Now that the pig is gone, it’s easy to look back and see what we did wrong with her. I came across this picture in my files not to long ago, and couldn’t help but laugh at some of the things I saw. I thought it might benefit some of you if I pointed out our mistakes.

1. Old bathtub used as a feed trough. This was one of those things that totally seemed like a good idea at the time. But let me tell you, it didn’t work at all. First off, it was too deep for the pig to reach her head down into and eat comfortably. Instead, she would climb into the tub to get her food, stepping all over everything and turning her meal into a muddy mess. And then (believe it or not), she would not eat the trampled slop. The tub became a plaything that she pushed around her pen, and was worthless as a trough.

2. Five gallon bucket for water. Totally not a good method of watering, but it was the best we could do without investing in an expensive waterer. It didn’t work because the pig enjoyed playing with the bucket, and although we tied it to the fence, she would break the rope and use the bucket as a toss toy. The bucket would eventually break. Her pen was constantly full of broken buckets. And trying to fish a bucket out of pig mud a foot deep using a broom handle every single day was such a hassle! I’d get splattered with stinky mud every time.

Plus, she was horrible about spilling the water just as soon as I’d filled it. She was convinced I was simply supplying her with the means for a larger mud hole. I’d fill the bucket. She’d tip it over and roll in the water. I’d scold her, lean over the fence to retrieve the bucket, and fill it again.

Yeah. Big, big pain. Don’t use a bucket to water a pig.

3. Thick, black plastic on roof of pig house to keep the water out. Again, it seemed like a brilliant idea at the time. Really, it was all we had to work with. Sheet metal, if we’d had any, would have been a better option, I think. But the purpose was to keep the rain from rotting the wood underneath. The problem? A mischievous pig. Once again, she thought it was for fun. It didn’t take her long to rip every bit of the plastic down and shred it all over her pen.

She must have been a very bored pig. Which leads me to #4 on the list…

4. Only one pig. I’d read that pigs were herd animals, but I didn’t really think that would matter.

It does.

I think she escaped so often, and got into so much trouble simply because she was lonely and bored. Experienced homesteaders recommend that you have more than one pig at a time, not only to keep each other company, but so that they will compete for food and fatten up quicker. I would definitely recommend that you have more than one pig, if you plan on getting any.

And last but not least…

5. Inadequate fencing. Pallets, and chain link with boards attached. How many ways did she escape her pen? Let’s see. She tore the boards off the fence and rooted under the chain link. She climbed up onto the chain link enough to bend it over and escaped that way. She broke the pallets and tore through them. And she was even able to get footing and climb over the pallets.

I don’t even know how many times we mended the fences.

But hey, other than that I think we had it covered!

Ah, the joys of learning the hard way.

Well you guys, we did it. We sold the pig. I know, I know, I swore up and down that we were determined to eat this pig… raising a hog for butcher is what homesteaders do, right? Believe me, we were dead set on doing it. And then this completely unexpected and totally inconvenient conviction hit us, and no matter how much we tried to rationalize, we couldn’t let it go.

I’ve been procrastinating writing about this conviction, simply because it will take a long time to type out. In short, we have decided to stick to eating a Biblical diet; no pork, no rabbit (which totally stinks ’cause we just bred our bunny for that very purpose!), no shrimp, etc. Not because we feel it is a salvation issue, nor do we feel held to Old Testament laws. For us, it is nothing more than understanding that God gave us these warnings for our own good, and science has since proven them to be substantial. Pork is bad for you, period. And with my husband’s family’s horrible heart health problems, we want to eat as healthy as we can.

At first, I tried to rationalize, “Dang! We’ve spent almost an entire year fattening her up! Can’t we just put her in the freezer, and then not buy any more pork when ours is gone?” But no, Jerry was done. He was not going to eat pork any more. So,  had to support him, and respect that. I do want him to be healthy, and live a long life. Anyway, that’s that in a nut shell.

So, I put Ms. Porkchop on Craigslist and within a day we had several calls. I listed her for $200 at a little over 200 lbs. A really nice guy called and asked if we’d take $160 for her (which we probably too quickly accepted), and we scheduled a time for him to come and check her out. The next day, he drove the hour long drive, hauling a horse trailer behind his truck, ready to get our pig. Really, we were very excited to be getting rid of her. She has been HORRIBLE to try to keep in her pen!

