FARM FEST FIASCO

Recently we had an interesting experience with the pigs. We were going to try and bring the pigs to a festival in our town called Farm Fest. We got everything ready and we went to get the pigs. We put some whey in their trough and both of them ran up to drink it. We then picked Pip up by her back legs, then before we popped her into the box we measured her to find out what she weighed.  Both pigs weighed about 30 pounds. We then popped Pip in the box and went to pick up Hamlet. We were able to pick Hamlet up and measure him. But, then when we were lowering Hamlet into the box, that’s when disaster struck! Several things happened at once.  First Pip poked here head out of the box, then Hamlet freaked out about his sister’s head suddenly appearing out of nowhere. Then our Dad lost grip on Hamlet's legs and Hamlet tumbled onto his sister’s head. After that there were several seconds of grabbing pig legs, losing grip on the pig legs, and absolute and total confusion. Then our Dad flipped one pig over his shoulder into the pen, our Mom handed him the other pig and he did the same with that one. Here ends our account of trying to bring the pigs to Farm Fest. Lesson learned from this experience:  pigs do not like to travel.

We did bring a nice display about our pigs and their breeds to Farm Fest, (shown above).  They are Old Spot and Tamworth.  On the display we also put how much they weighed and how old they are. (They are now 8 weeks old.) We did all the research about the breeds ourselves.           

Oink to ya later,

Caleb and Anika
The Bloggin' Hog Farmers
Blackberry Hill (Hog) Farm

GETTING OUR SHOATS

DEFINITIONS:

Shoat – a newly weened piglet

Weened – animal taken from its mother and taught to eat food instead of just their mother’s milk

On Saturday, May 12^th, we finally got our pigs from Brotherly Farm Organic in Brookfield, VT. 

When we peeked into the trailer that they were in; they were in the corner snuggling and snorting.  They were so cute!  

Here is Pip and Hamlet’s Mom, Mellow.  As you can see, she is huge!

At right, Hamlet and Pip are in the box that we transferred them home in. It was very funny when we carried them over from the trailer.  They looked so funny hanging from their back feet!  

We carried them from their back feet because if you carry them like a puppy, or how they do it in they movies, they will squirm and squeal their way out of your arms. Doesn’t this seem pretty barbaric? It kind of is, but you do not want small fast piglets running around! And we know this from experience.  More about this later.

Once we got them in the box we drove home.  We had to fix up the fence first and then we carried them over the same way we did at the farm.  Then we fed them but they did not eat because they were too frightened. We sat in their pen and watched them.

After a while they got up and ate some food, rooted, and drank some water. We thought everything they did was funny. We noticed that they looked so cute but in their eyes they had that little devilish gleam that says they can do mischief.

And sure enough they got spooked and ran through the holes in the fence, even though it was an electric fence and it was on!  It was made for sheep though, so the shoats were too small to be held in by the fence.  We tried to corner them ourselves, but that did not work.  Eventually, our neighbor, Joe, who is a farmer, helped us try to catch them. We finally did. And our neighbor ran back to his farm and got some hog panels, while we held the shoats.  These fence panels have proven that they can hold them in and not let them escape, again. Pip and Hamlet seem pretty happy and are more comfortable around us. They sure are cute but they can be mischivious.  Sometimes when they are in the corner sleeping, or they just want us to leave them alone, it is not so fun to watch them.  But, we love to watch them eat; they make the cutest slurping sounds.  

Oink to ya later,

Caleb and Anika
The Bloggin' Hog Farmers
Blackberry Hill (Hog) Farm

Construction of the Pig Palace

We finished the hut or “Pig Palace" that the our pigs are going to sleep in. The hut was made out of pallets that we got, and rough cut wood that we had left over from a tree house we built. We had to bring all that wood down from where we built the tree house, pretty far up on our hill. We had to bring the wood down a path that was downhill and had lots of roots on it.  This was one of the hardest parts of building the shed. 

We worked together to bring all the wood down driveway and down a path and into a little clearing. That's where we are going to keep the pigs. Then we used the pallets to make the frame.  The pallets had big gaps in them so we used our wood and filled in the gaps. The wood the pallets were made out of was very hard so we had to work very hard.  Anika was not even strong enough to nail in the wood.

