Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
ALMOST BEEKEEPING - RELATED TOPICS => FARMING & COUNTRY LIFE => Topic started by: bberry on November 07, 2009, 07:40:13 pm
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I am getting two feeder pigs and am setting up their pen. The site i have chosen has some ivy growing around the fencing and i was wondering if this would be harmful to the pigs? I know they root through everything! Also, in general what do you NOT feed pigs?
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Pigs normally won't eat citrus. About anything else will be fine. They love fermented food and it will help them to grow faster.
Coal, crushed and mixed with their food, is a good natural wormer.
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Or if you heat with wood a half cup of ashes now and then, in a liquid mixture once every 2 or 3 month till they near 200 pounds. Make sure you keep the chickens out of the pig pen, if you have any, or you won't have them long. :roll: :)doak
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Make sure you keep the chickens out of the pig pen, if you have any, or you won't have them long. :roll: :)doak
Oh my, are you saying that the chickens will eat the pigs
Or the pigs will eat the chickens, smiling 8-) :shock: ;) :) :)
I have heard that if a human being falls into a pen of pigs, there would be nuthin' left of them. Did you guys ever hear of that horrible dude that had the pig farm in southern British Columbia (my province in Canada) that did away with about 30 women? Oops, my bad, off topic, I do really apologize, but just couldn't help myself :( :shock: :roll: Have that wonderful, most awesome life, day and health. Cindi
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Start another topic please Cindi, I want to know more about that story of the women and the pigs. Yiks, pigs eat humans??
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Oh Annette, it is a shocking story, I am sure that the world knows, but I will start a topic, make a link or two to some fairly oldish news, :lol:. Have a wonderful and most incredible day, health. Cindi
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Human feed wasn't on the menu here but i've heard the same, they are meat eaters after all :-X
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http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3VVQ_Pickton_Pig_Farm_Port_Coquitlam_BC_Canada (http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3VVQ_Pickton_Pig_Farm_Port_Coquitlam_BC_Canada)
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Beware of that "sow" if she has pigs with her.
We had one of one in a thousand that would not pay any attention about her pigs. I still didn't trust her. They will hurt you. They will eat snakes, chickens etc. They will also be eaten by "humans". :roll:
Do not butcher a female when she is at her time for breeding. You cannot stand to stay in the house while it cooks, let alone eat it. Could tell some more but will wait till ask. ;)doak
PS I love chitterlings.
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OH! forgot, they really make good "chicken" sausage. :shock: :roll: :? ;)
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What a disgusting story, Well I asked for it.
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Kathy, thanks for putting in the link (and yes, dear, sweet, Annette, you asked for it girl!!! smiling that big smile).
OK, Doak, I am going to ask. Tell that story about the sow.....I wanna hear. If anyone doesn't wanna hear, they don't have to listen, smiling. I love to hear of stuff, any stuff, be it nice, cool, gorry, horrible, nasty -- that is life -- I wanna know EVERYTHING.....have that most incredibly beautiful and most wonderful day. (Wonder if a different post should be started....thoughts here...(Doak)) Cindi
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Iddee, you stated pigs don't eat citrus, perhaps not the trees themselves but in Florida they are a real nuisance as they love to eat citrus fruit, but I'm sure you know this. Just wanted to point this out for clarity sakes.
Pigs are omnivores which means they will eat anything that doesn't eat them first, and yes that does include snakes, even such ones as rattlers. Pigs are apparently immune to snake bites, at least from what I've heard.
...JP
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Well that's about it for the sow as far as what she will do if you mess with her piglet's.
As for butchering, like I said don't do it when she is at the breeding stage, I for get the name used here so bear with me. You can butcher after she is bred, if you don't wait too long. It doesn't affect the meat.
Now as for the male, this is what one should get if they are thinking meat. Get what is called a feeder pig, he has been weaned, wormed and castrated. Which is called barrow.
Some say if the male is not fixed the meat will be strong but eatable.
Never enter a pen with a sow that has pigs.
Any other time pigs/hogs can become quiet docile, but if you let your self get too close then it will have it's affect come "hog killing" time. :'( :'( :'( :'( :)doak
Even when you feed them, stand there and watch them eat. They will take a bite and look up at you, take a good look at this time and you will see they are smiling. :)
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I love to hunt wild pigs. For meat, young pigs or sows are best. Large boars are not eatable. They have a smell you will never forget. If you do butcher a large boar, the meat will taste ok but the smell when cooked will turn a buzzards stomach!
Steve
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JP. when I was collecting throw aways from the farmer's market, the pigs would always leave the lemons, grapefruit, and oranges to rot in the pen. They would not eat them. Maybe it was just the pigs I had. I don't know.
You are right about the snakes. Pigs are immune to the venom or know how to kill them without being bit, I don't know which. The old timers used to say the fangs couldn't reach past the fat to get into the blood stream. Maybe just an old wives tale, maybe some truth to it. You decide.
