Opinions on pig pen?

WC44

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We are looking at getting a feeder pig this spring and I'm curious about building the pen. I have read all the stuff about building pens with electric and all that, but we are wanting to build it while spending as little money as possible while still being secure. We have a grove of big pine trees that are spaced out 10-15 feet apart. We also have a wide assortment of cattle gates and heavy duty coral panels. Would it be good to use the trees as my posts and attach these gates to the trees in a fashion to make the pen? I thought about Rachett strapping the gates to the trees in a very secure way, and if the gates had a big gap between tubes on the bottom, attaching 2x4 from tree to tree at the bottom to fill the hole. In the places where it would take 2 gates to reach from tree to tree, I would put t post against where the gates overlap to secure it. Thought?
 

Latestarter

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Greetings @WC44 from the front range in Colorado. Glad you joined us and welcome to BYC. Really you can make the pen out of whatever you have available. Some folks use old pallets stood on end and run a single strand of electric. Just a couple of things to note, pigs are social animals and will do much better and be much less destructive if they have a pig companion, so you may consider two vice just one. Another thing is trees often widen out, sometimes substantially at the base. Therefore it will be very difficult to get the gates and corral panels to "seal up" correctly if you attach them to the trees. Pigs get pretty powerful, and are excellent diggers and if they sense/find a weak spot, they'll be gone in no time at all (as evidenced by the pretty bad feral hog problem we have in many places today). Good luck and let us know what you do and how it works. We all love pics too, so if you can spare a couple, that would be great!
 

WC44

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Thank for the input. I see what you mean about the trees being wider at the bottom. If I went the route of buying hog panels and t posts, would I also need hot wire along the bottom to keep them in?
 

Pamela

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We don't run any hot fencing and our pigs stay in. You want heavy posts. If you use hog panels, do not just have posts at the ends of the panels. Pigs like to root and dig and will push the bottom of a panel pretty hard if it has too much give.
 

Baymule

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We fenced in the garden area in 2"x4" horse wire, the area is 100'x70' and used no hot wire. We have 3 pigs in there and while I have to watch that they don't root under the fence, there has been no escapes. I second what @Latestarter said, a single pig is a lonely pig and will go looking for friends.

I wouldn't use the trees for posts, that almost always is a guaranteed fail. Use plenty of T-posts to make your fence strong.
 

secuono

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I would sink wood posts or heavy duty metal posts, 3 per 16ft panel, because you need one at the midway point. Sink them 3ft.

I only have smal potbellies, but they can and do wiggle out tposts when it rains and then pop out and roam wild for a day....Wet springs are the worst, a 20# pig can get tposts out before you realize it's loose.

Pigs like to have a friend, they're very social. If alone, they may be harder to keep contained, more noisy and more rowdy when you are around (only friend time it will get).

You can use the gates and auch you already have, to save a few bucks, but you still need the strong posts.
 

babsbag

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I used a 10x16 chain link dog kennel to raise my two. Then around that I used stock panel and T-post to make a pen that was about 20 x 20. The pigs never had access to the area outside of the kennel, we only did is as a safety net if they did get out. They did start to dig under but never got all the way out. Some people will put a piece of stock panel on the ground of the pen and bury it...the pigs can't dig out that way.
 

misfitmorgan

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We have field fence for our piglets because they pasture with our goats, we have thick wood posts 3 ft in the ground back filled with rocks and clay. We had to put a hot wire at the bottom of the fence area about 6inches up because the goats and pigs would work a spot until it was low enough to squeeze out and roam the neighborhood.
 

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Greetings @misfitmorgan from the front range in Colorado :frow Welcome to BYH! Looks like you've got all the bases covered with the most popular critters! We have some really active folks here with all of them. Good people too! I'm sure more will be along to say hi. If you have some pics to share, we'd all love to see them so we can oooohhhh and ahhhh over them. Anyway, glad you made it! Look forward to reading your posts.
 

misfitmorgan

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Thank you @Latestarter

We have a lot of critters. Chickens, ducks, guineas, quail, pheasant, rabbits, pigs, goats, sheep, a horse and our dogs. The only pictures i have right now that are at all recent are a few on the farm blog in my signature line. i did take new pictures yesterday for the blog but they are not up yet. i will post some here maybe later today i i get some time but the pics are all in the barn because the outside weather isnt really ideal right now.
 
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