The weekend before, we’d had company over for dinner, and the pig had escaped while we were eating. Of course, it was raining too. Jerry had to go outside and herd the pig away from the cars while our poor friends ran for their lives from our back door to their car. Funny? Very! Well, for me and the kids who were watching safely from inside it was. Not so funny to Jerry though. Needless to say, we’ve been done with the pig for a while.

So, this man, we’ll call him Mike, he was concerned about how hard it was going to be to get Ms. Porkchop into the trailer. I have read horror story after horror story of the difficulties of getting a pig onto a trailer. Mike told us he’d spent three hours the day before trying to herd up another pig he’d purchased. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but knowing how tame our pig is, I thought for sure all we had to do was put some food into the trailer and she’d walk right in. We filled a bucket with spoiled produce from a local market, backed Mike’s trailer up to the gate of the pig pen, and let her loose.

Mike had brought with him a shock stick to zap her with if she caused any trouble. I asked him not to use it, remembering the time we’d tried an electric fence on her and she got zapped and ran off to hide in the woods for days. I warned that we’d lose her for sure if he shocked her. He couldn’t believe it when she walked just as nicely as you please into the trailer, and began chowing down on the food. They shut the trailer doors behind her, and Mike looked at us incredulously. I was glad it had gone as easily as I’d expected. For once in the pig’s life!

Our new friend commented on how long the pig’s legs were. He said he’d never seen a pig that tall before. Maybe this explains how she is so good at escaping her pen?? He asked me what breed of pig she is. I told him I’d asked the man we’d bought her from, but the poor old man was missing teeth and had such a thick accent I couldn’t tell what he’d said!

Mike was kind enough to help my husband with a truck problem, having a lot of experience with mechanics, and then he was on his way. Me, Jerry, and the kids all stood in the driveway waving goodbye as Porkchop headed down the hill and away from our home forever.

We danced a little jig and sang a little song as she drove out of site.

The next day Mike called us. “You won’t believe this,” were the first words out of his mouth. “Uh-oh,” I responded! I could only imagine what he was about to tell me. “This pig jumped clear over the fence I’d put her in yesterday!” I had to laugh as he went on, “I went out to feed the animals, and here comes that pig running right up behind me! She was after the dog’s food! I had to throw it to her to keep her back!” He said none of his friends would believe that she’d jumped over the 4 ft. lot she was in. Of course, I could sympathize. He explained that he had to build the fence up to his shoulders to keep her in.

Poor guy. He had no idea what he was getting, did he? He has now affectionately renamed her “Hopper”.

He messaged me the following day to let me know that he has decided to keep her on his farm for a while. He thinks she’ll be a good Mama pig. She is in good company too, with almost 20 other hogs, cows, and other animals. I think she’ll enjoy her new life there. And, I have to admit, I was a little happy to hear that she would be spared the slaughter house for a little longer. What can I say? That pig’s got personality.

]]> http://newlifeonahomestead.com/2010/10/a-new-home-for-porkchop/feed/ 6 http://newlifeonahomestead.com/2010/07/the-many-names-for-pigs/ http://newlifeonahomestead.com/2010/07/the-many-names-for-pigs/#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2010 03:38:07 +0000 Kendra at New Life On A Homestead http://newlifeonahomestead.com/?p=6174

Before owning a pig, I had no idea they had so many names! A pig was just a pig. But then I started hearing people calling them different things, and I hadn’t a clue what they meant. I’ve done my homework though. This is for all of you city slickers…

Q: What is a swine?

A: The term “swine” is used to refer to any member of the pig family.

Q: What’s the difference between a Hog and a Pig?

A: A hog is an older swine, weighing over 120 lbs. A pig is a younger swine, weighing less than 120 lbs.

Q: What are baby pigs called?

A: (Aw, com’mon! I know you know that much!) Piglets, of course!

Q: What is a female pig called?

A: A female pig is called a “gilt” until she has her first litter of piglets, and then she is called a “sow”, no matter her age.

Q: What is a male pig called?

A: A male pig is called a “boar”, until he is castrated (neutered), and then he is called a “barrow”.

Q: What is a feeder pig?

A: A feeder pig is a gilt or barrow which has been weaned, and is sold to be raised for slaughter. It is between 6-8 weeks old, and should weigh between 40-80 pounds.

