This year we decided to go with a heritage breed for pigs instead of the commercial Yorks. We chose American Guinea Hogs. They are very hardy in winter, not prone to sunburns because of the thick hair covering their bodies, well tempered, and most of all from what I read they are well known for their deep red meat and especially their lard. It's supposed to be fantastic for making pastries (which we love!).
On top of that, these pigs are very calm, docile, friendly. My kids love to play with them. Here are some pictures:
This is their home: a pig cave. I got the design for it from Sepp Holtzer's Permaculture book! Awesome book, I definitely recommend it. I'll post more pictures on that later.
Our sow recently gave birth to 8 beautiful healthy piglets. She's an awesome mother!
I use electric fences with them. The panels you saw in some of the pictures were just to give the mama and babies some bonding time away from the other 3 older piglets (those are 5 months old... from a different sow). That totals it to 12 pigs, the most we've ever had.
So far, these pigs are my favorite farm animal!
No comments:
Post a Comment