We want to produce ‘powerhouse pork’ which means that these pigs are not single purpose porcine. \u00a0We are trying to reclaim unused land, spread compost and fertilize a bit. \u00a0We chose to run them on hot wire to accomplish these goals. \u00a0We thought about a moving pen set up but couldn’t visualize easily portable housing with piggies in -15 F degrees weather outside. \u00a0Instead we built a house of straw and a fence out of 2 wires and plastic posts (trust me- I am nervous all the time about this set-up). \u00a0We figured we better try pigs on hot wire before we know any better or we would never try it. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Constuction of the house took about 20 3-string wheat straw bales. \u00a0We cross stacked a perimeter of bales to leave a 4’x8′ interior. \u00a0We went two bales high (except only one bale high at the door- a decision I would soon regret). \u00a0We then laid 2″x4″s across the top and covered them with corrugated roofing. \u00a0We thought the corrugations would give some ventilation but still keep the body heat in. \u00a0On top of the corrugations we placed another course of bales. \u00a0We shoved fiberglass rods in to tie the bales together and pin them to the ground.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/img00162-300x225.jpg\" "\\"img00162\\"")
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![\"img00163\"](\"http:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/img00163-300x225.jpg\" "\\"img00163\\"")
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Overall- I love the house. \u00a0Before we put the roof on we put down a couple of inches of compost followed by an couple of inches of straw. \u00a0The pigs took to it and there have been no complaints. \u00a0I have crawled in a couple of times and all is well on the inside. \u00a0We plan to only have pigs over the winter this year and will blend the house into the garden after butcher day. \u00a0I hear straw bales will get infested with lice if you try to use them over and over- not our intention. \u00a0I am concerned about the doorway being only one bale high- I can always dig it out a bit if worse comes to worse. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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![\"dsc01306\"](\"http:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/dsc01306-300x225.jpg\" "\\"dsc01306\\"")
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Alright- back to the hot wire. \u00a0<\/p>\n
From the house we extendended\u00a0bales as wings and attached a 16′ horse panel (hog would work) to the front. \u00a0On this panel I attached two aluminum hot wires: the first at about 6″ from the ground and the second 10″ above that. \u00a0Keep in mind the pigs were about 70 pounds at this point. \u00a0They sniffed- checked it out- got zapped- several in a row- zap, retreat, zap (different one), retreat. \u00a0We kept them this way for a week. \u00a0The day before we removed the panel I put a little bit of their feed next to the horse panel as a test. \u00a0They never touched \u00a0the hot side- any food that had slopped near the wire stayed there all day! \u00a0<\/p>\n
We thought they were ready and Saturday morning we removed the panel. \u00a0We were fortunate to have nice weather and could spend all day outside with a watchful eye- all the stars were aligned. \u00a0With the panel gone and the feed trough in the ‘outside world’- nothing happened. \u00a0The pigs were not going to cross the line where the panel used to be. \u00a0Enventually the call of breakfast was too much and one by one they crossed the line. \u00a0For the rest of the day when they went in for naps they paused, sniffed, and then eventually crossed the line. \u00a0Today- they are fine with it. \u00a0<\/p>\n
We were a bit worried that they would know that the old threat of being zapped was gone- but would they know there was a new boundry? \u00a0To check, I fed them on the other side of the wire one brave piggy took a sniff and got zapped. \u00a0No one else tried it- no one else has gotten within 2′ of the wire. \u00a0Content that they would not try the wire again I moved the feeder over the wire and they gobbled it up. \u00a0For two days I kept an eye on them- the third day I left for hours and all was well. \u00a0Tonight Hazel and I \u00a0took turns chasing each other and the piggies around the compost pile. \u00a0Hazel got down on all fours and called them her ‘wild brothers’ while crawling around with them. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Watching pigs run, wrestle, root, play king of the hill is truly ‘better than cable TV’ (Joel Salatin). \u00a0Did you know when pigs play-run they bounce around on thier front feet- kind of like a dog on one of those agility courses with the zig-zag posts? \u00a0Did you know they like to dig a trench and then lay in it….then dig another? \u00a0Did you know they like lie perpendicular to the sun all lined up next to each other? \u00a0 Did you know they are happy to see you- even if you don’t have feed bucket in hand? \u00a0I didn’t. \u00a0We raised pigs when I was younger and didn’t know these things. \u00a0<\/p>\n
So far so good. \u00a0The pigs are free to be pigs- a fundamental objective of the farm.<\/p>\n
![\"Pig](\"http:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/img001782-300x225.jpg\" "\\"Pig")
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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 I am new at this so…I share with you my experience. \u00a0The big question is whether containing pigs solely on hot wire or not it is possible\/repeatable. \u00a0I really hope it is because it has been a great experience! What I know- at least what I have gleaned from sources and now bank as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[58,59,61,60,62],"class_list":["post-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shelter","tag-central-oregon","tag-electic-fence","tag-hog-heaven","tag-hot-wire","tag-pastured-pork"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions\/105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatamericanegg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}