Shelter me
Reader Mandi said in a comment overnight:
I don’t know how you do it. I lived w/ my in-laws for a couple of years and they got chickens and a pig and oh. my. god. The SMELL!! They both stink so bad!! Pigs definitely worse than chickens. I knew then I could never, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER be a farmer!! I had to hold my breath when walking past the pens of either animal. It honestly shocks me that so many people don’t mind the stench.
I thought I’d discuss that briefly (not to pick on Mandi, because I’m not). Many farm animals have an undeserved reputation for being stinky, especially pigs and chickens. The problem isn’t so much the animals themselves, but the way they’re kept. Many people keep chickens in runs, tiny little caged areas where they scratch the ground down to bare earth. Their coops are small, too. Pigs are often kept in small pens, where 20×20 (for one or two) is considered luxury-sized.
If there is a single great truth in life it is this: animals (including humans) are shit machines.
Any animal (again, I include humans here) will start to stink if kept in a small area for an extended period. It’s axiomatic. That much poop in that little space is going to have some stank going on. Our last chicken coop, at about 35 total square feet of floor space for thirteen chickens, could get a little ripe in the summer after a few weeks of unchanged litter. I only smelled the coop from outside the coop a couple of times; but inside the coop it could be somewhat…breathtaking. Change the litter, the smell goes away.
The only time I ever actually had a stinky chicken was when Frick took a dust bath in a hole Mister Boogers peed in, and she smelled like cat pee. Otherwise, chickens smell remarkably like a mix of outside and whole roasting chickens you get at the grocery store.
The new coop is 120 square feet of space for (ultimately) 27 or 28 chickens, and has better ventilation. It also has much deeper litter, roughly 10 inches instead of 6. It sits in shade, so it shouldn’t get TOO hot in the summer, and I don’t expect there to be a smell problem. More importantly, the new coop has about 30 feet of roost space, instead of the 10 of the old coop. Since most of the time a chicken spends in a coop is roosting, the shit gets really deep directly underneath. More shit = more stink.
Now, as far as pigs go, I pretty much know nothing other than what I’ve read. However, what I’ve read over and over again is that pigs are not smelly by nature. They’re smelly because they’re kept in small areas and like the chickens, their poop builds up. Commercial pig raisers — those agribusinesses Farmer Rich hates so much — recommend less than 10 square feet of floor space per pig. Humane farming (like the Animal Welfare Institute) recommend no less than 225 square feet (15×15) per pig.
It’s pretty easy to imagine how fast smell could build up in conditions like that. Pig manure is rumored to be mind-bogglingly stinky. In all the times I’ve been around them at petting zoos and on farms, I can’t say that I remember them smelling better or worse than anything else. All I remember is the generic “barnyard” smell which wasn’t rosy, but wasn’t all that bad, either.
But back to the space thing. Our pigs will have four thousand eight hundred square feet of ground space.
Each.
Pigs, unlike chickens, don’t shit where they sleep, so there shouldn’t be an issue in their shelter unless they roll around in shit then go roll in their straw. Speaking of shelters, our pigs will have ten times the recommended space in their shelter.
Interesting factoids you may not know: pigs nest, and will bury themselves in straw to sleep. They also don’t habitually stay in mud. The only reason they wallow is because they lack sweat glands, and the muck helps them to cool off. We’ll probably be getting some sort of kiddie pool for our pigs once it starts warming up.
I won’t know until we actually have pigs in the summertime whether or not they really smell bad. If they do, their living quarters are downwind. 
To answer your other question, Mandi — sometimes it does feel like I never stop. One thing I’ve learned since we moved out here is that there’s always something to do. Yesterday it rained all morning and was too muddy to work on the pig yard, so I spent the afternoon moving things out to the garden shed I built a few months ago and getting them arranged. Once that was done, I took all the nest box covers off the new coop and re-did them. The way I originally built them, they didn’t open all the way and that quickly became an ass-pain. Now they’ll lift all the way up.
