Woodland pigs

After Dan picked up our spring pigs, we put them in a temporary location so they were close enough to watch.  They're all growing really well, so it was time to move them to their permanent home - a wooded section of our pasture.  This is the best of both worlds... they get to eat grass, but they also get lots of bushes and small trees to root around in looking for tasty treats, as well as any nuts on the ground from last fall.  Like anything we do, a plan had to be devised to get them from point A to point B.  This involved electric fence.  Lots of electric fence.

First we had to make a run from their current home to their new home...

Their home was behind the tractor.  See the small yellow line of string - that's electric fencing.  It zaps really hard and the pigs respect it, so only takes a single line of it to keep them in place.  So the idea is they walk down that little alleyway - electric fence on the left and a permanent fence on the right.  This keeps on going until we ran out of permanent fence, then it continues on with electric fence the rest of the way...

Then we had to get food and water down to their new home.  This involved using a tractor and anything that requires the use of a tractor is okay in Dan's book...

And then you put the bags of feed into the self-feeder...

And ideally, you don't want to accidentally drop the bag in or else you have to go in after it...

Now, we just have to get the piggies down here.  Put out a little feed as enticement, clap your hands and do a little dance and they slowly but surely make their way down to their new home.




And here they are, happy as can be in their new home...





 


This must be a piggy smorgasbord....





I saved the best for last.  This is what makes our pigs special and separates them from commercial pig farms - room to run and play.  Look at the last pig... he's running full speed ahead and ears flapping in the wind.  I can just hear him saying' "Hey guys... wait for me!"