How To Build a DIY Pig Pen – Ideas, Materials, and Key Considerations - Survive The Wild (2024)

FAQs

What do you need to build a pig pen? ›

If you are building a new pig pen rather than using an existing one, be sure the pen is at least three feet high. This height is tall enough to keep your pigs in as they grow. Galvanized mesh panels are ideal for pig pens, but wood or other fence options will also work.

Step 2: Fencing

While expensive, they last forever and your pigs will not be able to bust through them. To build the pen, we place a treated post in the ground on each end of the hog panel, tack it in with barbed staples, and then place a 6ft t-post every four feet or so along the paneling for re-enforcement.

The pig house walls should be made of solid materials to restrain pigs and ensure protection, and the materials that can be used are mud, wood, bamboo sticks, stones and cement blocks, etc. At the same time, the wall should be smooth enough.

You'll need to give your pigs warm, dry, draught-free, straw-bedded housing, as they easily get cold. Make sure it's well ventilated, and give them enough room to make separate areas for dunging, exploring and sleeping.

To grow efficiently, pigs need access to feed and water 24 hours a day. This is usually accomplished with a self-feeder which can be purchased at the feed store, or you can build one yourself. The goal of the self-feeder is to allow pigs free choice to eat as much as they want in a day.

The pig farrowing pen consists of sow locating stall, piglets fence, piglet incubator, swine farrowing floor, feeder trough for sows and supplementary feeding trough for piglets, etc.

The oderless hog pen is made by digging a pit of one meter in depth and filling it with waste rice hulls or sawdust mixed with soil. The pigs are raised on this bed. Their waste sinks into the bed eliminated odor as it is decomposed by micro-organisms.

Cast Iron Flooring

Cast iron pig flooring is known for its exceptional durability and traction, offering a stable and safe surface for sows. The flooring is designed to prevent slips and injuries, featuring a smooth surface with textures that enhance sow traction.

The drinkers should be about 2 inches above the shoulder of the smallest pig in the pen, at snout level. You also have to keep it high enough off the ground to reduce the risk of breaking. Test your water supply for the following to ensure it is suitable for drinking: Turbidity or cloudiness to detect possible bacteria.

Pig houses can be made from 4 pig skins, (obtained by killing pigs or tearing down pig houses) 3 cut stones, and 4 boards. When you place the pig house, a pig will automatically appear by it. If you construct a hammer, you can tear down the pig house.

How do you make a simple pig house? ›

We build our A-frame pig shelters out of two full sheets of 3⁄4-inch green-treated plywood for each side as well as a triangle section cut out for the back section. The frame is made out of eight 2x4s. We do not put any floors into our A-frame pig shelters.

Gilts (female pigs) reach maturity and are bred at 170 to 220 days of age. After delivering their first litter of pigs, gilts are called sows. Gestation (pregnancy) is about 114 days, or 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days.

Around midday, pigs like to rest for several hours or dedicate themselves to extensive bathing, wallowing and rolling around. In the early evening hours, they set up their sleeping nest by bringing together fresh material such as grass, leaves and thin twigs, in which they nestle comfortably.

Pigs must always have access to warm, dry, draft-free, straw-bedded housing in cooler weather and at night. Appropriate fencing must be used to enclose their outdoor area, as pigs are very strong and can uproot it, push it over and even dig underneath it if not properly secured.

The irritating stench in the feces combined with that of urine is intolerable and can attract complaints from the neighbors if your piggery is located in a residential area.

You will need a shovel and/or pitchfork to clean your pig pen, as well as space for storing or composting manure. You might want a wheelbarrow to move manure from the pen to the compost pile. Move over, bacon! Unlike other farm animals or pets, pigs don't do well with leashes or collars.

With adequate space, good fencing, a reasonable shelter, access to food and water, and a shady wallow, you've got everything you need to start raising pigs. As a reminder, pigs don't like to be solitary animals, so if you're going to embark on this adventure, get at least two.