Free's 2011 pig project....free food from now on!!!!

freemotion

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I answered an ad on craigslist yesterday for free bread. We got six garbage bags full, maybe 250-300 lbs, and tossed it all into the pig pasture. I was happy to note that the pigs were not all that hungry. I've reduced the amount of the cans of prepper stuff I'm giving them to make it last....I've been adding in some ground corn to keep it going and now I won't buy more corn as long as I can get the bread.

It took me and my dad two hours to get to the wholesale distributor, gather the bread, get it home, open the bags onto a big grain scoop shovel and toss it over the fence. It was a half hour drive each way, but the savings in grain made it well worth it. Next time we hope to get more in one trip. This is an experiment so I'm anxious to see how this bread lasts....it was starting to get a bit moldy and we really had to sort through it. We flung it out across the pasture in hopes that the sun would dry what they don't eat and keep the mold at bay.

The company had a pig farmer picking up everything and he suddenly stopped, so it was sitting in the warehouse for a few days (including over the weekend) while they scrambled for a new way to get rid of it for free. The lady was nice and told me on the phone that is was going moldy before I drove out there. I'm hoping that it will be fresher when I go next time. We had to dig through a lot of pallets to find some that was still good. I also wanted to check out the neighborhood to see if it was safe enough for me to go by myself. The city where it was located has a lot of gang activity. It was rather hot out and early afternoon when we went, so it was hard to tell, but it was in a pretty open area so I think it will be ok.

Free bacon! :drool
 

Avalon1984

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Farmfresh said:
My best friend when I was growing up had an unusual water tank for her horse. It was an old cast iron bathtub! Her dad had the drain fixed to a plumbing pipe with a regular water shut off on it. I often thought that one of those partially buried with the drain piped to a wallow area would be a great water tub for pigs. :p
I can second that. We use the old bathtubs for all of our horses. You can build simple framework to keep them upright with some 2x4's and bolts! good luck!
 

miss_thenorth

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I don;'t know ifyou posted this info, but I was just curious about the dimensions of your pig hut. I realize you built yours for 4, and we are only planning on two, but hubby is curious on the dimensions, and fo you have a clear pic of it? We need to start builidng one soon.
 

freemotion

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ohiofarmgirl

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that is so deluxe! whooot!

MTN - i literally whacked together 3 pallets and hillbillied up a roof made out of shingles that i dug out of the ground behind the shed. they really dont need anything fancy.

:)
 

TanksHill

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hey I have a question. I was reading OFG's blog on pigs. And she mentioned the pigs would dig to China or something like that. Anyways how deep do the really dig? Would having them on top of my leach field be an issue. The lines are abou 3 feet down.

Just wondering.

g

Oh, one more thing. I linked back to that Pig Paradise website and was looking at pics. In one they have an old sink, looks to be enamel over cast iron sunk into the ground for water. Seems a very good way to keep them from turning it over. But wouldn't the pig fall in??
 

Bubblingbrooks

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TanksHill said:
hey I have a question. I was reading OFG's blog on pigs. And she mentioned the pigs would dig to China or something like that. Anyways how deep do the really dig? Would having them on top of my leach field be an issue. The lines are abou 3 feet down.

Just wondering.

g

Oh, one more thing. I linked back to that Pig Paradise website and was looking at pics. In one they have an old sink, looks to be enamel over cast iron sunk into the ground for water. Seems a very good way to keep them from turning it over. But wouldn't the pig fall in??
Yikes! I would advise not putting them on your leach field. Your pigs could end up being very expensive!
 
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