Rob Kalman

Just email me for a phone number.

robermittler@gmail.com  

I built a smoker from some cinder blocks and a defunct furnace from a mobile home. I built a wooden front, stuck some stove racks in it and an old pan (for chips). Since it is off set, the fireside part needed a roof. So, I inlaid the bottom part of a stove on top of the fireside and, now, I can slowly cook stuff while smoking.

Elizabeth Ko wrote:How do you know when they're near delivery time if you don't know when the sow/gilt became pregnant?

Teats swell up, mom starts segregating, may walk a lot and, just before, there will be water breaking (a streak from her visibly swollen vulva).

My boar learned real quick that he's not allowed with the new momma and has been a gentleman ever since. He sleeps at the door (still under a roof), even though he has an option to sleep elsewhere. Other sows are the same and even defend the little ones on the new mom's behalf, should you unwisely interfere.

The only "downside"...they're constantly pregnant and you risk inbreeding, should you keep gilts you raised past the point of entering sexual maturity.

Good to know about the pee. Planning on sheep in the future...

For now, my pigs are smart enough not to do it in their pigsty.

I have to drag it off my pickup, then slowly take it to my shed with my 25 hp tractor (barely clearing the ground, thank to those long handles). There, once a week, I off-load one scoop at the time from the top and into the grain grinder I got from China. The grinder discharges into totes.

Probably not the answer you were looking for. I have not committed to anything permanent yet as my suppliers keep changing and some of them deliver and offload. However, I too do not have a permanent bin (good luck finding a good used 5t one). So, I may end up building a wooden box capable of holding a couple of tons with a chain hoist next to it - park the truck under the hoist, drive away and then discharge from the bottom, via a removable/swinging chute into the box. Or so I dream...

Well, there's so many options...

I won't mention those mentioned here already but these came to my mind:

a) you're too busy with your interests that you forget to send out the vibe that you're ready to "play"
b) you're as odd as me and there simply are no matches in your current circles
c) your friends go...."hmmm, I wonder...neah, she'd be bored with him" or other judgments because they have you in a simplified box
d) you appear comfortable in your lonely life, like Scandinavians (all Scandinavian countries have over 40% one-person households)

Of course, your single friends might just be jerks... :D

Piglets will start testing solid food in the first week of their life. Of course, that does not mean they can be weaned.

The weaning age depends on the breed, environment and the momma herself. Also on greed - as some commercial producers regularly go with 4 weeks.

I was comfortable taking 5 week olds away but I have seen a momma that was in milk for some 10 weeks with piglets I was keeping.