no smaller than 6 inch posts at 6 foot apart. So, I built a 15 x 24 pen out of some posts I found on Craigslist described as 6 inch treated but turned out to be closer to 9 inch telephone poles. Oh well, It'll take a mighty hog knock it over now. I ended up pulling the center post and going 6 more feet out the back side with it. Good luck with you pigs and please make a thread, I have a lot to learn and I'll take any info I can get!View attachment 19516

You need to start a thread on your pig pen that looks like it would hold a herd of buffalo!!

 

[Latestarter]

Greetings Jake and welcome to BYH! That is gonna be one impressive pig compound! Little chance of escape from that for sure! There's quite a selection of reading material on the various threads in the pig section... Make yourself comfy and browse around a while If and when you have questions, just post them in the right place and normally someone will get to them pretty straight away. Glad you joined us and thanks for sharing the pic. Make sure you post some of the little bacon bits when you get them!

 

[Martlet]

Quick question: How tall should the pig shelter be?

 

[Latestarter]

Tall enough for them to get in and for you to comfortably clean. You don't want to be on your hands and knees at cleaning time.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Tall enough for them to get in and for you to comfortably clean. You don't want to be on your hands and knees at cleaning time.

Ditto

 

[Devonviolet]

A big Texas howdie @Martlet!

Your hog panel, temporary fencing sounds like a great idea and gives me an idea, for doing temporary quarantine or separating a buck from my does.

You have gotten some great advise here. I especially like @babsbag's suggestion for the mister. We could really use something like that (in this Texas heat [110°+ heat index]), to cool our animals!

The only thing I might add to the discussion, is that pigs are highly intellegent, social animals. They do best if they have a playmate, while you are growing them.

If you only want one pig, you can sell the second pig, to pay for the costs of growing your pig, to butcher weight. Win, win!

 

[sadieml]

Ditto about that water-cooling idea! We actually lost our Barbu d'Uccle roo to heat-stroke yesterday. He had shelter and water, an still succumbed to the 108+ heat index. I spent most of my afternoon sobbing like a baby. Jean-Pierre and I were finally beginning to bond since we took him out of the pen with his ladies a week or so ago. He was absolutely gorgeous, and very protective of his girls. I miss him like crazy even though we only had him a few months. I've got a couple of timers lying around and I think a timed sprinkler might be just the ticket to break the heat. Of course, pigs will like it more than chickens, but my chickens seem to like a little rain.