houdini piglets!

cathleenc · #1 10/13/11, 09:33 PM

I am embarrassed to admit that the two adorable tamworth pigs we bought from lonelyfarmgirl escaped from their pen within an hour of arrival. The piglets were weaned and castrated a week or so before we got them, healthy, and oh so cute. It was a long drive back from her farm and when we got home and got the piglets off of the trailer, in their crate, the pen at the back of the property seemed too far away and too big and too near the corn field (aka coyote playground).... I asked dh to put the piggies in the fenced in chicken run, close to the house. We popped a dog igloo in, added a bunch of straw for bedding, and put the crate with pigs in the run. The cute piglets were so deeply asleep they never moved as I patted their little red rumps goodnight and wished them a good welcome to our place.

Ever so enamored of the piglets I just had to go back out 45 minutes later to watch them sleeping..... but they were gone! absolutely disappeared, no where in sight. I awoke dh, grabbed flashlights, and spent a few hours wandering the neighborhood and woods and cornfields (we live on the fringe of the 'burbs on a 1 acre place, zoning allows animals). No luck. I was so sad....

Next morning I recruited our retired neighbor and his leashed hunting lab to see if the dog could sniff the piglets whereabouts. Yureka! The dog found the piglets in the cornfield and pushed them down to our end. I borrowed a pair of live traps, baited them, put out several bowls of water, and waited. and waited. And checked. and sighed a lot. No piglets.

No rain for 2 days, no sign of the piglets using the water... I felt awful! Poor piggies... my imagination kept imagining the worst.

Rain today - lots of it. Poor piggies! I pretty much had given up hope.

Around 4 pm tonight I went out to check on the chickens in their run - and nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard this surprisingly loud, deep noise. And another! what the heck?

Yes, the wandering piggies had let themselves BACK into the chicken pen and were warm and happy in the dog igloo! Both of them!

The pigs are now in a dog run. And we hope they stay there!

I never imagined that escaped pigs with less than an hour of living on our place would find their way back, let alone survive on their own for 3 days, let alone let themselves under a fence to get back in. Feeling very lucky! (and hoping the pigs are in their pen tomorrow).

charmd2 · #2 10/13/11, 10:42 PM

Funny. This summer we had some that figured out how to unlatch the gate and let themselves in and out. So funny. Train them here piggy or something similar when you bring food so they come running to that call. Probally saved me a time or two. Here piggles and they came running home. :-)

Menglish · #3 10/14/11, 12:14 PM

Brought home my little AGHA boar a couple of years ago. He was gone a day later. Searched all over for him and had given up hope. We have had several escapees from a high fence hog hunting operation and I figured he hooked up with them and was going wild. Later that day he came back in the yard. I nabbed him quick with a landing net on the luckiest grab you've ever seen. Slapped his but in the shelter and put up electric fence the next day...problem solved!

Mike

Mare Owner · #4 10/14/11, 06:18 PM

cathleenc, that is the funniest pig story I've heard in awhile!

Thanks for sharing and here's hoping they stay home from now on!

A few years ago my young (at the time) pot belly pig got out and I think my old farm dog must have chased it a little ways. I walked the property and rode the 4-wheeler looking for it for a few days. A couple people stopped by having seen it on the gravel road asking if I had lost a pig. Yes! But it disappeared and never could find her.

That next weekend my son in law came up to bow hunt. Late that afternoon he came back to the house and there was the missing pig! Down at the barn, trying to get back in!

SIL had been sitting in his deer stand waiting for a deer and heard grunting, thought "Oh boy that sounds like a nice buck!" Looked down under his stand and there's little pig grunting away happily eating acorns. He was so disappointed.

Climbed down from the stand and the pig followed him right back to the farmyard! I think she just got running away and lost track of what way home was.

lonelyfarmgirl · #5 10/14/11, 08:23 PM

You can imagine my devastation when I received the 'the piggys have escaped' phone call.

and my relief mirrored hers when I got the call that they had returned. I lost 2 female potbellies, one pregnant, this way years ago and never got them back.
Sounds like to me this isn't an uncommon occurance.
Do you still have them?

Mare Owner · #6 10/14/11, 11:00 PM

I still have my potbelly. She free ranges in the summer for a couple months and always comes back to the barn in the evenings.

