Pigs turn 4 months!!!

Pigs 4 months old, picture is deceiving, the boy is not really that small compared to the girl.

This past weekend on Sunday the pigs turned 4 months old.  Jamie went ahead and tape measured them for their weight.  I didn't even try this time because they are starting to get big and a little intimidating even though the pigs don't realize it.

The girl pig is very friendly and loves to be patted. She loves to run over to you for her pats and of course her brother follows right along. Both pigs like to jump up at the pen opening when it is feeding time because they get so excited for food.  One day the pigs pushed their food bowl too far out for me to pull in with the shovel, so I had to go in and get it.  As I said the pigs love to jump up so Jamie nailed a board across the opening that measures knee high on my legs.  Well I climbed up on the board and waited until I could jump over the pigs.  I jumped, then ran and picked up the food dish before the pigs could get near my hands.  I then had to run around a bit to get the pigs to follow me so they could get away from the door of the pen so I could run over and jump up onto the board to get out.

I know that I looked absolutely ridiculous but honestly it was kinda fun.  I was quite proud of myself for getting the bowl out without the pigs getting me or slipping in the mud.

Girl pig

Boy pig

They are both eating really well, now that they have turned 4 months old they are eating 4lbs of pig feed and oats 2 times a day.  Rule of thumb is to feed your pigs 1lb of food per month of age per pig.  So if you have a pig that is 2 months old it should get 2 lbs of food per day.  Since our pigs are 4 months they eat 8lbs of food since there is two of them per day.  I just split it up into two feedings.  They also are getting the rest of the pears we stored from our pear trees and any leftovers we can find for them.  They still get milk every now and then but not often since Priscilla is slowing down with her milk production and will begin being dried off for her new babies that we are expecting.

The pigs also love to burrow in the hay.  It is actually great since we really don't have any waste.  We shake out about a 1/2 bale of hay for them to sleep and burrow in to keep warm.  Once that hay has been ground into little pieces from the pigs using it so much we use it to put in the corner where they go the bathroom.  YES, pigs usually go the bathroom in one area which is great for cleanup.  Every few days their "bathroom" area is cleaned and put into the compost pile which then in turn will be tilled into our garden come spring to help all the veggies grow.  This in my mind is a true way to farm,  using what you have and having as little waste as possible.

Pigs, 4 months old

The pigs have grown well in the last month.  The girl now weighs 120lbs, with a gain of 48lbs and the boy weighs 101lbs, with a gain of 46lbs.  Like I said before we need for them to weigh around 230lbs to 250lbs for them to be ready to be butchered.  We are hoping to have them ready around February.  We may just not have both of them done at the same time if the boy doesn't catch up to the girl with his weight over the next few months. We will just have to wait and see.

Check back next month to see how much bigger they have gotten.

Girl pig for her close up

Boy pig coming to say hello