I had planned to take a couple of easy weeks once I got the new coop and chicken yard done, because I thought that piglets wouldn’t be ready until early April. That’s what I get for assuming. I figured pigs farrowed in late winter and I was wrong. They farrow in early winter so their offspring will be ready for life as winter gives way to spring.
I was wrong, and now I’m busting my ass to get ready for them. Once they’re situated, I should be able to take some time off for for resting.
The funny thing is, I say that very thing every time I near the end of a project.
Saturday morning, once the wood for the pig shelter was delivered, I went up to the co-op and bought supplies for their fence. It took me two trips to bring everything home and unload it, because I was concerned about the weight load in the back of the truck. My truck is called a “half-ton” pickup, but I’m not sure what that means. My assumption is that it means I can put 1000 pounds in the bed (and I had 960 pounds in concrete alone), but something in the back of my head tells me that that “half-ton” actually has something to do with weight over the axle. I dunno. If you know more about trucks than I do, please feel free to explain in the comments.
I spent the rest of the day boring holes with the post-hole digger on the tractor and setting posts in concrete. I dug out twenty-one holes, carted around sixteen 8-foot posts that were 6 inches in diameter and 6 4×4 treated posts, and lifted 80-pound bags of concrete about a hundred times. Usually when I spend the day working outside, I come in complaining that I felt like I hadn’t accomplished anything.
Not Saturday. Saturday night, I felt like a train had hit me. I wasn’t too sore yesterday, just a little up and down the whole back side of my body. Today I hope to finish the shelter, but I don’t know if I will because I have to go to the sawmill for the wood and that’s about 45 minutes each way.
Anyway, here are a few pictures.
This is mostly an overview, though you can’t see the gate or left front corner.
The treated posts by the truck are for the shelter.
The shelter posts were squared using a very scientific method.
Also, note the distance the shelter is from the house.
Another view
Part of the living area, now with set posts.
From your description, Fred, I can honestly say, if I were a pig (or chicken, or cat, or abused dog,) I’d have think I’d found heaven on earth to spend my time at Crooked Acres. Y’all are amazing people - and I’m learning SO MUCH from reading your blog. Happy President’s Day!
think/thought
Good old Meat Loaf!
What Fred fails to mention is that he couldn’t take it easy if his life depended on it. Sunday it was raining, and by late morning he was ready to crawl out of his skin.
Fred, from years of reading your blog I’ve discovered that I thoroughly enjoy following your progress on all of your projects. Your method of researching, consultation (when you feel the need), diving in fearlessly (or maybe in spite of any fear), and learning from your own experience is inspiring to me.
Then you let us join you on your journey by sharing all of your triumphs and missteps with your sense of humor intact. FUN!
As always, I wish you luck in your pork producing project (love alliteration!) and look forward to following along with you.
When some people mentioned the smelly pig problem (something I am all too familiar with here in central Illinois), I thought, “Don’t you think Fred has researched this and if it causes a problem he will fix it?” Hee!
Good luck with the pigs, Fred, but I have to say, my uncle raised hogs for years and years, and his hogs had HUGE amounts of space to roam in. And the stench? Horrible. But we did get used to it….
Pig poop smells more like human than absolutely any other animal. Needless to say — it’s nasty. The nice thing is, they do actually confine their bathroom to one place more or less. If you pick it up fairly regularly and compost it, they won’t be nearly as offensive.
You don’t have dogs, but it amazes me every year JUST how much our dogs love eating pig crap
It is by far, the preferred crap.
Regarding the truck, my husband says to look on the inside of the door jamb and there will be a sticker with load capacity data. Look for GVWR and subtract the truck’s curb weight, which should be about 4000 - 4200 lbs. That will be the capacity of the truck. He thinks you should be able to carry about 2000 lbs in the back, but the truck would be pushed down pretty low and that’s not too good, so you might not want to put that much in. Hope this helps.
Gotta say pigs do stank to high heaven! Even if you keep their area clean. We always covered our faces and gagged when the feilds where being fertilzed. Fresh pig/chicken poo really should be bottled and used as a weapon
If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?
