Pig Trap
Once in a while pigs will wander outside the fenced area. A tree falls on the wires or something else makes the fencing non-obvious and a few may mosey out. Then they want to return home and find much to their consternation that their way is blocked by the fence. They’ll walk along the fence looking for a way in. If they can’t find it they’ll sleep along the outside of the fence until the dogs or I bring them back in.
The above funnel, or pig trap, utilizes this behavior of looking along the fence for a way in. Pigs inside the fence don’t go out but pigs outside will come in. Note that there is hot wire which isn’t visible in the photo. The hot wire is near the ground on the inside of the fence where I am standing to take the photo. This keeps pigs from inside from exploring out through the narrow end of the funnel should they happen upon it.
Another pig trap I made in a different place was a one way door. Pigs could push it open to go through into an area but couldn’t open it to go back. That also worked very well. By setting the posts of the door to a specific width this is a good way of automatically sorting larger pigs from smaller pigs out in the field. It works best if one sets the door completely open for a while and feeds the little pigs within the creep area.
Pig traps extremely effective. There are much fancier versions – mine’s rather simplistic. They work. If the government really wanted to get rid of the feral pigs they would make it open season on them year round and offer a bounty on ears. This sort of policy has been very effective at killing off species and people’s that the government wanted to get rid of in the past. The fact that they do not do this says they’re not serious about getting rid of the feral pigs and it is not a big problem.
We’ve had a lot of rain this summer, more than usual. It has flooded our gardens but interestingly today I discovered some volunteer tomatoes, ones that had gone wild, which were doing most excellently up on the hill by the driveway. I suspect they liked the slope which stayed a bit drier this year. They are in among the granite stone pile which probably helped them compete with the grasses.
Also see:
Pigs Fixing Fences
More Fencing
Fence Lines 2
Fencing
Poultry Netting for Pigs
Moving Pigs With Fence Panels
Calibrating Pain
Dumb Pig, Smart Pig
Pig Trap
Fence Jumpers
Outdoors: 63°F/55°F Sun & Rain 5″
Farm House: 73°F/70°F
Tiny Cottage: 64°F/63°F
Walter Jeffries Tinker, Tailor… A bit eclectic & a tad eccentric, polymath, quantum mechanic & Farmer. Also lucky at cards.
I have often thought about trying a funnel for chickens. But I think they are too motivated to get out for a funnel. This year we used some plastic snow fence hung on our high tension electric fence to keep the chickens out of the occupied goat pens. It works pretty good. But I noticed a funny thing, when the bottom of the fence is suspended just off the ground, a chicken trying to get through the fence will run at it, throusting it’s neck through the holes until it pushes under. The funny thing was when the chicken is properly motivated (Say a playful dog behind) the chicken sticks it’s head through, shoulders lodge in the fence, fence swings, chicken is lifted off it’s feet and does a summer sault to the other side of the fence. Maybe it’s a one way chicken door if properly fashioned. I am not sure I want to teach the chickens to go under the fence, though….. those tricky chickens.
mmp
Aye, I’ve seen chickens, and piglets, do the backflip you describe. I have found the funnels to work well for chickens too. For both chickens and piglets another trick is leaving the bottom edge of the netting up just a little bit and they’ll scoot back in. Have a hot wire off set inside so they don’t tend to investigate that area when inside.
On your top photos, once the escaped pig finds the pig trap entrance and walks through it, aren’t they trapped between the net fence and the hot wire?
No, because of the whey pig physiology and psychology interact they walk past and under the hot wire on the way in, get zapped and shoot forward. Once in they are extremely unlikely to walk back out that same spot due to the shape.
Texas has open season on feral hogs, no limits on means or methods and some counties are paying a bounty of as much as $10 per tail. We still have a few million feral hogs and they do significant damage to crops and land. You guys in the northern stayed with true wimters and bear populations don’t really understand the true extent of the feral hog problem or how difficult it is to control. I make most of my income contributing to their demise and we’re not even making a dent. The fact that I can support myself building hog traps is an indication of just how bad the problem really is.
Oh, I understand and appreciate the issue. I’m glad for our winter in many ways. It kills alligators, most deadly snakes, insects and nasty politicians. Feral pigs go in there too.