Meet Gerty the pig



So she had been in one of the stables for the last 6 weeks so we thought about time for her new home.

First job the posting and fencing. Use the 4x4 to get the tension on the fence as it was only a short length of fence. Then electric fence along the bottom to stop the little fuckers rooting under it and causing havoc in the field.



We chose to put her there because its a bit of scrub and has a tree line for some shelter from the sun, wind. Also the trees are good itching posts for the pig and wont break with continuous use.Also they are plum trees , so one happy fat pig in the autumn.



So they seem happy enough except for the odd squeal when they get a shock.But they learn quickly not to put the snout on the fence now.



Its like having 12 puppies and they do like a game of football, quite funny to see them running around with a ball in the mouth.



We also let them roam for a few hrs a day in a bigger part of the field, where they go mental rooting into everything, eating stinging nettles and grubs, and any leaves on the tree branches that fall.



So any way she is well settled now



Its warm as toast as well in there

Nice insight into your daily life there david

Cool pigs... rather have kids myself but each to their own

Haha, nice!

Wish a good summer for the piggies. They can be really rather cute animals.. And I see they have a really nice environment too. Cool to see something else than a commercial meatfactory.

psketti wrote:
If YOU look in photo number 4 right at the top of the picture is a black stable. To the left of it you may be able to just make the roof of a caravan out. Its painted black to blend in with the hedge and has a camo net over it.

I had to paint it black and cam it up as you need planning to hve it there. Been there for 5yrs now Council hve not seen it , nor the dozy fucking neighbours who have a report button to the council but live about 200m away from it

THATS THE KIDS PEN

As for daily life the animals are pretty self sufficient, just plenty of water some slops and feed for the pigs 2x a day. Sheep need to be shorn, and looked after when lambing, hay in the winter. Chickens/ducks fed and watered and make sure they are put away at nite , but they have a pond as well. So all in all for the returns the work load is quite light.

ahh they're cute.
you need to let us know when they're ready for disposing bodies. then we can move onto phase 2.

batou wrote:
Phase 2 is now here batou, Ill get some pictures tomorrow

That's adorable! Mama and her babies
Any advice on stretching fence with the 4x4? I always end up with bigger holes wherever I stretch it as it pulls along the wires.

For some reason, I thought this was gonna be about cops though...

Brill! I hadn't seen this thread before. Love the piggies, and after a happy life, they'll be nice & tasty.

You have to take them to a slaughter house to get them killed don't you? On the pretence that someone cares that it's done humanely - even though they can smell the death on their approach to those places. I saw that, on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage.

I wonder if you can spare them that fear by masking the smell somehow with essential oils or something?

I don't know that anything can mask the smell, Gilly. Not even time itself.

I used to ride a fantastic event horse called Red - brave as a wotsit and never baulked at anything; except the same beautiful, wide field of pasture on our way to the woodland tracks. Every time, the git would spin and try to avoid going through the gateway into the field, and loosen his rein AT ALL and he'd try to spin and take off back to the lane. Only when we got to the far side and went into the woodlands would Red settle. Most peculiar.

Until I found out that 25-30 years before (so long, no one was exactly sure any longer) it was where the old slaughter house used to be.

But lovely piggies. Gloucester Old Spot? I think they're so funny, and pigs are bright at buttons. I'd keep them forever! I don't eat pork anyway (not religious, just don't like it!) but I couldn't kill and eat anything I'd actually known and maybe even raised.

That's an amazing story, Cantata, though grisly & sad.

They reckon dogs look up to us, cats look down on us, and pigs see us as their equals.

It's proper farming life though, innit - raise 'em & love 'em (in a platonic way, entra!) then eat them. They get to have a merry life.

Yep, the farming life is a mystery to me, Gilly - although I know it's the right way and look how many of us are dependent on farmers who may or may not be doing things right. As well, doing it all yourself means you do actually know how the animal lived and died. But still'n'all.....

If society ever falls, I think I'd handlle the Hunting Thing better than the raise it and eat it thing.

But hats off to entra.

I approve of the raising / killing thing fully, in principle, but would most probably bottle out of the killing bit when it came down to it tbh. I'd just end up living amongst an ever-growing population of piggies!

They are good, cooked with rosemary & garlic though.

StarsChildren wrote:
Well what I do , is thread a piece of 2x4 wood through the holes. Then attach rope to the middle and gradually pull to required tension. The wood takes most of the pressure thus leaving the wire pretty good, and that's the piece I always attach to the main fencing post.

Hope that helps cowgirl

cantata wrote:
Well the fuckers are better fed than me They have the arc to live in and roughly half an acre to play around in. They have been getting out in to the main field lately , rooting the muck heap up and they have taken care of all the thistles . Soon be time for them to take the hike down the road.
Yes the sow is gloster old spot but they are crossed with a Magnalista, bizarre looking pigs, just google the images


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangalitsa

Next year she will go with a pure old spot boar...

Gilly wrote:
As you know me and sheep are

Hence the reason this breed was crossed with the only pig that has a fleece Means my odds are much better now

Those woolly pigs look amazing! I want one.

I'd like a couple of Etheopian dwarf goats too, for their milk - and they eat all the nettles & stuff like pigs do, plus they're funny and playful. And a bee hive.

Odds? You mean some of them spurn your advances?

Gilly wrote:
They used to

Are you aware of the term "hog tied" does the trick

I'll bet your pigs can sprint faster than most.

Gilly wrote: