[dyedinthewool]

Anyone know the meaning for a 'pig in a poke'
 
The two little loveable piglets that could be carrried when we first had them are now TWO BIG 80kg  PLUS!!! girls....
 
I'm now thinking of HOW do 'we' (OH has to be roped in for this ) get them from their pen - which with the wet we've had lately is an absolute quagmire - into our trailer. Not a conventional full height horse trailer, it's a 8' x 4' trailer with a 'made up' roof  ( about 4' height) OH bolts on when we need to move the lambs to market.  So far we have backed the trailer up to the gate with the ramp down - put galvanise on two hurdles and fixed them either side, with the raides fixed to the hurdles to make an alley for them - plenty of straw in the trailer with a load of their mucky straw on the ramp.  I've strewn pig nuts in the straw and they have gone in and eaten- though a bit tentativly.
 
My problem will be if it gets wet again (and the abbatoir wants them clean) I'll have to move them into the barn which is  about 50yds away. If I DO get them in the trailer and  move them to the barn will it upset them big-time and then I'll not get then into the trailer again...?  Unlike sheep you can't bully a pig into going were she doesn't want to go...
 
How do you all get about it?
 
They are due to go on the 11th July.  It will be an early start so can't afford to spend too much time in the morning cajoling them into the trailer, I'd rather get it organised before than find they won't go in at all.
 

[mattjen]

hi,im not a real expert yet but i usually get the trailer in the field a day or 2 before and feed them in the trailer and then if they are filthy i feed them in there the night before with straw in there then close them in the trailer over night put some water in there and then uaually by mornuing they are cleaner,hope this is of some help,GOOD LUCK
Matt

[hughesy]

I find that once they've been into a trailer once they will go straight in next time if they think there's food in there.

[princesspiggy]

all mine will follow me anywhere with a bucket, but our first pigs, who had always stayed in the one field would refuse to walk on chuckies and so wouldnt go thru the gate! 
the tricky part is loading a few at the same time....

[sokel]

We had 2 go yesterday and it went like a dream
We led. Them in with a bucket of nuts.  10 Mins from getting the trailer to the gate to getting them in
We have however been putting the trailer full of straw in the gateway and shutting the hatches to the pens for a few hours twice a week so they got used to using it as a bed

[oaklandspigs]

In your case, i would keep feeding them in the trailer for a few days longer til they get used to it, and as long as you can get away with leaving the trailer there.  Then a few days before you want them to go, feed as usual but shut them in.  Drive gently to the barn and release.  If you can then back the trailer to the barn, you could carry this on. 
 
Sokel's trick of making the trailer their "ark" by shutting of the rak works really well, and as hughsey says, once they are use to the trailer, and probiding the first jopurney was gentle, they should re-load ok.
 
A few other pints with trailers
 
Load with as gentle ramp angle as possible - park downhill rather than uphill to make slope less.
Load from dark to light - we clip an inspection lamp onto the inside of the trailer if loading early.
Pigs don't like "checkerboard" metal ramps, so use something to make slope more friendly - carpet, horsemat, or similar. 
Make transition from ground to ramp less obvious - starw at the bottom can help
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

[deepinthewoods]

Anyone know the meaning for a 'pig in a poke'
 

the saying comes from medieavel times when a young pig would be sold in a sack, unseen. 'poke' is a form of todays 'pocket'. hth.

[robert waddell]

no poke has three meanings at least   depends on dialect      central Scotland poke =a bag      northern ireland poke = an ice cream       Geordie land poke = sex
the original is meant to signify    as being sold unseen

[deepinthewoods]

thats what i said.

[princesspiggy]

nd let the cat out of the bag, it when u open the poke and realise u havemt bought a pig at all but a flaming cat!

[Beewyched]

nd let the cat out of the bag, it when u open the poke and realise u havemt bought a pig at all but a flaming cat!

[tizaala]

The scheme entailed the sale of a suckling pig or pup in a poke (bag). The bag would actually contain a cat or dog (not particularly prized as a source of meat), which was sold to the victim in an unopened bag. The French idiom acheter (un) chat en poche (to buy a cat in a bag) refers to an actual sale of this nature, as do many European equivalents, while the English expression refers to the appearance of the trick.^[5]
 [edit] Relation to other idioms and expressions The common English colloquial expressions such as turn out to be a pig in a poke or buy a pig in a poke mean that something is sold or bought without the buyer knowing its true nature or value, especially when buying without inspecting the item beforehand. The phrase can also be applied to accepting an idea or plan without a full understanding of its basis. Similar expressions exist in other European languages, most of them referring to the purchase of a cat in a bag, with some exceptions:
'Don't buy a pig in a poke' might seem odd and archaic language. It's true that the phrase is very old, but actually it can be taken quite literally and remains good advice.
The advice being given is 'don't buy a pig until you have seen it'. This is enshrined in British commercial law as 'caveat emptor' - Latin for 'let the buyer beware'. This remains the guiding principle of commerce in many countries and, in essence, supports the view that if you buy something you take responsibility to make sure it is what you intended to buy.
A poke is a sack or bag. It has a French origin as 'poque' and, like several other French words, its diminutive is formed by adding 'ette' or 'et' - hence 'pocket' began life with the meaning 'small bag'. Poke is still in use in several English-speaking countries, notably Scotland and the USA, and describes just the sort of bag that would be useful for carrying a piglet to market.
A pig that's in a poke might turn out to be no pig at all. If a merchant tried to cheat by substituting a lower value animal, the trick could be uncovered by letting the cat out of the bag. Many other European languages have a version of this phrase - most of them translating into English as a warning not to 'buy a cat in a bag'. The advice has stood the test of time and people have been repeating it in one form or the other for getting on for five hundred years, maybe longer.

No straw, lure them in with a bucket of food, shut doors, hose them off, then throw straw in for a dry off.

[rispainfarm]

This is what i wrote about a pig in the poke for a smallholder article last christmas


The popular saying "Don’t buy a pig in a poke?" refers to 17th century England, when it was common for customers who were looking to buy a suckling pig, to be tricked into taking home instead a cat in a sack (poke). Once home the unsuspecting customer would open the sack and see he had been cheated.

[kitchen cottage]

  I had the same dilemna at the weekend!  Tammy's were in the far paddock, Charlotte was in the foaling stable.  Charlotte  was going back up to the back paddock with her piglets (she's been drying off in the stable), so she had to get out of the stable, I needed to  clean it and the two Tams come down.
 
Fed charlotte on my front lawn, enticed the two tams down to the foaling stable with a bucket, distracted the sheep from taking an interest in the tams (they have to walk through their field) with food, charlotte then started nosing at the foaling stable and seeing that these strange boars were in it, distracted her with...... food and led her up to her babies again.
 
There were so many ways this could have gone wrong which could have led to tamworths running down the road or fighting with Charlotte..... but I must have been a good girl all year cos...... 10 minutes and some nuts and it was all accomplished..... all I have to  do  now is back the trailer far enough to feed them into on Thursday.....
 
Getting animals loaded.... each time its own adventure

[HappyHippy]

I have an old piece of carpet kept especially for loading the pigs  It's the right width for the trailer ramp and we just pull it out the way after the pigs are on, if you cover it with a bit of straw they never seem to notice the transition from concrete or grass onto the carpet as much as they do going onto the metal 
But then.........there's always one to make a liar out of you       
Karen