Author Topic: How to furnish a pig palace please (Read 5468 times)

Buffy the eggs layer · « **on:** August 19, 2015, 12:06:33 pm »

Having just spent a couple of hours re positioning electric fencing, scratching bars and water buckets to give my ewes fresh grazing I was thinking how you get to know your animals over time. You learn how much water they drink, what sized holes they will get trough, how much they need to eat etc. You also acquire a reasonable amount of kit in terms of buckets, feeders, meds etc.

Having just started out with my little piggy pals I have discovered that the proper water and feed troughs are too big so Im improvising with dog bowls for meals and a litter tray for drinks. The wallow too is a sunken shallow trug tub all of which will shortly be out grown.

So before I place an order for more kit I thought that I would ask you to tell me what you consider to be the most useful piggy supplies.

HappyHippy · « **Reply #1 on:** August 19, 2015, 12:53:18 pm »

I couldn't be without my tyre bowl drinkers

They're secure and seldom tipped but lightweight enough to be easily emptied and cleaned. I bought some from supplies for Smallholders about 5 years ago and they're still going strong. Withstand big sows and boars but little piglets can still drink and have been tested with extremes of weather up here in the frozen north.
Best £12 you'll ever spend

SophieLeeds · « **Reply #2 on:** August 19, 2015, 01:58:00 pm »

The best thing we've found for drinking is nipple drinkers, but of course they're only any good if you have mains water

One of my best pig supplies is iodine, for weaners and then any scratches the pigs have incurred on their travels.

Definitely either a wallow that you can remove or fill in! Our pigs have big natural wallows that need filling in every now and then as they seem to become a popular spot for a wee after a while!

Bionic · « **Reply #3 on:** August 19, 2015, 02:45:00 pm »

My best buy is the automatic drinker. Its fed from an IBC tank that we fill with a hose about once a week.

hughesy · « **Reply #4 on:** August 19, 2015, 05:15:50 pm »

I'll second the tyre trug drinking bowls. However we have had a few torn to bits by porkers with the urge to chew. Ours eat out of traditional metal troughs when it's muddy but I feed them on the ground when it's dry.

Buffy the eggs layer · « **Reply #5 on:** August 19, 2015, 06:59:43 pm »

I I have a proper galvanised metal pig trough but its too high for them and the same for my big tyre skip bucket. I bought a small rubber tyre bucket for £7 from the feed merchants. They have only just reached a size where they can see over it.Bless!

Do you use iodine for cuts rather than Alamycin spray Sophie?

Bionic, the water and container idea sounds good.

I will need to come up with a better idea for the wallow as they get a bit bigger though by then they should have moved to their permanent spot.

SophieLeeds · « **Reply #6 on:** August 19, 2015, 08:46:37 pm »

Quote from: Buffy the eggs layer on August 19, 2015, 06:59:43 pm

I

Do you use iodine for cuts rather than Alamycin spray Sophie?

I use iodine for surface scratches & cords. Use terramycin spray (blue) if its a bit more serious (luckily not too often!). I didnt know you could get alamycin spray, i only get alamycin as an injectable from my vet

fsmnutter · « **Reply #7 on:** August 19, 2015, 08:53:02 pm »

Terramycin and alamycin spray are the same drug just a different name

nutterly_uts · « **Reply #8 on:** August 19, 2015, 08:58:26 pm »

Nothing useful to add but LOVE your ginger pig

Looks a teeny bit like a Red River Hog with those ears

Buffy the eggs layer · « **Reply #9 on:** August 19, 2015, 10:00:56 pm »

Thanks Nuts,

he is the smallest of the 3 and in a little world of his own most of the time. He reminds me of the little blond boy with the raincoat and the specs who makes the red indian sound in the film Whistle Down the wind. He is always just a little out of syc with the other two.

But they are all good boys and very well behaved. Just a bit on the tiny side....... $:-\$

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[/size][size=78%] [/size][/size]They have got the hang of the 3 separate dishes arrangement though and it has put a stop to arguments and meal time stress. [size=78%]

jward · « **Reply #10 on:** August 20, 2015, 04:19:38 pm »

I get Almaycin spray from the vet - I just call in and get one whenever I run out as I use it for horses and sheep too. It's about £7.

Tyre buckets are good, but the only way I can stop the boar (or any other cheeky (unruly) pigs from tipping is to use a corner bucket that goes in the frame fastened to the wall or fence. It's the type for horses but I just fasten the frame so the bucket is sat on the ground.

Tamsaddle · « **Reply #11 on:** August 20, 2015, 06:39:46 pm »

I loved the tyre buckets too. They were cheap, light, easy to move and clean and had so many uses. On the occasions we needed to feed the pigs separately, we would put them at the furthest ends of the plot, and Mrs. Saddleback our greediest sow would soon realise how much food guzzling time she wasted charging back and forth trying to be all places at once. They are low enough for water troughs for piglets, and double up as popular paddling pools/wallows.

greenbeast · « **Reply #12 on:** September 01, 2015, 12:21:07 pm »

We use standard double sided 130l mains fed drinking troughs, put down heavy concrete blocks for piglets/weaners (inside as well to prevent drowning). I will be moving to gravity fed as we had one day where a trough got pushed and water flowed from a kinked pipe for hours.
Keeps all equipment and pens standard, so anyone can be housed anywhere

Wallows are usually encouraged by ourselves, by wetting down a particular area.