A Pig Question

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Ask away. I am sure someone would know the answer even though some of us are closer to that turning point than others.
 
So during farrowing, if one had say 20-40 hogs, how would they manage the herd? Assuming they had a barn, would they have kept the sow and litter up for a few days then turn them all out? Leave them all out to pasture during farrowing (can't image)? I know now they keep the sow apart from the piglets so she doesn't crush them, but am curious as to the way it was done in the past???
 
We never separated the sows from the piglets. Yeah we lost a piglet occasionally, but we kept the sow and piglets seperate from all the herd in a barn stall, large stall.
At least till the piglets showed healthy and strong. Maybe 2-3 weeks.

That's how we raised hogs.

Jim
 
I've never raised hogs myself. But historically I've read the old farmers in the mountains let theirs run loose in the woods, start feeding and gather them up in the fall in time for killing once weather got cold enough.
Oh, I’m all good with the killin’ and eatin’ part😁. We raised some butcher hogs when I was little, and Dad would hunt wild hogs at times. Wild hog is delicious.
Thanks Joel, Jim and ?Cascadian? 😂
 
You might check out the BBC series that Ruth, Peter, and Alex do...living for a year reenacting a homestead in various eras/locations. Somewhere in there might be ~1900. you can find all the series on Youtube...Wartime Faem. Elizabethan Farm, Victorian Farm, etc.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top