My grandpa once gave my sister, Ruth, a spotted pig. Ruth named her Swine. We were able to keep her in for a long time, but once she got big, she got out nearly every day. Once we found her chasing a neighbor around and around her house, she was afraid to stop and open the door to get away!

We used to say that when pigs get out, their head is always on the wrong end! It’s not like cattle or horses ~ those can be herded.

Although you haven’t had success with electric fencing, pigs are very smart. Once they get zapped by it, they will not cross it. Which can make it quite a chore trying to set up a new area for them because you won’t be able to get them to cross where that electric fencing once was. We would use pig paneling along with a single wire of electric fencing at the level of the nose of the pig.

When sows have young, keep an eye on them. The sow will wallow and lay on and kill her young. When we were in Holland, they had a fenced area for the sow but the piglets could get thru to suck as there was an area big enough only for the piglets to get thru.

A sister in Christ
Roberta

I have to admit we had a similar situation with our chickens, as in, we finally built a fence good enough to keep them in and now I open it and let them out whenever I am home.

Animals are meant to roam. My chickens have half of my large yard fenced in and I still feel like they need to be let out!

Kelle-

Lucky you! Hopefully our pig will learn how to behave herself. And yes, I’d LOVE LOVE LOVE some recipes!!!

Huh! I guess we pick well behaved pigs*wink* In the 6 yrs we’ve been getting pigs, we’ve never come close to having the troubles you’ve had, sorry for the snicker, Oppps! We always have two or three. They are a herd animal, and seem to like the company of other pigs or animals. Be careful they DO eat chickens! One of our layers got into their pen and next thing we see them running about their pen with something, shaking it. Yep one of my best layers

Our pigs have always enjoyed being scratched, having their belly rubs, and especially the rubber curry comb rub down, Ahhhhh.

Maybe it’s the breed you have, skittish. Our pigs are Berkshire cross.

The two this year root around like mad, sometimes digging down over 4 ft deep. Now that the ground is frozen that has come to an end, so we are giving them old hay,in which they eat, use for added bedding and for entertainment. Actually pigs are quite amusing, well…. when they aren’t on the loose anyway*wink*

Take care and if you want some awesome loose sausage recipes I’d be glad to share. We butcher, cut, wrap and make our own sausage. Soon as the smokehouse is built, we’ll be smoking our own hams and sidepork too, until then we have a friend who does it for us, what a blessing.
Have a great weekend
Blessings from,
The Never Done Farm

This is the best thing Ive read anywhere in awhile! the pig is cute! I used to know some people who had 2 pigs, and they let them stay in the house, honestly, they had pigs that lived in the house and went in and out like a dog! now thats extreme ! Ive always heard theyre a little hard to deal with, but I dont know. I still cant belive youre going to end up eatting her. ( are you sure, really? ) I said before, if I had one, it would end up a pet, and Id probably end up a vegetarian!