Walking Pig Fence
Usually we herd pigs with sorting pens but once in a while it is easier to move them by wrapping a section of fencing in a circle and just walking the pig along. This is due to a pig being uncooperative. Most pigs herd quite well but once in a while there is one that is too skitterish.
This method does not work very well on rough ground and is not good out in the pastures but along the driveway the pig in a fence technique goes smoothly.
Releasing Pig
Once we got the pig to it’s destination, the loading pen, we simply set the openable section of the fence to the door and opened both. The pig then walked in nice as can be.
Outdoors: 64°F/59°F Sunny
Tiny Cottage: 66°F/63°F
Daily Spark: I only have one tattoo. It is a single dot. In the middle of my chest. It is the most minimal tattoo you can have and still have a tattoo. The way I got it was I was working on a drawing in art class and the teacher stumbled into me swinging my arm around so that I stabbed myself with the ink pen. Just one dot. Very fashionable.
Walter Jeffries Tinker, Tailor… A bit eclectic & a tad eccentric, polymath, quantum mechanic & Farmer. Also lucky at cards.
re: Daily Spark
I have one like that on my knee that’s been there as long as I can remember. I can’t even remember the incident but I must have fallen on a pen or somehow poked it into my skin when I was very young.
I thought the traditional method of moving a pig was to cover its eyes with a bushel basket and then walk it backwards to its destination.
There are many ways to move a pig. I’ve done that one too but it doesn’t work as well.
We have, on occasion, tried the bucket on the head trick. Not a method of choice. From the description in the lore, you would think that it gives you a calm pig that steps nicely backwards, but this is not so. They will tend to move backwards when blinded, but they are also thrashing and trying to get their head out of the bucket. It upsets them.
Our focus when moving pigs is to keep everything as calm as possible. To move and use sound in response to what the pig is doing. Herding them by creating the most inviting, open path the direction that we would like them to move. Blocking the “wrong” way with our “sorting board” wall and “huffing” sounds. Inviting them in the “right” direction with motivation (a bread trail) and a nice open path as well as the call in “Heeere Piiig-pig-pig!” which means food to them. The proper set-up is key. If for some reason the set up is not good or the pig is particularly contrary, we may try the bucket method, briefly, to get through a tricky spot, but this is rare.