I'm thinking that I want to set up some temporary pig pens for different projects. What could I use to pen in pigs? Wood seems very heavy and expensive. Some of those metal panels seem inexpensive - which one would work? Or should I use something else?

-- Paul Wheaton (paul@javaranch.com), August 05, 2001

Answers

cheap,,use pallets with metal posts,, easy to move,,free,, and durable

-- STAN (sopal@net-port.com), August 05, 2001.

Paul, hog panels are easy to use,we have clipped 3 together in a circle and kept pigs in them. You may want to put in a couple of metal T posts to anchor them down though. In our area they are about $15 each. We've used them for many differant animals, we have a calf in them now.Cattle panels are similar to hog panels except that they are 6 inches taller and 2 feet longer. You won't be dissappointed with them. By the way, we use small clips (like the ones on the ends of dog leashes) to clip the panels together one top and bottom. Makes it easy to open and close or to take them down.

-- Carol Koller (ckoller@netsync.net), August 05, 2001.

Carol is right on! Those hog panels or the taller cattle panels are terrific, plus they are so portable and verstile. They can be strung in a row to move stock somewhere, put in a circle to put stock into a trailor,used to protect a garden etc. and then taken down and stored.

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), August 05, 2001.

And if you run a strand of electric on the inside of the hog panel, they will never dig under and get out. Nor will the neighbor's dog or wild predetors get in.

-- Dee in NJ (gdgtur@goes.com), August 05, 2001.

Remember that the hog panels have smaller holes along the bottom to keep the piglets from climbing through. Good luck with your projects!

-- cowgirlone (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), August 05, 2001.

I use 16 foot Combo panels, the bottom lines are spaced for hog, the top for cattle, I set T-posts at 8'. I just sold 14 of them for $150.

-- hendo (redgate@echoweb.net), August 06, 2001.