[eurosteve]

Hi

we have 2 pot bellied pigs around 6 months old now so still growing and eating well ! they live outside in a small area near the house in the shelter / shade of some trees.

but i am unsure what to do around xmas / jan time when temperatures get down to minus lots ............

any experienced owners able to help

Thanks

Steve

[MAK]

I presume that they have an outside shelter. If you have an ark then I would just keep chucking more straw in it. You can reduce the internal volume of the shelter whilst they build a deep and insulting bed beneath them - even if they dirty their straw. You could always throw an old carpet over the roof.
 Cattle in the next field to us are already standing on their raft of straw around their hay feed. This raft will start to give of heat soon as their waste starts the "manure" process.The raft is added to frequently.
Pigs are pretty hardy. Ours did not like the snow last year and  they stayed inside despite the open doort. We had -20 and more for a 3 week period and my main concern was drinking water ( it froze within 15 mins).
Not sure where you live but maybe others can offer more suggestions about keeping pigs outdoors in the cold.
Hope all goes well.
Martin

[Fowgill Farm]

Like all pigs so long as they have plenty of good clean deep bedded dry straw in their ark they will be fine, they have a good insulating layer of fat. If they look like they're losing ground you could up their feed a little to compensate for the fat they burn to keep warm. Make them a straw doormat outside their ark that way they wipe their feet before going in the ark and you could give them a sacking door which could be put down at night to keep draughts lower but make sure there is still air flow thro the ark as stagnant air is rife for pneumonia bugs.
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb220/fowgillfarm/Image094.jpg
http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb220/fowgillfarm/018_16.jpg
hth
mandy

[nelson]

  We are in SW France and go down to minus 15 - our pigs live outside. They love the deep bedding and we provide straw outside and a carpet door - which we open in the mornings.  BTW Mandy love the fencing    MAK is right about the drinking water have a sledge hammer ready.

[Fowgill Farm]

   BTW Mandy love the fencing     

Its ok for weaners/fattners but the big pigs just chuck it about, have found it very useful for making portable paddocks, even had them on my best lawn one year as ground was so bad! We were woke up in the night by a strange noise and it turned out to be a pig rubbing its bum on a drainpipe that ran down past our bedroom window! They used to like watching the telly thro the front room window too
mandy

[Alastair]

Spend any time in a confined area with pigs and you know that they produce heat like little radiators. Our LB sow recently farrowed and even though it was cold outside it was toasty in the ark.
So the important thing, as most everyone has said, is to insulate their ark/house. Plenty of straw is the best thing. The only down side to that, especially with younger pigs, is they don't always want to go outside when it's cold and dark to relieve themselves. Pigs are generally clean but what's clean to one pig may not be to another. Our litter of 6 piglets are coming up on 6 weeks old and I'm having to muck out the ark every morning which means we are going through straw like no bodies business. Fortunately they are controlled enough to sleep on one side of the ark and use the other half as a toilet and mum will always step outside for that.
We went on freecycle/freegle and got some old carpet. A large piece covers the ark with a couple of pallets holding it down and stopping the pigs from chewing it to pieces - it can't taste nice but they seem magnetically attracted to it 
The other thing we've done, which I think is worth the effort, is to put two stacks of pallets either side of the ark door with a piece of old corrugated iron (weighed down) over the top of them to form a decent sized porch. It acts as a wind break and gives them a space to sit and watch the rain Another smaller bit of carpet hung up also acts to stop the wind taking all the heat out of the ark.
Hope that gives you a few ideas.

[eurosteve]

  hi we are also in SW France dept 47

Thanks for all the good advice - so pleased i dont have to start finding an indoor location for them and moving them  as they are v v happy amongst the trees have plenty space to root around and so on , fenced in and electrified so they cant destroy the garden .


Steve