The Gahagan Family Farm: Poopy pig pen

When we first moved into the farm, we almost immediately got chickens. Not long after, we got our first goat, Bella. She was pretty much a pain in the butt, so we decided it would be a good idea to get her a friend (duh)! We got a female alpine mix for Bella as a companion. You guessed it, now we had double trouble! They were very energetic and difficult to pen up and into everything! We decided perhaps we aren't goat people. Lets try our hand at pigs.
I was able to find someone willing to trade two pigs for two goats. Whew!
To our relief, they are much easier to care for :)

Pigs are actually quite sanitary, they will only go potty in one corner. They choose the lowest corner of their pen to do so therefore they have no rundown into their sleeping area. They are nesting animals. The corner or area they choose to sleep in stays dry, they will actually make a little nest and snuggle and cover right up under the broken up straw and hay. As they get bigger though, their manure builds up fast. They also love tipping over their water, so at least a couple gallons of that goes on the floor daily. The sty needs to be cleaned at least once a week. We set about that task this evening. Once hubby Jack had shoveled out the muck ( poo, pee and straw), it was time to replace it. Just outside the back of the big barn there is a bunch of old tall grass lying down from the past years. This area hasn't been used in at least 15 years. It was easy to pick up, and pretty dry, so I thought I would use that for the pigs' potty corner instead of straw since we actually pay for that. As soon as i dumped the first load in their sty, they freaked! If you've never seen a pig do a happy dance, you really should. They went nuts over the stuff. I kept adding old grass, weeds, grape vines, small sticks etc.
I realized that this is what pigs were meant to have and enjoy. Not the cement stall with straw. I can't wait to get them moved out to the pig barn and pasture next week and watch them enjoy nature as they were meant to :)