Preparing for Pigs - Repurposed Pig Paradise

With having decided to add pigs into the mix on our little homestead, we spent a lot of time researching housing options for our, soon to arrive, four legged friends. We decided on building our own 8x8 ft pig pen. Since moving to our new property 7 months ago we have made a concentrated effort to reduce our project material costs for our projects.  When possible we have repurposed local materials including those left from previous owners. There were many treasures left that we were able to use to build our pig pen.

The front section of the pig pen roof was made by wrapping a 5ft by 8ft  frame with metal that was salvaged from an old cattle trailer left behind our barn.  This was not an easy undertaking, we were lucky have help from a friend with an acetylene torch. Without the acetylene torch this would have been impossible.  After the eyesore was chopped into pieces it became a weekly Saturday morning ritual of hauling one trailer load at a time to the scrap metal yard.

The bottom of the pig pen is sided with wood that was salvaged by dismantling some old picnic tables that the previous owners left. We like the look of this old weathered wood and its contrast to the galvanized metal siding.

To provide natural light along the roof line of the back and side walls we used three solid wood window panels.  We were lucky to save these window panels before being sent to the dumpster from a local renovation project.

Overall the project cost a few hundred dollars to build. The use repurposed materials did save on the overall materials cost.  They also required more time to work with, as these materials lovable imperfections made the project more challenging. This was especially the case with the metal roof which took twice as much time as the entire rest of the project.

Stay tuned for our next pig update as we tackle the fencing and describe our two forested paddocks that will give our pigs with tons of natural forage. The fencing will include an electric wire at snout height to train the pigs away from the fencing and minimize their attempts to dig under. Thank you for your interest in our newest animal project, we hope you come back to follow our progress along our homestead journey.

Josh