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While this thread got a little off topic (much to my enjoyment however :-D) here are our new piggies, Biscuit and Gravy :evil: They are very happy cleaning up the leftover apples from our trees
(http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5923/pigs003.th.jpg) (http://img405.imageshack.us/i/pigs003.jpg/)
(http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/1696/pigs018.th.jpg) (http://img515.imageshack.us/i/pigs018.jpg/)
(http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/221/pigs014.th.jpg) (http://img515.imageshack.us/i/pigs014.jpg/)
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So please let us know when you'll be having Biscuits and Gravy. :-D
...JP
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I know what the black and white one is. What is the white one, Landrace or Yorkshire?
doak
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They look delicious! Maybe with one of those apples in their mouths?
Steve
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Doak-they are a Hampshire/Yorkshire cross, you can't really see it in the pic but the pink guy is actually a 'Blue Butt'. I never knew pigs were so entertaining, we have been 'playing with our food' all day :roll:
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the white one in the picture is half yorkshire half Hampshire's cross breed.Hampshire boar gives good traits in respect to meat quality.Yorkshire sows tend to make better nursers
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We had a Tamworth Sow,"red" in color. All 13 of her first litter lived and were solid black and/or belted black. Not a red one in the bunch. We were selling whole or half carcass, the customer had the freezer locker man to cut and wrap. (Process).
Our main growing feed was mostly whey from the local cheese factory with garden culls mixed in.
With a couple acres of tomatoes, Potatoes, water melons and muskmelons they had plenty. Finishing feed was corn, oats, etc. We always had a few acres of truck crops on top of the corn and ,"yes" cotton. and yes, hand picked. We also harvested loose hay with a pitch fork. After two barn lofts was filled we made out side hay stacks. You have seen those haven't you? We also milked 12 cows by hand and sold fresh raw milk in the jug. Life was good. :)doak
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Doak- That sounds wonderful. We are building up our farm around here and it sure is work, but there is no better feeling at the end of the day than work well done (if you can ignore the aches and pains:) This is our first go round with pigs but my son is going to do a breeder project for 4H come spring-so many more piggies to come! Man do they love table scraps and chestnuts! Have you ever given yours acorns?
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They are very cute.
JP and Iddee, my info may or may not be correct either but maybe this will help settle the citrus thing.
When I had a pig the vet told me to never give her citrus because it is about the only food pigs have a tough time digesting and they get sick and throw up.
Iddee yours may have not eaten it because they sensed it, alot of animals won't eat something because they innately know that it will sicken or kill them so it may have been that.
JP the pigs that you have seen eating them may have just not sensed it and then later on that night they were puking all over the place.
Just my theory but it makes sense to me so I am sticking to it.
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Years ago I watched Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers http://popup.lala.com/popup/432627047850146622hunt (http://popup.lala.com/popup/432627047850146622hunt) with his traditional bow on a Florida citrus farm where feral pigs were dining on oranges, perhaps just the ones that had fallen and fermented, but they were surely there in full force like clock work, every evening showing up to dine.
I have fed pigs acorns before, they love them! I raised two feral Hampshires I caught in the wild for roughly 8 weeks until they were moved to a 13 acre farm where they grew and grew and grew. The male was Cool Breeze, the female Little Girl. I fell in love with these pigs and didn't have the mindset to eat them when their new owners slaughtered them.
I would fill Cool Breeze's feeding trough up with acorns and he would eat them until he would pass out on his side and continued eating with his eyes closed! I'm not making this up, talk about comical! Pigs love acorns!
...JP
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They love pecans also. We use pecans sometimes to bait our traps.
Steve
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PS I love chitterlings.
Tell me son, you you prefer yo 'chitlings' stump whooped, hand slung, or creek washed? :-D
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We get the 10 pound store bought chitterlings and re clean them. Boil tender then fry semi crisp, with hot home made biscuits.
We had a neighbor once getting on in years. He had some sows and sold pigs. Only problem he had let them get to the point of inbreeding and the sows was mean as hell.
Another neighbor went one day to pick up some pigs and the old gentleman got over in the pen to catch the pigs. Well the sow attacked him and our other neighbor had to knock her off with a wagon standard. Kept her at bay while his son's got the old gentleman and the pigs out.
Another important note. If you rent, borrow, or have your own boar, never try to take him away from the sow as long as she is still in heat. can't be done, safely. Been there done that.
Yes, the acorns are good. If you have access to a creamery, where they make cheese and can get the whey, you can almost rear them on it as long as you give them a little grain now and then.
Just slack off on the whey and increase the grain about a month before butchering time.
Give whey only after they have been weaned.
Peanuts make a rubbery/spongy textured meat. The best meat is grain fed meat.
You could grow root crops and let the pigs harvest at a ripe time, turnips, sweet taters, don't know about Irish taters. :)doak