Suuuuee-eeee!

Apparently, a lot of you enjoyed yesterdays post. I got twice the hits I normally do. I thought I'd follow up with some pork. As if yesterday wasn't exciting enough. We reclaimed a kitchen table and chairs that someone had left on the curb. We butchered the turkey. It gets better, we went to have lunch at my grandmothers and as we were pulling down the drive I see two black creatures walking in the field. They were too small to be our labrador. I hit the breaks and stared for a moment.

"Awww, crap." It was the pigs. Chris and I both jump out of the car and tentatively approach the hogs. I wasn't sure if they would run or charge us.

There are a lot of breeds of pig. And I mean LOTS. We don't have the accommodations for a LARGE breed pig that can reach 500 to 1000 lbs. I happened to know a guy who had a pair of mixed breed pigs. Part pot belly and part larger breed, but he was unsure what the larger breed was. His pair were about a year and a half old and about 150 lbs. That sounded doable especially at the price he was willing to sell us the offspring (read dirt cheap compared to others).

 

Bacon.

 

Now the only pig experience I have was watching my neighbors pot belly pig when they would go on vacation. He was a sweet pig, very social. We knew as soon as we got these two home that they were not going to be that way. They were spastic. The female more than the male, but neither were too fond of us. The guy we bought them from had warned us that his hogs were not terribly social, especially the mother.

Sausage.

 

Not terribly social was an understatement. These pigs don't like to be touched. Never have. We got them at two weeks old and could not get them to bottle feed. We tried for a week and were worried they were going to die. I finally found a pig rescue site that recommended just repeatedly shoving their nose into a pan of milk replacement and stating if that failed then they were just not going to make it. It took a few more days, but they finally clued in.

At this point I'm annoyed because the milk replacement isn't cheap. So we basically lost our headway on how cheap they were by the time they were able to eat feed. I was in for an even ruder awakening. Imagine my surprise when I discovered how much these little buggers EAT! They eat far more than I expected. Their feed to weight conversion is awful. I knew it wouldn't be great like the true meat breeds, but I had no idea it was going to cost so much.

 

Until Chris gets a chance to fix their pen they will have to resort to living in the small chicken coop again. See! This is what happens when you don't behave!

Fortunately, they were not as spastic as I expected. I was able to drop some feed into the chicken coop and they walked right in. We've lined it with storage boxes so they don't destroy the chicken wire. That blue tub you see in the background is a least two foot long if that gives you an idea of scale.

As of today we have had them for 6 months. I'd say they are probably about 50-60 pounds. They are all muscle. Not like most pot bellies you see with tons of fat wrinkles. Our plan from the beginning was to get them to a year old and butcher. I am second guessing that plan now. I think we will give them a few more months and due to the loss of money on them so far we will have no choice but to butcher them ourselves. I really wanted to outsource this since we have no experience, but I guess that's how you get the experience, right?

So look for Suuuuee-eeee! Part 2 in January or February. It should prove interesting.