The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Castle keep on January 20, 2017, 07:45:51 pm
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We're first timers and our gilts gave birth this week. The ark is dry and a good size but outside is a sea of mud. I found a piglet corpse this morning where it had climbed over the retaining plank and got stuck and must have died of cold. I've put down straw to try to stop it happening again but it's a massive enclosure and all mud and no where else to move them.
All ideas welcome!
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As your piglets are only a week old they don't need too much room at present. So reduce the area outside the arc to a minimum so that you can keep it strawed.
You can't remove the pigs; you can't remove the mud; so all you can do is to reduce the mudded area to a size you can cope with.
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Can you put a wall of straw bales around a small area which includes the sow's water trough and feed area? Anything solid like old water tanks, half-mesh sheep hurdles, and so on, would do. The sow will probably be too distracted by her new litter to want to go far away from them for a while yet so unlikely to destroy the wall until the piglets are returning to her voluntarily anyway. If the sow is contained by an electric fence beware of the piglets getting under the bottom strand. Also put a ramp and doormat of straw from the ground up to the level of the floor in the ark, so they can get in and out easily.
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Build them a patio outside the front. Not as mad as it sounds, I keep some weaners outside and they have created a sea of mud, I would not step in it as it may go over my wellies, the pigs spend most of their time on their patio. I've done this for years and it works well when it's wet. It also gives you somewhere to feed them that is relatively dry.
Get 6 decent pallets, fix them together so they will not move apart, fit a couple of sheets of corrugated sheet across the top to prevent legs going through the gaps and getting broken, put in front of the house. You can then put bales of straw around the sides to keep the piglets in, the sow will push them out of the way if she is inclined to get out, but she is more likely to stay with the piglets. When the weather improves take the bales away.
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Thank you so much everyone for the brilliant advice. We ended up combining all the ideas and now have a pallet raft patio with water trough and enclosed by straw bales. And I can finally sleep at night.
Any suggestions on when they'll be big enough to cope with mud? - I can tell you from raft instalation experience it is at least 18 inches deep and going nowhere!
Really appreciate the help and reassurance. Thanks again.
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What sort of pigs are they?
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I suggest not letting the piglets out until the ground has dried up a bit, even if it really freezes and the ground is solid. Once they know there's more to life than their patio they'll be off at every opportunity.
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They're middle white/Gloucester old spots. Seem to be staying put at the moment... thank goodness as there's no prospect of the ground drying.