The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: lost and confused on October 02, 2018, 09:15:12 am
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Hi Everybody,
Firstly I just wanted to introduce myself. My wife (Pip) & I have used the forum for information for ages but have just joined. We live in Gloucestershire and having kept chickens for years and dreamt of a small holding we finally found one last year. It is small (about 4 acres of paddocks and 2 acres of woodland) and unkempt /overgrown but attached to the house with excellent farmer neighbours. The plan is for pigs and sheep to keep my charcuterie hobby supplied!
We spent the best part of a year first finding the boundaries then making them stock proof. We finally took the plunge and about 4 weeks ago took delivery of 4 OSB weaners to raise for meat. They are doing well, growing at an alarming rate (but don't feel fat) and generally appear to be enjoying life.
However I have what is probably a very stupid question to ask. Having kept chickens for years we have always made sure they have fresh and clean water daily. I have a pig drinker that I have now worked out how to stop them pushing over / tipping. However it doesn't seem to matter how often you wash out and refill the drinker the water is muddy within minutes. I'm obviously concerned about the volume of water I'm going through but similarly want to do what is right for the lads.
My question is how dirty is water too dirty for pigs to stay healthy and how often do people wash out their drinkers?
Many thanks,
Simon,
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Mine regularly tip their water over on an almost twice-daily basis, unless I did it into the ground whereby then stand in it even more.
I now leave it on the ground (ie not dug-in) and just take the tip-outs as an opportunity to rinse out the water trough and refill again, thereby keeping it regularly refreshed.
Whatever you do it will be full of mud, as they root around all day so their snouts are always covered in dirt. I refresh mine every couple of days (on the rare occasions when they haven't turned it over).
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Hi Simon, cant help with the pig situation, but welcome to the group. :wave:
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I'd give them fresh water once a day, change it while their eating. The mud in it will of come from their muddy noses after rooting and won't bother them at all :)
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Our pigs do the same. They have two drinkers, a Mexican hat that’s too heavy to tip over and a lighter weight one that they often tip over. Consequently the former is always muddy and the latter less so. They drink happily from both and don’t seem to come to any harm.
They eat a certain amount of soil anyway, so a bit in their water shouldn’t be a problem. If the water stood for a long time and got stale, that could maybe be more of an issue. Ours need both drinkers refilling twice a day every day, and three times in hot weather, so no time for bugs to multiply.
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Hello and welcome.
Our pigs have an automatic drinker fed from an IBC. It still gets muddy though but they don't seem to mind. Once a day I sweep (with my hand) the drinking bowl and it fills up with clean water.
Good luck with your venture
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I don't know about pigs but you've been given some advice. Just wanted to say welcome for TAS. :wave:
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In response to the pig water query. I let my pigs root out a hole for their cooling baths and if the rains were few I would fill it up occassionally. I have a 45 gallon drum with a removable lid. I attached 3 pig nipples near the bottom and this takes care of the dirty water issue. I occasionally add a splash of apple cider vinegar (unpasteurised) to prevent algae growth and it is good for them as well. The pigs caught on to the nipples really quickly.
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I work with pigs (near on 1400 of them) and for the issue regarding muddy water i wouldn't stress too much. The barrels we use for water regularly get filled with mud and stones (off their nose and from the stones they "chew" on). These are dropped in when they come to drink. Just clean out regularly and keep an eye on the water for algae growth and larvae. You can get cleaning solutions/powders for them (Virkon-S is what we use). Ensure it is clean water going into the drinker though.
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No advice - just welcome :wave: