My wife and I are talking about getting and raising a couple of pigs for the first time next spring. We have a lot of questions and would appreciate hearing about your expierence's. Flat land around the house is limited, we are in Vermont, so I'd like to fence an area on the wooded hill behind the house. I can get goat fence, 330 feet for a good price, and use existing trees instead of posts for some of it. The hill has a lot of slate so driving posts would be difficult. This should give me a pen that is roughly 80 x 80 feet. Is that to big? to small? Also, how large should the building be? Right now we are thinking at least 2 maybe 3 but if it goes well we might want to raise more if things go well. Do we have to worry about predators? This summer I've caught and killed 13 skunks, 4 'possums, 1 coon, and 1 grey fox. I know there are coyotes around but have yet to see/catch any. I am mostly concerned about when the pigs are still small. What do you feed them? I had heard of using day old bread as a supplement along with garden scraps. Finally, how do you deal with slaughtering/butchering? There is a slaughterhouse about 20 miles from us that I have heard good things about but I don't know if I'll have to kill/gut them before bringing them over. I guess I'll have to call and find out. I don't have a problem cutting up deer but I have no idea how to butcher a pig and I'd hate to miss out on some of the good cuts because of it. We would also like to have the hams and bacon smoked and we don't have the equipment to do that.
Greg, it's been 50 years since I raised hogs, but as a kid I raised registered Berkshires, both for our own meat and for showing in the 4-H Club.
For a couple of pigs, 80' x 80' would be more than big enough. Pigs are noted for being dirty, but that's because they cannot perspire and must keep cool another way, so wallowing in mud was the way ours did it in southern Oklahoma. You may not have that problem. One nice thing about pigs is that they will not mess up the entire pen; they'll pick one corner and make it the bathroom and they'll all use that same spot.
We fed some corn, some commercial hog mash (almost a powder that mixed with water to make a thin mush), and yes, in those days I paid 4 cents a loaf for "day old" bread at the bakery and fed it to the hogs. For awhile, we also had a creamery in town and we got their old buttermilk in 55 gallon barrels and fed that to the hogs.
"Slaughter houses" are, as the name implies, a place where the animals are slaughtered; i.e., you take the live animal to them and they process it. When I was a really little kid, my granddad killed his hogs, dipped them into a barrel of boiling water, then scraped them; i.e., shaved them. Hams and such were cured with the skin on, as many still are today. However, we didn't have ours "cured" or smoked. Instead, Dad killed them with one .22 bullet between the eyes, cut their throats to bleed them, then we skinned them, hung them up in a tree, gutted, and cut them in half. Then we took the two halves to the "locker plant" where their butcher finished cutting, packaging, and freezing the meat.
There's one major difference in skinning hogs and skinning other animals. If you've skinned a deer then you know with most animals you cut and "just pull" the skin loose, but with a hog, you cut every inch of the way. The skin does not pull off at all, so it's quite a job.
Dipping in boiling water and scraping was also no fun.
We also quartered the hog but Dad cut up and packaged the meat himself. He also cured the bacon and ham and smoked them using willow wood. We made our own sausage using the intestines for casings. Prior to having electricity available the meat was canned.
Pigs are really quite easy to raise and will make great pets so beware when larder time arives.
Thanks for the imput guys. A couple of other questions, how well do small pigs do in the cold? We are thinking of getting them in early April after maples sugaring season is over. It can still be cold here at that time of year. Should I have a floor in their building? Either way I was thinking of putting pine shavings down for bedding since I already get it for the chicken coop.
If you make a small elevated area that can remain dry and protected fill it with bedding the pigs should be fine. They will keep their sleeping place clean. Put enough bedding in so they can snugle down in it.
Raising pigs can be a challenge. I will try to answer some of your questions. First for 3 pigs 80' X 80' would be way to big and would make it to easy for the pigs to find a weakness in the fence and they will find a weakness in the fence. I would make my pen about 15' x 15' with a 6' wide by 10' long wood shelter on the outside of the pen. This would allow you to get a few more pigs if you wanted to. As for what to feed them I would go to your local elevator and talk to them as they will have a good ration for your pigs size. If you want them to grow quickly don't just feed them old bread and scraps. Usually slaughter houses kill them for you.
For their bedding use straw and keep it dry. This will make the pigs more comfortable and warmer. As for water I wood make a self waterier so they can drink all they want. This is pretty easy to do. Just go to your local farm store and ask them how to make it out of some pipe and a hog drinking nipple. I hope this helps.
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