A myth about keeping pigs.......

I read a lot of stuff on pig keeping, a lot....... I thought I was totally prepared and never considered that MY pigs wouldn't conform. They all tell you that pigs are clean animals, and frankly, if you met them, you'd have to concur, however! They also tell you that they don't soil their own bedding/accommodation.........WRONG!!!

I have just spent the whole of my sunday afternoon on all fours, inside a pig ark, disinfecting the floor of a pig ark. I won't trouble you with any more gory details than are absolutely necessary, but I will add that two showers later, I think I can still detect the subtle combination of Jeyes Fluid and stale pig pee on my hands and knees.

I realise now, that I made their ark a little on the large side (I so wanted to make them feel at home....) and I think this has backfired on me because the lazy little sods can't be bothered to walk outside so they go crap in the corner!!!

So, by way of revenge, I have cut down on their straw which they use as bedding. The thinking behind this being that they'll have less straw to soil and are therefore less likely to shit on it.......

I've just been out to see how they've responded to this and to my dismay, one of them has had a dump right in the middle of the "nest" and they're sleeping on the solid floor with just their heads on the straw!! Stoopid bloody pigs. Well they're not getting any more bedding out of me tonight, they have to learn not to poop on their own doorstep (so to speak).

I also spotted a bloody great rat scurrying under the ark this afternoon. If Sal knew this she'd freak, but as she's unlikely to read this, I ought to get away with it. I'll try and lay my hands on a bit of drainpipe this week and put some poison in it, under the ark, that ought to get rid of the bugger.

Well, I guess that's enough for tonight's entry, I'm off to scrub my hands again.......

Couldn't resist posting this.......

April 1st (no coincidence I guess!!) they're here....

The adventure has begun, I have joined the brotherhood, there's no turning back, they're here. Three little 8 week old weaners, 2 male, 1 female (I know, they have "proper" names...gilts, hogs, boars whatever) and they're cute (damn them) as hell! Katie has already spent a day playing with them and has given them names, which is something I forbade but how am I going to stop her? They sleep a lot, eat the rest of the time, and frankly, poo a lot. Collectively they are a huge bunch of time wasters as I sit at the window for ages just watching them. I know the novelty will wear off after a while (once they've escaped or I've had a nip off one of them I guess), but they are fascinating to watch. Noodles hasn't taken too kindly to them, in fact she took a shock off the electric fence yesterday and won't even go out the back door any more. I'm sure in time she'll get used to them.
I've been trying to stick to the advice I received or read about regarding how much to feed them, however, I think that because they're eating a lot of grass and vegetation, they're not eating as much of the pellet stuff I've been giving them as I'd expected. This is great news because it's bloody expensive, but that little bit of grass will soon become a quagmire so we'll have to wait and see how it turns out. I've taken loads of pictures and movies of them, but haven't got round to uploading them onto the PC yet so you'll have to make do with this one....it'll be the first of many I'm sure........