[reedos]

Is it enough?

The whole pig thing is rolling on faster than planned, but hey who'd want life to be predictable!

Anyway I have loads of electric fencing, but not much of anything else built yet. Will electric fencing be sufficient to keep them contained?

Cheers

Andy

[AndrewMawson]

In a word NO!. If they have been brought up with electric fencing they learn a healthy respect for it however when they spot you with the feed bucket all that will be forgotten. I have used trenched in stock fencing, with electric fence spaced off it a few inches with some sucess, but they do have a habit of piling earth on the lower wire making it ineffectual. I don't like barbed wire, but sometimes that is the only way - a single strand low down close to the ground.

However just as soon as you are late for the abattoir and NEED them loaded quickly, they will totally and utterly refuse to cross where the fence was, despite the fact that you've taken it down, spread straw over where it was and tempted them with the bucket   

[hughesy]

Opinions differ on this. We use two strands of steel wire one about a foot off the ground the other about 18 or 20 inches. Pigs stay well contained we haven't had any problems. The pigs are kept in a pen with stock fencing and electric wire inside that initially just to get them used to it. Having said that we know people who use only electric with no problems.

[welshlass181]

Mine re kept in with stock fencing and a line of wire along the bottom of the fence post.  Earlier on this year i had to pen all of mine in a small area while we did some work on the field and we put up 3 lines of wire and had the plastic fence posts, it was only temporary, and the only ones that got out were the piglets that could get underneath it.  I don't think that I'd only ever rely on elec fencing as if they did get out and churn up the memorial garden that we have I'd be as good as dead lol

[oaklandspigs]

Pigs can be kept quite easily on just electric but a few caveats

1. They must be trained first
2. Whilst sows will generally stay behind a single strand, and we've brought lots of weaners to fattening weight on the same method, youngsters do tend to push each other and run around, and can run or be pushed through an electric fence, and escape that way.
3. Again whilst for sows some of our fences may not actually be on for months and they will stay behind it quite happily, youngsters will tend to test more, so make sure it's working.
4. We like tape - pigs see it easily and learn that it is the white stuff that you avoid.
5. I would not keep a mature boar just behind eclectic
6. If a sow on heat can smell a boar, love is a powerful thing, and more powerful than an electric fence - keep boars out of scent distance
7. Don't rely on just the fence to protect.  We use electric to create areas within our fields. If the pigs do escape they have a large field to explore that is stock fenced, so I will find them long before they have found their way out of the field.  Don't put your pigs just behind electric if they can access anything that's not yours if they get out - eg road, next doors prize veg patch, or anything you want to protect - eg your prize veg patch
8. Lop eared pigs are generally easier behind electric than pricked eared
9. As Andrew says pigs don't like crossing any boundary, and it can be hard to get them out from where the electric was - some come easily others don't
10. Final point - There is always the exception to the rule - the pig that sees electric as a challenge - our was called Annabel - a middlewhite that would trail electric fence wire behind her as she wandered up the field to greet us !

So generally - electric fencing offers a convenient, moveable, cheap fencing arrangement, but in its place !

[reedos]

OK thanks for that everybody.

I've got enough stock fencing for a relatively small area so what I'll do is get that put up, with electric fencing on the inside and see how they get on. Then I can take it from there

[oaklandspigs]

Reedos,

That would give you a great "training area".  Put a single strand inside about 4-6 inches above the ground depending on piglet size.  Put your pigs in there for a couple of days - this will train them to back off the electric rather than go through.  Then you could put them in a larger area just behind the tape, subject to the caveats above !

[harry]

i live in an area of east anglia where there are 10s of fields with 100s of sows with 1000s of piglets all large whites i think, ie big pigs...... i go past these fields sevaral times a day, they have 2 or 3 strands of electric fence wire, i have never seen a large sow outside the fence, sometimes the piglets but they dont stray far from the sow.

[reedos]

Thanks everybody.

They arrived today shortly followed by their pig ark - which was an adventure in itself, a 10 x 7 arc on a just under 10 x about 5 trailer!

They've been cracked by the fence a couple of times now - a loud squeal followed by running in the other direction, I'm sure they'll get the hang of it!

[princesspiggy]

very exciting -good luck - post some piccies!!

[dyedinthewool]

 Hi,

Anticipating the spring arrival of our piggies we are trying to fence their pen.  Very difficult with all this wet weather as where their pen is going is very wet (farmers field next door has a spring and it drains into our field (his field is higher than ours) we hope to dig a tempory trow ditch down the full length of the field to drain the area (we hope to raise some funds to be able to pipe it at some time...)

The area is triangular with high banks on two sides - we intend to use stock fencing all round with two electric wires inside this, OH seems to think it should have galvanised sheet sunk into the ground to stop them from digging their way out...?  is this necessary or is just the stock wire plus the electric good enough.  What about the gate ? how do you stop the gap at the bottom? We are using a 10' gate.

Any answers welcome

[plt102]

The pigs seem to differ so very much. Our first 4 boys never escaped and we had simple stock fencing. The second time, we had 8 piggies and they kept escaping so we invested in electric fencing which did the job a treat. WE now have 6 GOS who are so clever that they keep burying the fence or putting twigs over it to short it out and they drain the battery and escape nearly every day. Luckily they always come back for their dinner (so far). I can only think that each generation of piglets leaves the next lot an escape plan so they keep getting better at it :-)

[Barrett]

My OH had to put a plinth on the bottom of all my gates to stop the little monkeys from going under them once they get bigger not a problem he used 2 scaffold boards on top of one another and nailed to gate posts.  I am giving up with electric fencing however, I do get the odd one occasionally that is as good as gold with it I have 1 out in the field at the moment as he is the only 1 that will not get out the other 1 that is shut in his muddy pen looks on as he enjoys a run around and the odd bit of grass he can find.