Q: What is a grower pig?

A: A grower pig is a swine weighing between 40-125 pounds.

Q: What is a finisher pig?

A: A finisher pig is a swine which has reached market weight, 125 pounds to about 230 pounds.

There. Don’t you feel smarter now?!

I’m sure some of you guys have been wondering what ever happened with Ms. Porkchop. She was scheduled to go to the butcher this past Monday. Well, unfortunately for us, and fortunately for her, we were unable to get our hands on a trailer to haul her in.

So, here she is, enjoying another day and another watermelon, completely oblivious to her pending doom. Guess we’ll have to wait till we can track down a trailer before we can take her anywhere.

But you know… you guys are gonna think I’ve lost my mind… we are actually considering just selling her. Yes, after all of this work, and all of the lip smacking thinking of the good eatin’ we’ll soon have… we are experiencing a possible change of heart. (Key word: possible.) Not because we feel bad eating that which we have raised, but for Spiritual reasons which we have begun to contemplate.

Perhaps I will write a post on this soon, after we have learned enough to have an opinion, and I will open the comments section up for discussion. But whatever we end up deciding, it’s looking like Ms. Porkchop is here to stay for a little while longer!

Here’s Ms. Porkchop 6 months after we first brought her home. She’s grown a lot, huh?! She busted out of her pen (again) tonight, so Jerry had to get in there with her to fix the fence. He likes to carry a big stick to push her back with when she starts getting too close. She’s never hurt anybody, but you never know!

If you’ve been following along with me, you are very aware of what TROUBLE she has been!! Man, pigs are crazy! We’ve definitely had some good laughs from owning her though. And although I am SO ready to be done with the pig, I am glad we gave it a shot. We’ve learned a lot from her.

But is it worth it to raise your own pig? The whole point in doing so, well, besides knowing where your food comes from, is to save money. At least, that was why we did it. Has it been a money saving venture?

Unfortunately… No. Not for us, anyways. That doesn’t mean it can’t be worth it for somebody else, we just don’t have what it takes to raise pigs economically.

If you are thinking about raising hogs, to make it a good investment, here are some things to keep in mind:

1. It is much cheaper to free range your hogs than to continuously purchase grains. It would be ideal to have a nice sized pasture to let them forage on, plus a garden to supplement their diet.

2. If you have enough space, breed your hogs. You can purchase a female (sow) and “rent” a male (boar) when you are ready to breed, or you can purchase a male and female and raise both. Just make sure you aren’t inbreeding. You can sell the piglets for around $50 each (with an average litter size of 10-12 piglets twice a  year), making the initial investment back very quickly.

3. Learn to butcher a hog yourself. Sure, sending it off to the slaughter house and getting back nice little packages of meat is so much nicer, but you will pay for the convenience. If you can do it all yourself, you’ll really be saving some money.

We do not have a large enough area to pasture pigs on, and I am so not ready to try breeding pigs!! So, our initial investment of $50, plus the money we’ve put into feed and meds (which I haven’t even added up yet) will not be made back. And since we’ve decided to send her away to be butchered instead of doing it ourselves (we want it done right), that’s another .30 cents/pound we’ll be paying.

And get this. I’ve been seeing ads on Craigslist for hogs for sale, $200 for a 250 pound hog. We’ve got that much in our pig, and she’s probably about 175 pounds right now… not to mention all of the hassle that has been invested in her (and the smell… oh! the smell!). If we were ever to consider doing this again, for us, it would be more economical to buy a full grown hog, and slaughter it ourselves. No worrying about chasing it, worming it, penning it, and feeding it, just get it and eat it. That’s the way to go!

So, if you are considering raising hogs, these are good things to keep in mind.

I always had the impression that pigs would eat anything. Boy, was I wrong! Pigs do not eat whatever you put before them… at least not my pig!

Let’s see… raw potatoes, potato peels, raw carrots, egg shells, banana peels, peanuts in the shells, and raw parsnips are a few things that immediately come to mind when I think of what Ms. Porkchop turns her snout up at.

But chocolate, oh let me tell you, she will dig past everything else to the bottom of the bucket if she smells a chocolate chip cookie hiding at the bottom. I know it can’t be good for her, but so far it’s done no harm. Boy, does she love those cookies!!