Hogs - Help!

Hotflashjr

Well-known Member
Location
Western MA
Long story short my wife (read: me/myself & I) are getting a few hogs this coming weekend. The JD 1020 will deliver feed and water to where they are located in the orchard. We got a galvanized feeder and I built a shelter out of pallets/tarps. Got a food grade barrel and stainless steel nipples for water. Also got a good 6 joule electric fence charger for a two wire fence. The hogs are supposed to be trained on the water nipple and two wire fence already. Should be about 40-50 lbs. I have never had anything more than chickens on my own and am not prepared to deal with hogs in my mind. Anyone have any tips or advice?
 
Hogs and electric fence don't work well,, they will root dirt up against the wire and escape,,and of course they will rip up that little spot you made in a day or so..those 'cute' little pigs will become monsters to you ..but they will be "Tasty" in the end..
 
Thanks Tim. We have about 5 acres we plan to rotate the pigs on in the orchard so hopefully they don't make too much of a mess. This used to have trees on it and instead of pulling the tress they were cut down leaving stumps and roots. It sure would be nice if the pggies took some stumps and roots out for me while they are in there.

Read a lot and talked to a bunch of folks on the electric fence and it getting buried by rooting. Anyone who gets a 6 or 7 joule fence says even with it being partially buried it will deliver a shock that is not pleasant. My wife plans on checking the fence line every day. Where it is all on open land I hope this isn't too much of a pain.

We plan on giving the piggies the apple drops in the fall. The smoker is going to use our apple wood to smoke the bacon. Pre apple fed apple wood smoked bacon anyone?
 
I never had any problem with the electric fence. But I also always made a pen with hog panels first to make sure they knew what the electric fence was ! When they hit the electric for the first few times they try and shoot forward through it. I'd make a starter pen to make DARN SURE they are broke to the electric fence.
 
Thanks Mike. The farmer we are getting the pigs from uses that set up for them as piglets so he says they are broken to a two wire electric fence. We are going to start out with a small area then make it bigger. Once of the 4 sides has orchard fence, the other 3 are open. Think we should put panels up for the first couple weeks?
 
Never had any luck with hot wire, works ok when they are little, less as they grow. Might work if they have enough room they don't really care where the boundaries are? I had them bury a fence that was 10 inches off the ground.
 
It sure would not hurt to have a small fenced area with inside electric ran first. They are going to be all shook up during the move. They are REALLY hard to catch when scared !
One time mine got out when close to market size. The electric fence went out overnight. I got lucky they were pretty tame by then and easily came right back in. I was far back away from the road too which helps.
 
These piggies will be far from the road up on the backside of the orchard. The only problem is there is a good chunk of woods, about 10 acres they could roam in if they get out. I was told that for the first few weeks you need to go see them with "treats" everyday at the same time. That way whenever they hear your truck or tractor coming they come running. My friends who own a farm stand said we can have all the scrap veggies so I figure we will use this as the "treat". You hit my fear on the head though is that the move will shake them up to the point that if they get out they will not know where home is or know we are trustworthy yet.
 
My wife did a lot of research and we got a real hot fence charger. I am a bit afraid to bump it myself. I am thinking about getting some panels to put outside the area for at least the first week or two.
 
Hi If you have never had hogs I hope you got a good sense of humor, Those guys will get into trouble and find ways to test your patience like you wouldn't believe, they don't just eat poop and sleep all day.

If they get in the right frame of mind to dig roots/ stumps or any other hole, you will think you had a visit from a guy with a 30 ton track hoe. When our 6 biotech barns are full I got 1200 or so here they will think nothing of regularly destroying something in there.

I have had 200 break out the odd time during the night. The next morning the yard and all the things we use down there like extra gates/hose pipes look like a tornado hit. Some cows are just plain stupid, a hogs pretty smart, you will figure that when you have been raising them a while.
Hope you have fun Let the learning begin L.O.L.
Regards Robert.
 
When I was young back in the 60's we had hogs the old fashion way, pastured most had electric fence that was near impossible to keep working, we had hogs out all the time,, one of the first places they would go is to the coal pile in the back yard (we heated with coal),, they would wake us up crunching on that coal, they loved it like candy...When I bought this farm I told my wife the only way hogs would be here is with Freezer wrap on them...
 
Hi Tim
You really know then ;) If we get difficult ones here on shipping day or even before that, I got 2 nice little sayings i can use as they go on the truck finally. 1 is I'm going to breakfast lunch or supper, very shortly you will be somebody's Breakfast lunch or supper.

The other one is, you can be as difficult as you want today, a nasty experience involving a cold room and a plastic wrapper is heading your way pretty soon. that will fix the issue permanently for you .

Hogs have a personality, a brain/ I'm sure a sense of humor, and an attitude problem somedays. Just like people some combinations don't work so good is the truth of what I find with them ! But on a good day it's fun to stand down at the barns watching them for a bit, or you get the same ones regularly coming up to you for attention if you are working in the barn.
Regards Robert
 
The one I use was supposed to operate 2 miles of fence, I had it as the perimeter on 3 pens that ran together. The wire it kept hot was only 80 ft. long. They nosed near it, about 3 days later buried it, and ignored it. It was close to 10 inches off the ground.
 

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