4 ms·

There's a reason we all don't all raise hogs now. A lot of my family in the Philippines have pigs in their back yard. It's not a set-and-forget affair. You lik

There's a reason we all don't all raise hogs now. A lot of my family in the Philippines have pigs in their back yard. It's not a set-and-forget affair. You like cleaning up kitty litter? Times the cleanup job by about a million, with a hose, and gumboots.

raducu 5y ago
It depends on how intensive the setup is. My grandparents had about 3 pigs, 2 cows and one horse in a common animal yard, covered in large, raised river stone, and a yard within the yard just for the pigs. The pigs also had a separate stable room for sleeping (really dirty indeed) and the cows and horse would sleep together in the same stable room (even though they had available individual rooms, I guess the horse didn't like to sleep alone). I think they cleaned the pig yard every couple of weeks; they had to clean the stables every few days and the common animal yard once per season. It was common in older days that pigs were raised in communal mountain herds, they were semi-wild, foraging in the woods, mostly on beech nuts, but they would return in the evening at a common stable/den. Anyway, cleaning wasn't the hardest part, imho, but bringing water and hay/food for the larger animals was, especially in bad weather. I find it astonishing how little "foreign" food the pigs required. It was scraps from us and special nutritious weeds from vegetable gardens. In later years people started intensively feeding the pigs and they do get higher yields/less work.
- steve_adams_86 5y ago
  Ahh yes, carrying food out for pigs was always a work out. Their pen was only 50 meters or so from our house, but the buckets of scraps and feed felt like they were 200 pounds as a kid. And there were several of them. Haha, all good memories. Pigs get so excited when the food shows up.
- igetspam 5y ago
  My pigs do a decent job of mowing parts of the back acreage. They prefer to hang near the house for shade (still need to finish building the stalls in th barn). We give them pig feed and fresh fruits/vegetables but they're purpose built eaters, so they just graze and graze. Keeping them warm in the TX freeze last year took aot of work but that was a freak incident (for now). Access to fresh water (dog pools) and lots of grassy acreage means they can pretty well take care of themselves.
iakov 5y ago
Yeah, this is a really high-maintenance animal. Besides the fact that you’d have to kill it at some point of its life for meat. I think that a goat might be a better idea. I love goat milk products, so no killing is necessary to make keeping them worthwhile. They are also cute!
- raducu 5y ago
  You also have to remove the male testicles if you want to eat their meat/if you have multiple males. My grandfather used to do it for the whole village and his only reward was the testicles themselves, which I remember were quite tasty when properly grilled :)
- igetspam 5y ago
  You don't have to kill them. They're great pets. With a decent sized yard, the mess is minimal. We periodically scoop where the kids play but that's it. My ground is more fertile for it.
steve_adams_86 5y ago
When I grew up we raised a few pigs each year until I was 14. I don’t recall the cleaning being too demanding at all, and it was done by my siblings and I after school. What I remember as a distinct challenge is the horrible experience of killing them and then butchering them. That was the worst “clean up”. Pigs are really wonderful animals when given the right treatment and environment. They’re very sweet, excitable, intelligent beings. They’re also maybe the hardest thing to catch when they inevitably escape their pens.
- dsego 5y ago
  When I was a kid we had one that loved to roll on its back and get a tummy scratch. That one had a distinct personality. We were all very sad when it was time to butcher it. Then there are all the anecdotes every year when the pig would run away and my father or uncle would chase it with the hammer or axe to knock it out. Around here all the slaughters traditionally happened in a few days in November so the whole village would be echoing with squeals. The smells were intensive, images of intestines, scalding and scraping... It was really overwhelming for me as a child. (more context on wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_slaughter#Former_Yugoslavia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_slaughter#Former_Yugoslavi...)
  - igetspam 5y ago
    Wow... It's so weird to read "we were all very sad when it was time to butcher it." I've raised three pigs. One of them passed, due to a fatal illness that was likely a genetic defect. All of them have personalities and their interpersonal engagements are fascinating. I had to put down an aggressive rooster and it had me in tears. I can't imagine how disturbing it would be to put down a pig (I still feel sad about the one who passed. she was incredible). Do you still eat pork?
    - dsego 5y ago
      I don't eat meat except for fish, but my family still does very much so. It's just not economically sound to keep the animal if you don't intend to kill it for meat. Especially for older generations here who grew up in poverty and experienced real hunger.
gadders 5y ago
Our next door neighbour (in a semi-rural area in Kent in the UK) is raising two pigs right now. They have an enclosure 10m x 10m, and they only poop in one corner. They have done a great job of turning the earth over though. We're also lucky in that our village butchers also has an abattoir round the back so they only need to be taken two miles away to be killed.

