Our First Attempt at Pigs

During casual conversation one day we mentioned to a friend that we were thinking seriously about getting a couple Khune khune pigs. We have some friends that just got a few and they’re the easiest going pigs ever. As it turns out, this friend knows someone looking to get rid of a few young pigs that they weren’t expecting. Free pigs? That sounds like a great deal!

We contacted the owner and had a nice conversation. His pigs are an Asian heritage breed, not Khune khunes. And they are free roaming (read: feral), not fenced in and definitely not electric fence trained. After little discussion we decided that they’re “free pigs,” what could possibly go wrong?! Yeah.

Amy’s Take – In our defense, it was not sinking in they were essentially feral pigs and what that meant. We had seen a video of them being called to dinner in what looked like a barn yard setting. We did some research as to whether this was a breed that might be manageable for the inexperienced. Their small size and their free status, I am on board.

The next couple of days were spent purchasing electric fencing, clearing brush from a halfway level spot, building the pallet house, and putting up the electric fence.

Amy’s Take – Ernie worked like crazy while dealing with tons of mosquitoes and getting more poison ivy. I was thinking, “Don’t we need some solid fencing? Didn’t I understand that when pigs hit electric fence there instinct is to run straight ahead? I bet we could borrow the solid fencing our friends used to train their pigs.”

We drove the 1 hour and 45 minutes to get the “free pigs.” The owner, Dave, is a great guy very energetic, intelligent, driven. He showed us around his greenhouse the size of our home, a second building roughly the same size that was the wind tunnel for starting plants, his wood shop, a cabin they’re getting ready to list as an AirBnB, and other cool stuff around his property.

After about an hour and a half of visiting we got the three piglets loaded up in the pickup. We scooped them up in a net, set them in the bed, said our goodbyes and headed home.

Amy’s Take – Some might have picked up on some clues here. Dave had built a temporary holding pen with an unused raised growing bed with fencing around it. There was no calling them over and scooping them up. This net had amazing strength. These pigs are 3 months old weighing about 30 lbs fighting and screaming for all they are worth–maybe another clue. Dave felt the cap windows should only be open enough for ventilation and the truck topper window should definitely be locked down. Yeah, those were big clues.

Once we got home…that’s when the fun began.

The new pen is down the side of a hill in front of our house. We can’t drive the truck to the pen so I’ll need to either carry or walk the pigs down. I lowered the tailgate to hop in the bed and grab one of the pigs. Well, they weren’t having any of it. We got one white and two black pigs. The two black ones are skiddish and look concerned as to our intentions. The white one looks like he’s trying to read my mind, figure out my next move. Creepy.

Amy’s Take – Yet another clue from Dave was his expressions that we would have to drive the truck to the pen there would be no other way. It was not an option for us. Thankfully we did realize whoever (definitely not me) was going to wrangle them from the truck would have to be shut in there with them tailgate closed. The light pig saw me standing in the opening above the tailgate and takes a running jump at my face hoping for escape. Even the cap had to be shut.

As I reach for the white one he lunges at me, makes a grunting noise like he’s daring me to come closer and seems like he’s trying to bite me. Okay…on to one of the others. I grabbed one of the black ones. And he screamed and screamed bloody murder. I wasn’t doing anything other than holding him steady. It startled me so much that I let him go.

Amy’s Take – So further research we have learned these Asian pigs are the loudest screaming pigs. We have no doubt. It reminded me of my home alarm in Columbus, which I was sure was designed to paralyze an intruder with sound.

I’d better leave this to the professional. Now, Morgan gets in the truck and grabs one. It’s screaming and screaming but she’s not letting go. And now that I know a little more of what to expect I’m pretty sure that I can hold on. She hands it to me outside the truck and I hold on for dear life. He’s screaming and wriggling and somehow I manage to hold on. I walk him down to the pen, set him down and yell up to Amy to turn on the fence.

Amy’s Take – This girl was born totally unafraid of animals. We had to make a family rule no catching wild animals, fearless and capable.

As soon as I set the pig down, he trots off in a straight line away from me and away from the house. He gets to the electric fence, goes through the electric fence and keeps going out of the pen. He’s gone.

It turns out that you can’t trust everything that you see on Youtube. I found a couple of videos where they said to just put two lines of electric fence close to the ground. The pig will hit it with his nose, jump back, and now he’s trained. Uh….no. They must have meant pet pigs that have been in your house, sleeping in your bed for the last year. Pigs that would look back at you after being zapped with a, “How could you do this?” look on his face. Not feral pigs. Duh. I should have figured that out.

Amy’s Take – I’m thinking those panels are much more important than previously thought.

So, now we’re down to two pigs.

We manage to get the second black pig out of the truck (again, more blood curdling screaming) and get a rope around his chest as a makeshift harness. I walk him down to the pen and show him the line while keeping him tethered. Zap. Zap. Zap. Zap. And he keeps going. He couldn’t care less that he’s going to get zapped. He’s going to bolt too as soon as I let him go.

Amy’s Take – We found a dog harness and fit it to the pig while on the pig. There is nothing that could be said that would describe the intense screaming and how long it seemed to take get the harness and rope on the pig. When the pig loses strength to scream from exhaustion and my brain is able to function, albeit scarred from the recent trauma, I am concerned for my nearby rabbits. This screaming is intense. (no pigs or rabbits were harmed in this misadventure) A bit of help to survive what has now become a traumatic experience to all the animals and people living here was getting to watch Ernie walk this pig down the hill. It looks like a dog, but it isn’t acting like one. It is darting and squealing in every direction. I had to hold onto the fence, I was laughing so hard.

Clearly, this pen with electric fence only is not going to work. Thankfully, we’ve got a small supply of some old barn wood that I bought a while back. It took me a few minutes to build another much smaller pen to put these guys in until we can get this figured out. Not big enough for long term, but at least until I can get the big pen figured out.

After action report:

Problem 1. I didn’t listen to my wife who said we needed actual fence panels in order to train these guys on the electric fence. Youtube showed me that we only needed electric fence, no solid panels.

Problem 2. Sort of related to problem 1. We had no backup plan in case the pen didn’t work. Once pig one bolted we had to scramble to find a solution to keeping these guys penned in.

Problem 3. And possibly the biggest problem. I didn’t understand that these pigs were feral. Not Khune khunes, yes, got that. I didn’t grasp the situation that they weren’t ever in a pen and were used to running around a pretty big farm wherever and whenever they wanted.

Lessons:

1. Always listen to your spouse when he/she is throwing red (or even yellow) flags around. They’re probably seeing something that you’re bull headed determination isn’t going to let you see.
2. Have a backup plan. Even if it’s a worst case scenario plan. Have something to fall back on.
3. Get all of the information. Possibly even write things down. Draw a little if needed. Just make sure you have, and pay attention to, all of the information.
4. Free does not always mean free. Just because you’re not exchanging money, there’s time, effort, adrenaline, crying, other things that have a value and need to be considered.