Space, friends and sunshine

Everyone I know and everything publication I read that involves raising hogs the "traditional" way (ie a whole lot of them in a pretty small space) had given me a huge paranoia about mixing new pigs of different sizes and ages.

"They'll kill each other!"

"The little ones won't get to eat!"

"You need to cover them in gasoline and put them in a stock tank in the back of a truck and then drive around to make them miserable and mix up their smells and orientation." (true story)

But, like most things I am being "taught" by others about pigs, I've been ignoring such advice.

Instead, when we got our two new piglets a few weeks ago, who were just half the size of our existing gilts, I took one gilt (the black one) and put her in with the "babies". I watched, waited and listened for trouble.

Do you know what happened?

Instead of fighting, or bullying for food, or ANYTHING even remotely aggressive, that gilt (who is only a few months old herself) decided instead to "mother" the new ones. They were lonesome, sad and wanted a "mama" and that is literally what she did---that gilt actually laid down and let them "nurse" her, grunting away like a happy mama sow does the whole time.

And when I combined everyone, which means letting the little ones run with bossy Patsy Swine and Mama Pig, guess who still gets along?

Sure, Mama and Patsy (as dominant pigs) have hierarchy "rules" they need to enforce (like I get to eat pumpkins first or don't lay in my mudhole until I have been fully mudded), but it's done in a pretty respectful manner. Nobody is overly violent, nobody is a ruthless bully--the rules are clear, they are expected to be followed and wayward pigs are pretty politely (as far as pigs can be polite) put back in line.

In my barn, for the most part, food is shared freely, everyone loves sleeping in a pile together in the cool fall weather and it's literally one big, happy family.

So the moral of the story is---If you push any creatures into crowded, unnatural settings and limited resources (food and space)--guess what? They're going to fight and be unnaturally aggressive and yes, sometimes even kill each other.

But if you let them live a fairly normal life with space, friends, sunshine and excercise, it gets a whole lot easier to deal with "mental problems".

Pretty sure this applies to any creature you look at--Pigs, horses, dogs and yes, people.