Caleb had to get on the roof of the shed and nail wooden stickers onto the roof to seal up the cracks so water wouldn't get in the pig shed.  The shed was very hard to make but it should last for several years.

Oink to ya later,

Caleb and Anika
The Bloggin' Hog Farmers
Blackberry Hill (Hog) Farm

Visit With Famous Pig Author

We suggest visiting farms around where you live and asking lots of questions. One of the people we visited with this past weekend was Chuck Wooster, author of the famous book, Living With Pigs.

At the farm we asked Chuck about building a pig shed, if the pigs need bedding, (which we learned they don't), and what to feed the pigs. Chuck was very helpful.  We learned that we could get 3 or 4 more pigs in the space we are keeping the pigs, if we wanted to.

We also recommend that if you are raising pigs to do it for more than one year.  The purchases the first year are expensive.  So far we have purchased electric netting/fencing and bins to collect whey and food scraps that we will feed to the pigs along with grain.

The shoats, (recently weaned piglets), or hogs need a shelter, so they can get out of the rain and so they can have some shade. As we said before, they don't need bedding in the shelter but it is not against the pig law. Chuck said that the hut should have a floor.  If it doesn’t, the pigs will dig a hole to sleep in, when it rains the water will collect in the hole and then you have an indoor swimming pool, not a hut!

We learned from Living With Pigs that you should probably have two or more pigs, if you don't you probably won't have as much bacon, because the pigs won't be as happy (they get bored). Also if you have two they will compete for food and that will fatten them up faster. 

Chuck said that if you move the pig’s fence in the middle of the season, to plant a cover crop (like buckwheat) on the place the pigs were.  Then the following year when you put them back there, they can eat the buckwheat.  Remember, they will eat every thing! Even you!

Oink to ya later,

Caleb and Anika
The Bloggin' Hog Farmers
Blackberry Hill (Hog) Farm

Visiting The Momma Sows

We suggest visiting the sows that are going to give birth to your own oinkers.  We visited Brotherly Farm Organic in Brookfield, Vermont.  

At left a young boar (male hog) tries to kiss a horse that was in the pasture next to it's own at the farm.  Besides this pig there are five others with him in the pen (not shown).

Anika and Caleb stand with Angela Russel the farmer who owns the sows that will give birth to our piglets in April.  (We will get them at the end of April or early May.)  We suggest getting pigs from a farmer who seems to know what the are doing and how to do it. Angela is an example of a good hog farmer. For example, she feed her pigs things that they like to eat, but things that would not make them sick.  She feeds her hogs a combination of grain, hay, and silage (chopped up corn).  As a result, her pigs where fat, happy, and healthy. That made us feel good about getting our pigs here.

Below are the pregnant sows.  One of these will give birth to our piglets. These sows were really fat, and they were about as tall as Anika's waist. (Anika is in the blue coat.)  

When we first got to the pig pen we only saw one oinker...then five more started spilling out of the calf hutch. At this farm they used plastic calf hutches to shelter the pigs.  The pig shelter we will be building is made out of pallets nailed to posts dug into the ground.  We will use electrified chicken netting that we will be able to move around.  The benefits of moving the fence is that the pigs will not get as bored so easily.  Also, they will have fresh ground to root around in.

Here's Caleb about to unload the pallets we got from The Valley News (our local newspaper) for free.  We will use these to build the pig shed.

Oink to ya later,

Caleb and Anika
The Bloggin' Hog Farmers
Blackberry Hill (Hog) Farm

Reading: Living With Pigs

 First we needed to learn about Pigs. Here we are reading a great book called Living With Pigs, by Chuck Wooster. Below is a picture of the book so you know what you're looking for if you're interested.

We recommend reading this book. It is very interesting and gives good advice. Plus it is very entertaining. The best part though is that it was written by our neighbor who lives on the other side of the Hartland Dam.  More about Chuck later.

Oink to ya later,
Caleb and Anika
The Bloggin' Hog Farmers

Welcome to the Hog Blog

Welcome, in this blog we will tell you about our experiences in raising pigs for the first time for meat during 2012.