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