Adventures in Moving Pigs

Today we were going to move our pigs from their woodlot accommodations to the pasture to become 'Lawnmower Pigs'. Earlier in the week I set a test electric fence in the pig's habitat to get them used to it, which worked fine. This morning we set up a full scale fence in the pasture, so far so good.

Now for the tricky part - moving 2 very large and 3 medium sized rambunctious pigs. The plan: load them in the bed of the pickup via a loading chute and then deposit them into their new electric fenced area in the pasture. Easier said than done! Here we are looking only a little bit harried after having successfully loaded Pork:

After that Ham got in too so we closed the tailgate and made for the pasture. Pork had other ideas:

Luckily Pork was unhurt by his leap to freedom and made his way back to the woodlot.

We did manage to get Ham to the new fenced in area, but to our dismay the full scale fence did not deliver the same shock as the practice fence did--not even close. Ham happily walked in and out of the area, undaunted by the static shock.

As stressed as he was, he wasn't interested in going home. We roped his midsection to encourage him - to little effect. Then suddenly he started jogging, so I ended up running with him (the same rope was tied around my midsection as well), guiding him back to his accomodations in the trees. We'll try again soon. In the meantime, the grass will have to wait.

Elliott
(with some editing from Arianne)