My son (high school age) is getting a pig next weekend (this is sooner than we expected) for a FFA project.

Any advice on building a pen would be MOST appreciated (his FFA advisor should be advising him, but has been busy with many other projects -- now the piglet is on its way and we are not ready!)

We have the space -- what dimensions? What about the foundation (so the pig can't root its way out and the nosy Lab can't get IN?) Does wind bother a pig (I understand it will need some sort of shelter from sun and rain.) What about if we get more snow/freezing weather when it is still small? (We have gotten snow as late as mid-May.)

I can't even think of the right questions to ask.....Thanks in advance!

-- Elizabeth (hemsley@hdo.net), February 03, 2002

Answers

onlt thing I know is electric at nose level,, for cold protection,, LOTS of straw,,it'll be happier with dirt to root into,, and healthier also

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), February 03, 2002.

Elizabeth, Stock panels work great, you might have to line them with chicken wire if the piglet is still small enough to get through the openings. We use port-a-huts (http://www.port-a-hut.com) for our pigs, fill them up with straw and our pigs do great in them. I've never had any pig yet root under the stock panel, or any of our 5 german shepherds get through it either.

-- CJ (cjtinkle@getgoin.net), February 03, 2002.

Hi Elizabeth, We just got our first pigs and they are so funny, I hear that's a temporary thing , and really smart. I've not been a pig farmer long enough to answer your question. I ask a couple questions a few weeks back and got some great input. Scroll down to the old questions and check them out. Have fun!

-- sherry in Arkansas (chickadee259@yahoo.com), February 03, 2002.

About the freezing weather.Pigs seem to take it well if you have a group of them that can sleep close to each other and keep each other warm. By themselves they seem to get cold enough where it might kill them ( hypothermia) ,and would probably need a heat lamp on cold and freezing days and nights.

-- SM Steve (notrealmail@msn.com), February 03, 2002.

Elizabeth, YOu will need to supply some warmth for a single piglet. A heat lamp is ideal. I would suggest keeping the little guy in an exsisting shelter right now, that is indoors with the lamp for warmth until it grows a little. This is supposing you have some cold weather with nights under 50 degrees. Lots of straw or hay for bedding. Being a single pig it will have no way to keep warm by itself. What fun, a new piglet! Let us know how things go? LQ

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), February 03, 2002.

See if your library can borrow either (or both) of these books for you: "Raising Pigs Successfully" by Kathy and Bob Kellogg and "Raising the Homestead Hog" by J.D. Belanger. Jd's is more oriented towards the homesteader with only a couple.

Really wish you had gotten two, as they would keep each other company. Use one for the FFA project and eventually put the other in your freezer.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 03, 2002.

A small piglet doesn't take well to cold. You will need to shelter it from the wind, & supply some heat as with a lamp.

This does depend a bit where they come from, if they are used to going outdoors they will do much better. If they were from a confinment operation it will take longer for it to get used to 'outdoors'. And of course, how big it is. Often they start around 40 lbs, is this what you are getting? Needs heat...

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), February 03, 2002.

First - get at least 2 piggies. They do much better with at least one companion, both for competition at the feed station, and "psychologically", not to mention keeping warm. Electric fence is almost a must, as they'll figure out how to defeat any other system. They'll need some protection from the weather, but the thing they need most is a way to cool off, once it gets a little warmer. They MUST have shade. GL!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), February 03, 2002.

I guess the pigs I buy must be dumb. I keep my piglets in a pen made up of 16' pig panels(not cattle panels). At the bottom of these panels the square openings are a lot smaller. I have never had small pigs get out. I raise them to 250# and then butcher. If you keep them longer they will start trying to jump over as the pig panels are only 4' high. If the little piglet is only for show and butcher, it would be better to go to your local farm store and purchase 4 of these panels and about 9-12 T-post. As far as the shelter goes, you might could get buy with building a quick lean to and placeing it on the northeast corner of the pen with the lean to facing east and blocking the north end up and exposing the south end for entrance. Fill it with straw hay.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), February 03, 2002.

I only have pot bellied pigs so can't give info based on experience but if you need something quick I would also think that the panels would be the way to go again depending of the weather you might use a barrel on its side as a temporary shelter but if you will be needing a heat lamp this wouldn't work. gail

-- gail missouri ozarks (gef@getgoin.net), February 03, 2002.

Thank you all so much!

I talked to the FFA advisor today and discovered the pigs will come 2 weeks later now than first expected....plus, they are 60-80 pounds! I had envisioned small piglets - these guys will be as big as the lab!

I will try to get the books since we have a bit more time now....

I started thinking an insulated doghouse might work at first but knowing how big they will be now -- guess we'll have to build a lean- to or shed.

We have decided to get at least 2 and maybe three after reading the comments here. One will be shown at the Junior Livestock Show in June. The other(s) will be sold thereabouts as well, so I am not too worried about hot weather - just the cold I know we are still in for in this area (NE California - high desert basically.)

Thanks again - I'll let you know how it's going....this promises to be much more of an adventure than the chickens and rabbits....!

-- Elizabeth (hemsley@hdo.net), February 04, 2002.

Elizabeth, there is simply no better way to raise pigs than in an old 4 horse stock trailer. You can hose the trailer out every weekend and then move it, no flies, no smell, and the hog stays clean. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 04, 2002.

My daughter is raising two pigs for 4-H. Our weigh-in date here is March 9th. It doesn't get so cold here in Florida for us to have to worry much about it as long as there are two pigs to keep each other warm, but we do put up a roof to give them a place to get out of the rain.

My advice to anyone raising pigs is DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THEIR ABILITY TO CLIMB. We have never had one to tunnel out, but we surely had one that could climb. Regular hog panels are only 30" high, and this girl was an escape artist when we got her. She'd push herself up and climb till she could just scoot over the top. So we added on, and she still got out. The third time she was too smart to let us catch her, and she ran off into the woods and disappeared, and we thought we had lost her for good. Three days later she came back, and that time we made the pen four feet high.

If you do use chicken wire around the bottom to keep the pig from going through the stock panel holes make sure you attach it at the bottom really good, as the pig might get its snout under the edge and pry up, stretching the wire till it gets a hole big enough to squeeze through. I've had them do that.

Some pigs are "good" and never try to get out, and some live for nothing else.

-- Lela R. Picking (stllwtrs55@aol.com), February 04, 2002.