Monday, April 18, 2011

Encouraging the pigs to roam

So. Stupid pigs are on somewhere around 1/3 of an acre. We figured a nice big pen instead of a little muddy pen was better. Well, piggies prefer to hang out around their hut, thrashing the ground into pig poop slurry. So, we started moving their food tubs farther away every time we fed them. Helped a bit. Finally, we started locking them out of their house during the day. Helped a LOT! They have a huge pen full of trees and logs and ferns and good forest duff. No reason to be huddled like little scaredy cats in the pig hut. We made a little more progress when we started chopping up pears and apples and chucking them in the bushes. Still, they weren't quite exploring like we had envisioned. And suddenly, brilliant idea. LJ : "Bet those pigs would like molasses." Me: "Pretty sure I saw a jug of molasses when I reorganized the pantry this morning..." Score!

So, jug of molasses in hand, I tramped through the woods, dribbling stinky sugary goodness along my trail. Oooooooh buddy! Piggies LOVE molasses. :)

The pigs spent all day yesterday tromping through the woods, rooting away. They munched on blackberry and other roots, and seemed to have found a few squirrel stashes. At first I thought they were chewing on rocks. Nope, hazelnuts (and maybe some rocks). They made a couple different beds out under the trees, and even after we opened their hut back up, remained out in the brambles and ferns.

Spot, the runt that freaked out and screamed if a human came anywhere near him, is now the most friendly of the bunch. He will take pear slices from my hand, and leads the pack running in when we call "hey pigpig!" (aka, come eat). Progress is definitely being made, both at taming the crazy pigs, and at turning them into efficient rototillers. Woohoo!

Goslings are a month old, and getting huge. The two large Toulouse (Sweet Boy and Sweet Girl) have their breast feathers, tail feathers, shoulders, and their wing quills are starting to feather. Little Girl and Afro are a bit behind. We can't wait until Afro gets her head feathers, so we can see if she has an afro with adult feathers as well as baby fluff. Afro was the suicidal girl (aka Stupid) and is very sweet (to people). She's the only one that doesn't squawk and thrash when I pick her up. She's a terror when it comes to the other geese, but only when they're in the tub. Pulling out feathers, mostly. Soooo, the babies spent most of the day yesterday outside. If they saw us walk by, they'd shriek and try to follow us, but after about 5 min would calm and start grazing.

This post is getting a bit long. I leave you with a pic of Sweet Boy and Baby Girl (aka Micro, Little Girl, Runty). Happy Monday!



8 comments:

Miriam said...

The geese are beautiful! What a classic pose. And the pigs are coming along, it seems, thanks to your cleverness and patience. Not sure how I'd deal with a screaming pig myself...

Paula said...

I am going to have to come down and check out your menagerie.

Pigs like booze too. I read somewhere that Joel Salatin buries corn in the cow barn in the winter so that it will ferment in the cow poop, and then in the spring after he turns the cows out to pasture he sets the pigs on the cow barn and they turn everything over rooting around for alcoholic fermented corn. Then he tractors the barn's contents out to where he needs it.

Not that I'm suggesting you buy your pigs a drink, or anything.

You can buy me one, though! I was born in the year of the boar. Does that help?

Rae said...

Miriam, a pig squealing bloody murder is second only to nails on a blackboard. :)

Paula, you'll definitely have to come out soon. Perhaps beginning of May? You'll love the geese, and maybe the pigs will be friendly enough to pet by then. Not betting on it, but they do seem to be coming around. :)

robin said...

We had that exact same problem as you. Our pigs had this nice space to roam in but nooooooo they wanted to spend their days mucking around in their pen or sleeping. We tried using different treats to tempt them out. Once the goodies were gone though off they went back to their pig hut. Towards the end of their stay at our place they did roam a lot more. I will have to remember the molasses trick for next time.

When our piggies chewed on hazel nuts I always thought it sounded like they were breaking their teeth out. lol

Rae said...

Robin, that's too funny. We were trying to figure out why the stupid animals were chewing on rocks. Lol.

ILoveMyDogandMy Music said...

Very entertaining read..What a menagerie..

Rae said...

Lol. They're entertaining animals. I find myself watching a lot less tv, instead sitting outside and watching the doings of the critters. Too much fun!

Lana from Farm Life Lessons said...

I had not realized that pigs were such home-bodies!! Thanks for sharing...