I’ve never raised hogs before, but due to hard times, I’ve decided to raise a few. I just picked up 4 piglets yesterday, and they’re in a 12’x12’ barnyard that I built for them. One third of the barnyard has a roof, so they can get in out of the sun.
The piglets have never been outside before, and are very light skinned. Do I have to worry about them getting sunburned, or will they likely stay undercover during the heat of the day? (It’s supposed to get to 71F today) Can I use sunscreen on them if they start to burn? Will they tan like we do, then be ok in the sun?
“Will they tan?”
“Nope.”
“Will they burn?”
“Yup.”
“Can I use sunscreen on them?”
“No idea, but since ‘hog sunscreen’ doesn’t turn up anything, it’s apparently not your first-choice mainstream technique.”
You’re welcome.
P.S. Make sure the roof offers useful shade during all parts of the day, not just at high noon, since you actually burn worst between 1 and 3 pm. And remember that the sun’s angle is going to change as the summer goes on, so what’s shady in April might not still be shady in July.
P.P.S. Don’t name them. Or else you’re never going to be able to eat them.
Yes! They burn and it looks horrible. I’ve seen it in show pigs who cuddle up too close to their heat lamps overnight. And they’ll do it over and over.
I’ve seen people use sunscreen on their pigs before, but I can’t testify as to its effectiveness. The cheaper and easier solution is to just give them shade. And lots of clean water, preferably by a nipple water line. Pigs love to play in water and will happily over turn buckets.
In his works where he talks about the pig-eating taboo (Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches, Good to Eat, The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig, etc.), anthropologist Marvin Harris points out that pigs can’t sweat, and consequently suffer sunstroke if they can’t cool down. This is the reason pigs wallow. They use mud, he claims, rather than water, because it’s more efficient (and they’re use urine and feces if they can’t get clean mud, hence the pig’s poor barnyard reputation). That always bothered me, because you’d expect flowing water to be better than mud.
But maybe part of the explanation is that mud blocks sunlight, preventing suburn as well, and shallow water doesn’t. In any event, pigs need to stay out of intense direct sunlight for other reasons that sunburn, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they were vulnerable to sunburn as well as sunstroke.
I guess I need to get to work on the pasture I’m fencing in for them so that they’ll have a good muddy spot to wallow in. I should be able to get the fence finished within a few days. They’re rooting up the soil in the barnyard, but it’s not muddy enough to do them much good yet. I made their watering trough out of concrete, so they couldn’t turn it over. Should I wet down a corner of the barnyard for now?
They’re staying in the shade on their own for now. They have shade from about 9:30 on, so hopefully they’ll be ok.
The concrete water trough is a good idea. You might have problems disinfecting it if something catching gets into the water supply, but shouldn’t be a big issue for a backyard situation.
With a max temp of 71, they’ll likely be ok with just shade. Much over 80, and yeah, they’ll likely need mud. And you should modify their shelter so they have shade for as many hours of the day as possible.
Probably you’ll just have to add water and they’ll make the mud for you.
And universities in areas that have a lot of pig production, like Iowa, often have publications and knowledgeable people on staff who focus just on helping folks like you.
Thanks everyone. The links were very helpful. I’ve got the Storey’s guide and another one, but they don’t mention sunburn. I tried to be as prepared as possible, but I didn’t even think about sunburns until this morning. I figured it wasn’t a big deal not to have the fence ready, as I wanted to keep them in the barnyard for a few days to get used to it. They’ve been sleeping in the shade most of the day. I will add a wall to their shelter so that they can get shade any time.
They should be fine once I get the fence up, as they will have several spots that they can build wallows.
Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind for future years. Since this is my first time, and I got pick of the litter, I decided to keep it simple and get all females. The girls made it through their first day at their new home just fine!
Are they honestly eating pigs? Because if you’re keeping them as pets, you’ll want to get the females spayed. The smell of a female in heat will bring wild boars out of the hills for miles.
They’re definitely destined for the freezer in 5 or 6 months. I will never have another animal that doesn’t work for me or I can’t eat!
How old are they when they first go into heat? No worries about the wild boars anyway - I’ve never heard of them this far north. I doubt they could survive -20F winters, but I’ve been wrong before.
I’ve also got 40 Cornish Rock meat birds arriving this weekend, and a garden to plant. I’m glad the chicks need to be in brooders for a while - I don’t have a pen for them set up yet. I’ve been waiting impatiently for spring to come, now I just wish I could have a day too wet to work outside so I could have an excuse to take a break!
IIRC, puberty in pigs is at about 6 months. So you should be safe.
This website, The Pig Site, probably has more information than you would ever want on pig rearing. I love their poultry site.
Wow, 40 cornish hens, eh? That’s a lot of eating. If you’re planning on keeping some for breeding, get in touch with your local poultry vet. The meat breeds require strict nutritional limitation if you want them to not be too muscley for their skeletons and hearts by the time they are 6 months old.
Thanks - I’ve added both the pig site and the poultry site to my bookmarks for future reference. They look very usefull.
I’m not planning to keep any of the hens for breeding, as I don’t have a good spot to keep them alive through the winters (yet). I’m doing 40 because I’ve got family helping me on butchering day in exchange for some birds.
Give them mud.
