{"id":60,"date":"2012-01-26T19:47:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-27T02:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/spring-pigs\/"},"modified":"2012-01-26T19:47:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-27T02:47:00","slug":"spring-pigs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/spring-pigs.html","title":{"rendered":"Spring Pigs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-wiQh8yrJBCc\/TyISLiKcGkI\/AAAAAAAAAZ0\/-IRvCmZkIyQ\/s1600\/Arizona%2B08%2BMay%2BSparks%2BCB%2B027.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-wiQh8yrJBCc\/TyISLiKcGkI\/AAAAAAAAAZ0\/-IRvCmZkIyQ\/s320\/Arizona%2B08%2BMay%2BSparks%2BCB%2B027.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a>It&#8217;s time for the sows to give birth to their adorable piglets! For many years now I&#8217;ve bought three or four spring piglets for butcher the following fall. It&#8217;s not that I needed that much meat&#8230; typically I raise two for my freezer and two for my brother and his family. There is nothing like freshly <a href=\"http:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/index.php?main_page=product_info&#038;cPath=163_149&#038;products_id=1166\">smoked<\/a> ham or fresh side pork for a Sunday breakfast!!<\/p>\n<p>All of the photos of piglets on this blog are pigs I&#8217;ve raised. If you&#8217;ve never raised pigs, it is a very enriching experience. Despite the reputation for being messy and stinky, pigs are much easier to keep than the cows or a horse.<\/p>\n<p>The piglets I buy are usually started in a twelve by twelve pen once weaned and able to consume solid food, though I am notorious for spoiling my piglets with fresh milk from the cow! I build them a straw bale shelter for their piglet months, stuffing the &#8216;cave&#8217; with loose straw enabling them to burrow in and stay warm on the cooler spring nights. They are always very picky about their pen&#8230; never have I had to clean up their house because they pick a corner away from their house and use that for a litter box. This makes it very easy to go out once a day and rake up the few messes into a shovel.. po<a href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-WSm7srMEiew\/TyIRDeI7oKI\/AAAAAAAAAZQ\/kzZTvz1r2R4\/s1600\/P1010087.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-WSm7srMEiew\/TyIRDeI7oKI\/AAAAAAAAAZQ\/kzZTvz1r2R4\/s320\/P1010087.JPG\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a>of&#8230; clean pen! I also find the pigs to be very affectionate. The love a good tummy scratch and strong back scratches!<\/p>\n<p>How can I raise these little cuties much like a pet and then put them in the smoker&#8230; or the freezer??? I get that question a lot. I feel that every animal on the farm serves a purpose&#8230; Cookie gives me great milk&#8230; her calves offer me meat&#8230; the chickens give me eggs and the pigs give me more meat&#8230; all are treated with love and kindness. All are given clean pens and a warm place to sleep (or cool if it&#8217;s the heat of summer). Each of them gets a great life on my farm and then when it&#8217;s time for them to serve their next purpose, I promise them an instant death and thank them for their gift.  Some day I hope to be able to keep a sow and raise my own piglets, but for now I depend on others in the area to keep the sows and reserve my piglets in the winter time.<\/p>\n<p>While Cookie cow will always be my favorite furry&#8230; the piglets are a close second and I really enjoy having them around all summer and into early fall.  Have you ever raised piglets? If so, please leave a comment&#8230; do you enjoy having pigs? Did you enjoy their gift of fresh tender meat? I&#8217;d love to hear from you!!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-cZOpu1WBUfI\/TyIRUEljzWI\/AAAAAAAAAZc\/hYTL-8qFj6Y\/s1600\/piglet.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-cZOpu1WBUfI\/TyIRUEljzWI\/AAAAAAAAAZc\/hYTL-8qFj6Y\/s320\/piglet.JPG\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-NCbeIdAoBs8\/TyISRiadYiI\/AAAAAAAAAaA\/TMJn5iFHGlY\/s1600\/P1010166.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-NCbeIdAoBs8\/TyISRiadYiI\/AAAAAAAAAaA\/TMJn5iFHGlY\/s320\/P1010166.JPG\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s time for the sows to give birth to their adorable piglets! For many years now I&#8217;ve bought three or four spring piglets for butcher the following fall. It&#8217;s not that I needed that much meat&#8230; typically I raise two for my freezer and two for my brother and his family. There is nothing like [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homesteading","category-pigs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesteadersupply.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}