Building Our New Pig Sty

A big project last month for us at Pure Water Hollow Homestead was creating a new lot and housing for our mama pigs and their 15 piglets. I have wanted to move the pigs out of the barn for a while because they were being so rough on it and it seemed so small for them. After the piglets were born, we didn’t have much choice, as a barn stall was going to get little very quickly for a mama pig with 8 piglets!

For the entire week after they were born, July 16th-21st, we worked most days, off and on, fencing a new area for the pigs. We were going to give them a type of a small pasture on the hillside where I would like to one day grow corn.

Finally we were ready to construct the new pig stys the following week. We decided to use free slabs from a local saw mill so there was very little expense involved. Matthew and I went and loaded up the truck a couple of times and then on the 23rd we cut the slabs into the sizes we wanted. We were going to build approximately an 8ft. x 8ft. building about 5 feet tall.

Here is much of the wood for one building loaded in the truck ready to go up in the hollow the next day:




We worked at assembling the walls on the evening of the 24th. Matthew and Christina helped tremendously and Simon did his part toward the end. By the time Erica came up with the camera we were all pretty tired and a bit disappointed that we were not going to be able to complete the project before bed time. Here are some pictures of the action:




Simon likes to have his picture taken while he is working:







I was good at standing around supervising by this time in the evening:




But the next day came and God gave us a nice,sunny day to finish it.





Our building projects are usually a fun time of the family working together to accomplish a goal.






Matthew does not look like he was having fun bringing up some straw for the pigs bedding! I think he was trying to look serious for the camera.




Before long it was time to move the first family of pigs to their new home. Nellie and her piglets got to move out first because they were in such a dark stall in the barn. We had trouble getting a couple of the piglets to come out of the cage:





Nellie found the new sty to be very comfortable.




And her piglets were happy to nurse in the new building:




And they all seemed to enjoy exploring their new field.






Here is another corner shot of the completed pig sty. I like that it looks like a small rustic log cabin. It is very sturdy, that is for sure!




As soon as we finished Nellie’s lot and house we began working on another lot for Sally and her piglets. We made it adjoining to Nellie’s with a gate separating them. After we got the fence up we began the process all over of making another pig sty for that lot. Here we are working on that one:




The second building took almost as long to build as the first one, but this time we knew what we were doing better. We did move Sally and her piglets in over there and they seemed to like it very much also!

Making new pig lots and houses for them was a lot of work, but it was a rewarding experience also. I think it is a much better, and healthier situation for our pigs. If all works out the way I think it will, we will be growing corn in this field some day in the future, after the pigs get it all worked up for us!