The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: ppd on November 12, 2012, 02:29:51 pm
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Hi :wave:
I have finally tracked down a fencer and my new pig fields are now ready to be trashed :o
I have 4 pigs - 3KKs who are 4 months old and a six year old Tamworth sow. I hope that I can keep them together and they have been next door to each other for about 6 weeks. They do however have a solid fence between them at the moment but can see each other when the KKs stand up at the fence.
One KK jumped the fence the other week at feeding time and went straight into Matilda's bucket with no reaction from Matilda :relief: But after she had finished feeding she got fed up of the wee one and gave her a good couple of head buts and the pinned her down - a bit like my older dog does to the younger ones when she has had enough. She did no damage to the KK who then jumped back into her own area!
Now there are 2 7'x5' arks in the field and both will be filled with straw so no pressure for them to sleep together and I have a line of electric posts up between the arks incase of trouble - no tape on them but will have tape on stand by. Will spray them all with something smelly and of course it will be neutral ground for all.
I did wonder if putting a line of tape on the posts dividing the two arks that would be high enough to let the KKs through but not Matilda would be a good idea, so if she is giving them a hard time they can escape. Or should I put a fence between them for a couple of days then take the fence down, so they can see each other better before actually being in together.
Matilda is a very laid back pig but I know there will be a bit of putting the wee ones in their place, but how bad can that get before I get worried about it? I am such a softie that the first squeal and I will be in a panic :o and I know they have to sort it out but I certainly do not want any of them to get hurt.
And lastly I hope to move them in the morning so I can monitor the situation all day and would it be better to do it before their feed (they will need to be hungry to follow the bucket!) then as the area is grassy I was going to spread the food over a good sized area so they have to look for it and no squabbles over buckets
All help as always is greatly appreciated ;D ;D ;D
Pauline
ps once I get them sorted out I am getting Saddleback weaners at the end of the week! :excited: :excited: :excited:
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There's bound to be a bit of argy bargy when pigs are put together that were previously separated. They need to sort out the pecking order and while it can look nasty they're not likely to do each other any real harm.
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Your Kunekunes aren't likely to try and assert any kind of authority over Matilda and she's unlikely to see them as a threat so not likely to bother much with them :fc: ;)
She'll probably chase them off and as long as they have enough space to escape her it should be fine. It might be worth putting some kind of bar across the door of one of the arcs to reduce the size of the opening - make it big enough that they can get in and she can't :thumbsup:
It should settle down after a couple of days, but things to watch for are her deliberately biting at their vulva's - that's a serious one and when you should step in to seperate them and prevent injury (gut feeling - it's not going to come to that, but that's a 'worst case' scenario for you ;))
Spread their food wide if you're feeding on the ground or have 2 seperate troughs so there's not as much competition at meals times and you'll probably find after 2 nights they're all in with Matilda (big pig = lots of heat to snuggle into ;))
The only thing I would say (for springtime, when the grass starts growing) is you might need to watch that Matilda isn't rotivating all the pasture the Kunekunes would normally eat - you might need to split them into two groups then.
HTH
Karen :wave:
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Thanks Hughesy and Karen
Karen re Matilda rotivating the grass she grazes and the KKs dig more than she does :o You would think with her long stong snout that she would be like a bulldozer - but NO she daintly nibbles :roflanim:
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Update on pig moving
Got them all down and into the new field and they did follow the bucket, sort of :-\ Matilda has been very good and apart from a few spats, usually with the bold spotty one who doesn't seem to know when to back off :o It was fascinating watching them. Matilda when putting spotty in her place would start off quite gently with a nose nudge and nip which she increased in strength each time until spotty backed off, but even when putting her jaws round spotty never actually closed her mouth.
It's raining now and Matilda is in one ark, but lying right at the door so the wee ones don't get in and I have a bar over the door to the other ark (thanks Karen) so the KKs can get in but not Matilda - they just haven't worked that one out yet! But :fc: that is all going to sort itself out!
The ponies were also fascinated by them as they have seen the pigs, but not really as close as today.
Hopefully a photo is attatched of Merlin the mini shetland and Matilda, both ginger and both about the same size ;D ;D ;D
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Glad it's gone well. A lovely piccie of a new friendship :sunshine:
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I love the piccy :thumbsup:
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Lovely picture :pig: & :horse:
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Awww :)