Pig shelter Advise please!

Hello

I am just getting the final touches put in place for my pig pen. I'll be raising my pigs outdoors and rotating them. Most likely getting 2 Gloucestershire Old Spots.
I am looking into shelter option that will pass the departments inspection.

I want something that is light enough so that I can move it myself, easy to clean something the department will pass in an inspection?

I don't want to go with a metal pig arch as they are to heavy for me to move, I don't own a tractor to any heavy machinery.

Regards

JJ

If you can move it by hand I would think it wouldn't be any good for a strong pig. They also need a floor in the shed. Just my experience but I'm no expert.

Movable floor is a good idea. The pic you uploaded looks interesting. I would think that it would require a heavy base to mount it on. If you are going to make it yourself design it with yourself in mind as well as the Pigs. Things like easy access should you or the vet need to go in. Consider the amount of bedding you will need and perhaps place a lowish board at the entrance to help retain it. I would try to keep their house off the ground to assist drainage should water get in. Its the little things that makes the job easier that are important. As to the traditional "Pig Ark". These are great and have been the industry standard for many years and for no bad reason. I personally have only one objection to the corrugated steel roof and that is:- They are hot in the summer  and cold in the winter. Hence the need for a lot of bedding. There are now available recycled plastic panels for making stock sheds. I have never used them myself but they have obvious advantages. As Deryn indicated.  quote. If you can move it by hand I would think it wouldn't be any good for a strong pig. This is so true. If your construction is not man enough the Pigs will knock it to bits. In play or even just scratching, these animals are very strong and when young extremely lively. In regard to moving the Arks around some have sleds to assist this but some sort of mechanical assistance may well be required. The problem is that after being in one place for a while they will settle in the soft ground and getting that initial "Budge" would be required. Have you considered retractable wheels? If you have an engineering mindset this is not a difficult notion. If you "Google" Chicken tractor, you may well be able to adapt the principle to a Pig Ark. The inspector will only be looking for the well being of your stock, and that you have inplace all the rules and paperwork up front  Have you any Pig boards? Let us know how you are getting on and good luck.

Hi jj
I was wondering what you were going to do about the water supply. We still don't have our pig number as the ministry wanted a permanent water supply and it would mean a long trench to get the water there. If you are having a movable shelter just wondered if you had considered the water.

Deryn wrote:Hi jj
I was wondering what you were going to do about the water supply. We still don't have our pig number as the ministry wanted a permanent water supply and it would mean a long trench to get the water there. If you are having a movable shelter just wondered if you had considered the water.

Deryn we don’t have a permanent water supply on our smallholding - although the DVO did ask about it they were happy with our resolution, basically she didn’t want a situation where the pigs could (say) kick over the bucket of water and then be without, or where you were relying on a water butt which could drain quickly in hot weather.

So, basically we have 2 * 1000L IBC tanks on the land ...one is kept on a trailer that we bring to the house and fill and then use it to fill the 2nd tank which is kept near to the pig area - then we fill the first tank up again....so even though we don’t have permanent water supply we always have at least 1000L of water on site, usually 2.
At the time the DVO visited us we had an old cast iron bath in the pig area which we sunk into the ground and filled with a hose pipe from the IBC tank. We had breeze blocks in it so they wouldn’t drown if they climbed in.  Anyway she was happy enough with that - as I said, she just didn’t want a situation where the pigs could knock over their water supply and have nothing to drink. Mind you it soon becam obvious that the bath solution was too wasteful of water ...but by that stage we’d got our herd number!
These days we have guttering on the pig house which fills a large water butt below and we’ve attached an automatic drinker to it. Its well cemented in as those girls can really push things over!

Hi DP, that's a great solution. I think your dvo must be more realistic than ours but we have so much else going on have put it on the back burner for now. Will certainly give it a thought when we try again for herd number