When I was very young, I used to spend Summers on a farm in SW Virginia. Among cows, chickens, ducks, geese, one horse, and a few cats & dogs, there were two pigs. One big and one little.
(I never caught on that Big Pig was slaughtered in the Fall, Little Pig grew up to be Big Pig and they just bought a new Little Pig every year).
I don’t know how much land they had but it was a lot. Of course the pen was as far away from the house as possible. It also bordered a creek so you didn’t have to carry pails of fresh water every day to them.
I remember the area smelled more sour than stinky.
And them were some tasty pigs too!
That song still gives me chills. Thanks for finding it!
1) Frick taking a dust bath in a hole Mr. Boogers has peed in….funniest thing I’ve read in days.
2) Just reading about your projects makes me tired. As someone up above me said, following along with you on all your projects is quite inspiring.
3) Love the Meatloaf. Never got the credit he deserved.
Lurve me some Meatloaf…………
How big will you let the pigs get before you slaughter them? I can remember back to visiting my extended family’s hog farms in Iowa that they get pretty darn big…and mean. If you got too close they would chase and bite. How are you going to get them to the slaughterhouse? I imagine your pigs will be very social and not mean. They will be Princess Pigs!!
What do you do with the used chicken coop litter, do you have a compost pile somewhere in the back 40? Is that where the pig poop will go? We had horses when I was little and the poop pile was right beside the barn but I don’t remember it smelling very much. I mostly remember that we grew pumpkins on part of it!
From what I remember from my childhood when my grandmother had pigs, the stink was not that bad. What I found disgusting was their meal time. Have you ever heard the term “slopping the pigs?” The food they were fed was … well, I’m not sure what it was, but it looked an awful lot like slop! It disguted me. I was a kid, so maybe it wouldn’t these days!
I’m curious, Fred, what will your pigs eat?
Imagine my surprise when I come back to read more of your adventure and see my name and comment right at the top! LOL
What you say makes sense about the stink. My in-laws aren’t as, uh, well read as you. LOL They gave the pig (which was a Hampshire pig and got massive!!) very little room compared to it’s size. And clean up the manure?? No! I think they liked the idea of being farmers but the reality was, they weren’t prepared and didn’t do it well. The chickens didn’t have a large run and the coop was teeny, and it never got litter put down. It got hosed out from time to time. That’s about it. But still, they all stink way too much for my liking.
I am not cut out for that kind of life. I admire those who do it though. I would actually love to have a farm but that’s never going to happen. I’d have to live miles away and pay people to clean up the poo for me. LOL I guess I’m a city gal at heart.
And Fred, I admire and am jealous of your drive. What you’ve gotten done in a year boggles my mind!! I look forward to watching your progress on the piggie house. What else do you have in mind when this is done?
My question: How do you decide where on the back 40 to build?
Joan: They should get a wide variety of food - grain feed from the co-op, hay, excess garden stuff, kitchen scraps, out-of-date bread, and probably excess eggs and shells.
Sharon: The pig spot was chosen primarily so they’d get some shade from the three big trees that grow back there, with the added benefit that part of the land is low-lying and can provide mud after a rain.
Jen: We have two pig compost heaps; all the chicken litter goes there.
I’ve never kept pigs, so should probably not say, but … It’s a true saying that if anything could give a hen cannibalistic notions, it would be giving her excess eggs to eat. I don’t know if giving a pig excess eggs to eat would inspire the pig to search out the source of the eggs in order to enjoy more, but it’s possible — pigs may be ugly, but they are definitely intelligent creatures, maybe a lot more intelligent than most people know. (I’ve read that pigs are more intelligent than dogs, and from what I’ve seen, that makes sense.) Anyway, in reference to hens, what I read suggested always grinding up the eggs and shells so as not to cause the hens to start pecking open their own eggs as they lay them. Possibly it might make sense to grind up or crush up eggs given to the pigs as well?
Your farm adventures are fascinating reading. I’m looking forward to all the chapters of Life with Pigs.
Hee Farmwife,I pictured an ad with a smiling dog.”Pig crap,the preferred crap!”