raducu 5y ago

It depends on how intensive the setup is. My grandparents had about 3 pigs, 2 cows and one horse in a common animal yard, covered in large, raised river stone, and a yard within the yard just for the pigs. The pigs also had a separate stable room for sleeping (really dirty indeed) and the cows and horse would sleep together in the same stable room (even though they had available individual rooms, I guess the horse didn't like to sleep alone). I think they cleaned the pig yard every couple of weeks; they had to clean the stables every few days and the common animal yard once per season. It was common in older days that pigs were raised in communal mountain herds, they were semi-wild, foraging in the woods, mostly on beech nuts, but they would return in the evening at a common stable/den. Anyway, cleaning wasn't the hardest part, imho, but bringing water and hay/food for the larger animals was, especially in bad weather. I find it astonishing how little "foreign" food the pigs required. It was scraps from us and special nutritious weeds from vegetable gardens. In later years people started intensively feeding the pigs and they do get higher yields/less work.

steve_adams_86 5y ago
Ahh yes, carrying food out for pigs was always a work out. Their pen was only 50 meters or so from our house, but the buckets of scraps and feed felt like they were 200 pounds as a kid. And there were several of them. Haha, all good memories. Pigs get so excited when the food shows up.
igetspam 5y ago
My pigs do a decent job of mowing parts of the back acreage. They prefer to hang near the house for shade (still need to finish building the stalls in th barn). We give them pig feed and fresh fruits/vegetables but they're purpose built eaters, so they just graze and graze. Keeping them warm in the TX freeze last year took aot of work but that was a freak incident (for now). Access to fresh water (dog pools) and lots of grassy acreage means they can pretty well take care of themselves.

iakov 5y ago

Yeah, this is a really high-maintenance animal. Besides the fact that you’d have to kill it at some point of its life for meat. I think that a goat might be a better idea. I love goat milk products, so no killing is necessary to make keeping them worthwhile. They are also cute!

raducu 5y ago
You also have to remove the male testicles if you want to eat their meat/if you have multiple males. My grandfather used to do it for the whole village and his only reward was the testicles themselves, which I remember were quite tasty when properly grilled :)
igetspam 5y ago
You don't have to kill them. They're great pets. With a decent sized yard, the mess is minimal. We periodically scoop where the kids play but that's it. My ground is more fertile for it.

steve_adams_86 5y ago

When I grew up we raised a few pigs each year until I was 14. I don’t recall the cleaning being too demanding at all, and it was done by my siblings and I after school. What I remember as a distinct challenge is the horrible experience of killing them and then butchering them. That was the worst “clean up”. Pigs are really wonderful animals when given the right treatment and environment. They’re very sweet, excitable, intelligent beings. They’re also maybe the hardest thing to catch when they inevitably escape their pens.

dsego 5y ago
When I was a kid we had one that loved to roll on its back and get a tummy scratch. That one had a distinct personality. We were all very sad when it was time to butcher it. Then there are all the anecdotes every year when the pig would run away and my father or uncle would chase it with the hammer or axe to knock it out. Around here all the slaughters traditionally happened in a few days in November so the whole village would be echoing with squeals. The smells were intensive, images of intestines, scalding and scraping... It was really overwhelming for me as a child. (more context on wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_slaughter#Former_Yugoslavia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_slaughter#Former_Yugoslavi...)
- igetspam 5y ago
  Wow... It's so weird to read "we were all very sad when it was time to butcher it." I've raised three pigs. One of them passed, due to a fatal illness that was likely a genetic defect. All of them have personalities and their interpersonal engagements are fascinating. I had to put down an aggressive rooster and it had me in tears. I can't imagine how disturbing it would be to put down a pig (I still feel sad about the one who passed. she was incredible). Do you still eat pork?
  - dsego 5y ago
    I don't eat meat except for fish, but my family still does very much so. It's just not economically sound to keep the animal if you don't intend to kill it for meat. Especially for older generations here who grew up in poverty and experienced real hunger.

gadders 5y ago

Our next door neighbour (in a semi-rural area in Kent in the UK) is raising two pigs right now. They have an enclosure 10m x 10m, and they only poop in one corner. They have done a great job of turning the earth over though. We're also lucky in that our village butchers also has an abattoir round the back so they only need to be taken two miles away to be killed.