On Monday as Queenpup and I were driving through Arvin, we saw a field where the watermelons were being disced under.
Of course, my eyes lit up at the possibility of free pig food. :lol: I stopped and spoke to a nice man named Tom who was welding some pipe, and he gave me permission to gather some.
There were a LOT of melons in the field, but I didn't want to be greedy and take too many since I figure they enrich the soil once disced under. I still have enough to spoil my little piggies for quite some time though!
Rabbitdog":24a22hxn said:
They are gentle, calm and easy on the land. They also had an absolutely faithful respect for the electric wire.
We don't have electric fence, so I am hoping that they will be content to range around within our fence line. I intend to feed them delectable piggy slop at least twice daily so hopefully they wont want to wander very far.
Rabbitdog":24a22hxn said:
The only reason that I didn't keep raising AGHs was because they seemed to have a pretty low yield of actual meat.
What age did you butcher? I am on a GH group on FB and most seem to wait until they are around two. Once I am actually breeding them, I plan on doing as GBov does and butchering some as suckling pigs and others at around 6-8 months, as well as growing some to the two year mark.
Rabbitdog":24a22hxn said:
Back in the early 20th century, organized crime rings used to have arrangements with hog farms. When they would have a body that needed to disappear, they would contact their hog farmer and tell him to not be home on Friday night. This was a signal to the hog farmer to starve the hogs for a few days. Then, they would dump a body in the hog lot on Friday night and by morning, the 800 pound hogs would have devoured everything ... bones, shoes, even leather belts! Better than composting! :twisted:
I have heard about that, but not the part about starving the hogs for a couple of days. I will keep that in mind if I ever plan on murdering someone. :twisted:
Considering that my piggies make a high pitched squeal when they feel they haven't gotten fed adequately, I shudder to think of the noise at the hog farm on the days without feed. :x
wamplercathy":24a22hxn said:
I'm not condoning feeding corps to pigs. But if your going to do it, don't do half measures! :mrgreen:
:lol: :lol:
:lol:
Rabbitdog":24a22hxn said:
You might want to visit a 1000 pound hog up close. He could step on a human head and crush it.
:x ...and this is why I have little pigs. Supposedly they max out around 300lbs. Which is still big- but not quite as alarming as a commercial hog.
GBov":24a22hxn said:
I fed all my butcher waste to my PBPs when they lived at home with me and it all went away and turns into pork. BUT!!! I found it was mostly the boys eating it!
Hmm. I butchered a dozen rabbits on Saturday and gave the guts to the pigs. They were not terribly enthusiastic about it, but did eventually eat it. I will have to watch them more closely next time and see if my boys prefer it.
GBov":24a22hxn said:
Guinea hogs sure are cute but, to be honest, if you hadnt told me they were Guineas, I would have sworn they were PBPs!
:lol:
For all I know, they could be, lol. Although no-one on the GH page has said that they
aren't Guinea hogs. But yeah... they just look like little pigs to me too. :roll:
