Post by catherine on Sept 28, 2008 12:37:39 GMT -5
Hey Outback! Welcome to the KFC pig forum! ;D Always wonderful to meet new friends. Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you, as we've only just gotten our Internet Connection back after Hurricane Ike. Our 4 piggies are doing fine, as are the rest of our human family.
We kept the piggies closely confined in our cattle panel and electric wire pen through both Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike. The piggies have DEFINITELY learned what electric wire is, and WON'T go near the stuff, or even where it's been in the past! We built them a "Hay Cave" out of square bales, held in place by T-Posts with a couple of sheets of plywood for roofing, weighted down by an extremely heavy 2X4 constructed hayfeeder grate (sort of like this...[llllllllll] ) over the T-posts and plywood. It worked great! We are still keeping their feeder full of hog grower feed, but have now opened them up to a bigger paddock enclosed with a 164' electrified poultry net fence. They get out of date bread and dairy, in addition to hay and pasture. I'll try to get a new picture of them posted sometime soon.
These pure bred RWs seem to be growing well, and don't test the electric fence AT ALL. The two boars are quite tolerant of us, allowing us to pet and scratch them, and even lean on them without moving. The two little gilts are still pretty skittish. We are finally able to pet them while they eating, but they still flinch when we first touch them. We're hoping they will relax up and get more friendly over time. None of these guys seem nearly as friendly, nor do they seem to be growing as fast as our original two cross bred RW gilts. Maybe that's because they don't have that hybrid vigor going for them, but then again, we weren't necessarily interested in explosive growth for these guys as 3 of them are destined to be breeders.
Do let us know how your pig raising adventures progress, and post photos as you can. We're all pic crazy around here, if you haven't noticed already! lol. Thanks again for posting, and we look forward to sharing pig adventures!
We kept the piggies closely confined in our cattle panel and electric wire pen through both Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike. The piggies have DEFINITELY learned what electric wire is, and WON'T go near the stuff, or even where it's been in the past! We built them a "Hay Cave" out of square bales, held in place by T-Posts with a couple of sheets of plywood for roofing, weighted down by an extremely heavy 2X4 constructed hayfeeder grate (sort of like this...[llllllllll] ) over the T-posts and plywood. It worked great! We are still keeping their feeder full of hog grower feed, but have now opened them up to a bigger paddock enclosed with a 164' electrified poultry net fence. They get out of date bread and dairy, in addition to hay and pasture. I'll try to get a new picture of them posted sometime soon.
These pure bred RWs seem to be growing well, and don't test the electric fence AT ALL. The two boars are quite tolerant of us, allowing us to pet and scratch them, and even lean on them without moving. The two little gilts are still pretty skittish. We are finally able to pet them while they eating, but they still flinch when we first touch them. We're hoping they will relax up and get more friendly over time. None of these guys seem nearly as friendly, nor do they seem to be growing as fast as our original two cross bred RW gilts. Maybe that's because they don't have that hybrid vigor going for them, but then again, we weren't necessarily interested in explosive growth for these guys as 3 of them are destined to be breeders.
Do let us know how your pig raising adventures progress, and post photos as you can. We're all pic crazy around here, if you haven't noticed already! lol. Thanks again for posting, and we look forward to sharing pig adventures!
