[craiglockwood]

Finally, I should be picking up 2 Saddleback weaners (9 weeks old) this week.  They have a 30ft by 30ft enclosure at the bottom of the garden.  The enclosure is fenced with wire stock fencing (150mm gaps) on the outside of round posts/stakes with a single line of electric horse tape, about 20cm from floor on inside of posts.   Will this keep the weaners in?   

I am paranoid about escapees after reading a few horror stories.

Any tips/advice appreciated.

[Dan]

We've had a Tamworth weaner escape through standard stock netting before  , but that was without any supplementary electric fencing. Catching the wee bugger was not fun at the time!

After that we added a roll of chicken wire along the bottom of the stock netting.

It would be a squeeze for most 9 week-old weaners to get through stock netting though, so without a good reason to try it, and with your electric tape, you should be fine. 

HTH,

Dan

[Helencus]

It all sounds fine but I also put a line of barbed wire along the ground close to the fence just to be on the safe side. They soon learn it's there and deters the escapees from digging out.
Good luck enjoy them and welcome to the addictive world of pigs

[HappyHippy]

For the first week that you have them, try to keep them in a smaller, very secure area if possible. This way they associate you with the bucket and are far more likely to come back when you rattle it Just be sure to 'train' them to the electric fence if they've not been used to it.
Sometimes the shock can send them forwards through it, rather than keep them back. The best way to train them to it is to hold their nose against it, they get a shock and learn very quickly to stay away from the bitey thing  But if they've been used to it with mum, you shouldn't need to do it.
Definately agree that it's worth putting the barbed wire down if it's going to be a permanent pig area - you never know when batteries will fail or fences will short and as Dan says rounding them up once they get out is no fun at all (trust me, I've done it in total darkness and lashing rain on my own trying to find BLACK pigs that escaped )
HTH
Karen

[darkbrowneggs]

Cleverest lot of weaners I had were six Iron Age / Wild Boar type.  I had them fenced with electric netting.  The biggest -  and bear in mind these were weaners without the benefit of Mum's experience - worked out that if he picked up the electric fence by the black wire at the bottom and quickly pulled it back his 5 siblings would run under - hairy backs saving them from electric shocks, then he would quickly drop the wire before they had all got under and escape with them.

Have you seen the mess 6 Iron Age half grown pigs can make of a lawn - they plough rather than root

Sue

[Hilarysmum]

Good lord another 6 Hilarys.  I bet they were fun to round up.   

[Eve]

Craig, use a specific call every time you get to their pen with food (just "piggy piggy piggy" will do ), and in no time they'll know that that sound equals you/food, and they'll follow you back home should they ever escape and hear you calling. We had escapees last summer when the electricity was off (not our fault) and some weaners were several fields away, about to break into the farmers' garden. That was on day 5 after arrival, and when we finally found them we just called out as we usually did when visiting them and they ran towards us and followed us back over the fields with great enthusiasm. It resulted in a very funny bit of footage on the mobile! 

As someone mentioned, when still getting used to the electric fence weaners do indeed sometimes jump forwards through the lines. If they don't seem intent on following you or the food bucket back in (at first they won't know you yet), approach them calmly from behind and pick them up by both back legs, somewhere above where their 'ankle' would be. They won't weight too much yet, just do it in one quick movement. They won't squeel or wriggle this way and you can carry them, hanging upside down, back to the pen. Carrying them they way we normally would carry something (i.e. box, puppy) makes them squeel (oh, the volume! ) and try to escape your grip - and they're strong!

We never held their nose to the wire, though, they did that themselves right away and learnt quickly (they also learn equally fast to keep their backsides away from the wire  ), but then we do have the time to stay with them the first day in case they get out - hence why our weaners always arrive at the weekend: 2 people on weaner-watching-duty! 
When we had our first weaners, we were totally paranoid and I rushed back to them all the time.  So don't worry about being paranoid, it's a good thing: it means you care. 


Enjoy!