I did lose one mature sow. She had been loose before, and I turned her out for her first free ranging day after having her litter and she never was seen again. I assume she got into the state land next to me and became someone's dinner. She knew the farm, would have come home if she could, and I searched for a week, never found anything.

boundarybunnyco · #7 10/14/11, 11:57 PM

years ago I had a potbelly pig that would break out and roam. we lived down the road from a country saloon. peanut shells on the floor, boots on the bar type of place. Opie learned to go down to the bar and mooch peanuts. I'd have to go down there with a bag of Doritos to tempt her back home. Provided a few good laughs for the patrons of the Red Dog Saloon! One lady thought she was lost, put her in the car and took her to town (7 miles) and I had to track her down to get my pig back! Then Opie got to go to school with my kindergarden kids for show and tell. She escaped and ran the length of the playground, then fainted from the heat. Animals do some crazy things!

rmrc · #8 10/15/11, 06:57 AM

Many years ago I had a big old sow who was more of a pet than a good producer. She NEVER gave me any trouble. Early one Sunday morning I got a call from the village Constable who said that my pig was in his back yard eating all of his apples. Not possible I thought, she NEVER gives me any trouble, it had to be someone elses pig . I grabbed my truck and loading ramp and headed the 3 miles down to the village, hoping to prove the local cop wrong. . There was Rosie munching away on the Constable's apples. We put down the loading ramp and she started to go into the truck when the ramp kicked and spooked the pig. I could get her to go anywhere except up the ramp, apples didn't help anymore. An hour and a half later she got tired of messing with me and decided that it was time to go back home. Soooo here I was, now about 9am, walking this darned pig back up the road with the Constable leading.....lights flashing..... and my wife following in the truck with the 4 way flashers going. Folks were now getting up and sitting on their porches watching this idiot herd a pig up the road with a police escort! We got her home and made a couple of calls. One week later she was the sausage portion of a volunteer fire hall's fundraiser breakfast!
Pigs sure are fun!!

gerold · #9 10/15/11, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mare Owner

I still have my potbelly. She free ranges in the summer for a couple months and always comes back to the barn in the evenings.

I did lose one mature sow. She had been loose before, and I turned her out for her first free ranging day after having her litter and she never was seen again. I assume she got into the state land next to me and became someone's dinner. She knew the farm, would have come home if she could, and I searched for a week, never found anything.

Have a friend 2 mi. up the valley with a Potbelly. She will come down the field about every 2 mos. Goes pass my house crosses the road and on down the valley. About 2 weeks later she comes walking back going back home. She has been doing this for 2 yrs. now. Funny to watch her. She doesn't pay any attention to anything. Just keeps her head down and keeps on walking.
My 2 stock dogs don't pay her any attention. Guess they know her by now.

cathleenc · #10 10/15/11, 12:49 PM

Yes, my pair of piglets are safely ensconced - still. They clearly got rather traumatized with their escapades and are absolutely terrified of us right now! I have yet to see them move while I am out, always really dug into hay in their igloo in their dog run pen. I do know they are there and I look into the igloo a couple of times a day plus the food and water are going down and the pen is very, very rutted up already.

Piglet story #2: we were trying to be really low key about having pigs - this is a neighborhood with nicer suburban homes, most folks have lawn services, etc. The zoning allows animals, one house down the road has chickens and a goat - but clearly growing your own vegies let alone meat is not the norm. We did not tell anyone about the piglets and set them up in a discreet spot. Other than the neighbor with the hunting dog who helped locate them the first day no one knew about them.

Not the case anymore! One of the neighbors had a bonfire/chil get together last night in their backyard and OUR piglets were the talk of the night. Seems everyone had seen the piglets in their bushes, eating from spilled bird seed, rooting in their gardens, etc. Everyone. And now they knew who to point the finger at! I think as of last night everyone was still in the 'what absolutely adorable piglets' stage and I hope they stay in that stage forever. Time will tell. These two should move to the freezer by late spring so we're hoping to stay on folks' good side.

lonelyfarmgirl · #11 10/15/11, 02:48 PM

Ah, what a way to bring the neighbors together. The piglets will come around. the ones still here wont come near me either. Maybe in the spring, inviting a few neighbors over for a brat fry wouldn't be such a bad idea to cement future positive relationships.

cathleenc · #12 10/15/11, 02:51 PM

I agree on the brat fry! that and maybe some fresh eggs?

I'm thinking I should wait awhile before asking if they'd mind if we got a rooster.

Catalytic · #13 10/15/11, 11:26 PM

When we got our pigs this summer, one of the six was still small enough to fit through the cattle panel. Hubby was trying to catch it for my friend's granddaughter to pet, and it just jumped through. Friend's son gave chase, chased it across our almost 6 acres, through the neighbor's 5 acres and then gave up. About 10 minutes later, said pig was at the back of our property again, so off went the son again...and chased that crazy piglet right back into the pen LOL.

He's too big to fit through anymore

rmrc · #14 10/16/11, 10:48 AM

Nothing like a cup of warm cider and pig stories..............