2 pigs in fenced garden area

[Woodroe]

I am putting two 12 week old hampshire cross females into my fenced(field fencing) garden area. It's about 30' by 40' in size. Any suggestions to add to my success with this venture. Does that sound like enough space? Also how much shelter will they require. zone 7 weather.

[TSYORK]

I would recommend a hot wire around the inside perimeter of the lot; it will discourage them in getting out.

[FreeRanger]

Second the hot wire....

build a simple hoop house shelter out of cattle pannel covered with a tarp.

[Handyman]

Hot wire on the inside of your fence.

Either get insulators to go on your posts or buy plastic step-in posts for the inside of you fence. Then string up some poly wire. One strand will do it. Once they get "smart", you can just use the single hot wire and rotate them around as you wish.

Hoop houses are nice.

[highlands]

Definitely hot fence as well as physical fence. I would suggest dividing the area into four paddocks. Little paddocks. Rotate them through the paddocks, changing once a week. Put the house in the middle ideally. This will help minimize soil compaction. Plant behind them with something fast growing they can eat. It is a small space, they'll over graze it but it's a garden. They'll fertilize it. Turn it over. This is good. Follow them with chickens. They'll smooth (disk), fertilize, debug and weed the soil. In the spring plant above ground crops like broccoli, pumpkins, corn, etc that will love the fertility.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

[Woodroe]

Good advice folks, thank you.

[Woodroe]

I have had the pigs for a few days now and kept them in a 12x12 stall until today. Turned them out into the garden area and they are having a blast rooting and eating grubs, lettuce and a few veggie plants still going. Also took the great advice and made a hoop house cover with the cattle panel. Nice, can't wait until feb or so when freezer time comes.

thanks

[Mainelyhappy]

Could someone share a photo of your hoop house?
Thanks in advance,

Daryl in Maine

[karenbrat1]

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2009/03...e-sow-hut.html A small and very portable hoop.

http://www.plamondon.com/hoop-coop.html Near the bottom of the page is a link to a more plan-like picture of this hoop coop, with measurements. I really like these (I built two for chickens) because you can walk into them without stooping over. High winds have not yet been able to overturn them, and heavy snow loads (like 3' overnight) bow them down but they spring right back up once the snow is removed. Measure your cattle panels exactly to make sure the side boards are long enough to accomodate them -- the pic says 104" for two 52" panels, but the panels I get are actually 52-1/2" with the wire stubs sticking out the ends -- also, you need to allow enough room beyond the panel ends to attach the front and back rails.

If you don't need it portable, you can skip the frame and just stake your bent panels to tee posts.

[highlands]

Originally Posted by Mainelyhappy

Could someone share a photo of your hoop house?

Here are some of ours:

http://hollygraphicart.com/misc/wirehoopcoop.html
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2006/01...om-how-to.html
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2005/12...-hen-coop.html
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2009/02...cken-coop.html
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2009/03...oop-house.html
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2006/01...l-housing.html
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2009/03...e-sow-hut.html
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2009/06...e-step_26.html

Cheers,

-Walter

[Mainelyhappy]

A thousand thank you!
Daryl in Maine