Saturday, January 23, 2016

Farm Happenings - Trading Chickens For Pigs


About three weeks ago a very nice lady named Angie came to pick up her chickens that she had purchased. While she was here she told us how she would be picking up to young piglets on here way home.  We expressed to her how we would also like to get a couple of pigs to raise up and butcher.  We asked if she would check and see if the people would have a couple more pigs and to let us know.  She got back with me later that evening, she said she picked up the pigs and when she brought them home decided she really didn't need anymore pigs, she already had a couple of pigs and was really not going to have the freezer space for that many.  She asked us if we would like to purchase the pigs.  We said sure, would you like us to pay in cash or chickens?  She said it would be nice to be paid in chickens, so the next day we picked up the pigs and gave three hens for two pigs, what a deal!


The little pigs weigh about 40 pounds each, they had been wormed, tails docked, teeth clipped and castrated so we didn't have that to deal with, thank goodness!
We brought them home in a medium sized dog crate.  They spent the night in a nice sized wooden box in the Morton building until we could get them situated in their own pen the following day.



We've had pigs a couple of times in the past and still had an old pen set up where we raised them. The pen is a bit grown up with weeds and brush but the pigs will have that cleaned up and knocked down in no time.
They took a short 4 wheeler ride out to the pen, I'm sure they are wondering what the heck is happening!



Larry got them into the pen and they quickly went to excavating dirt.  Pigs make good rototillers and garbage disposals.
We produce a lot of eggs here at the poultry farm.  There are times when some eggs are to muddy, or poop covered to hatch or eat ourselves and this will be great for the pigs.  Next month we will crank up the incubators and start hatching again.  We hatch chicks every Monday night and we always have some eggs that don't form and we throw away in the trash, this will be great for the pigs to clean up instead of it going into the landfill.


We no longer had a pig shelter so Larry quickly put together a pig palace.  Threw them a half bail of straw and they made themselves a bed.  It was fun to watch them pitch the straw around.











 Snug as two pigs in a blanket.








They are growing so fast!  When they reach about 250 to 300 pounds we're planning to butcher them ourselves.  I think they'll be ready to process at our most busy time of year and it sounds like a really big job, so we might need to take them off and have them processed.  If we do it ourselves I plan to blog about the process, I know some people won't like that but this is a farm and that is how pork makes it to the table.  We like to know where our food comes from, what it was fed and the manner in which it was raised.  These little pigs will be raised humanly and well fed. We're very compassionate towards all animals and would never allow one to suffer for any reason.
This is just another day on the farm.
Angie


1 comment:

  1. Wish I had the gumption for more critters. I'd like to have a horse, but have no idea on care/feeding/shelter/needs. I certainly have the room.

    Fun to see your piggies. I guess all you have to do for them is to feed and water them, then off to the butchershop!

    Just did our first hatching of Marans. CUTE as a button! POOFY!

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