(It seems somewhat callous to refer to my new little piggies as ‘bacon’, but I like the title – they’re the ones in the top right)

After much preparation, there are now two pigs on my drive, one completely black, the other with a pink saddle over her shoulders. They are apparently a cross of Saddleback and Hampshire which should mean they are still long like Saddlebacks, but slightly leaner thanks to the Hampshire genes.

Having built the house (see post here), I set up the electric fence, which consists of two strands of wire and around the run … Read More

The day of the pigs approacheth and the preparations for their arrival continue. To this end, over the last week or so, I’ve been building a house for them to live in during their brief stay (about 4 months) on my microholding.

In previous years, I kept them in a fairly typical-looking pig ark made from wood and corrugated tin (or whatever metal it is). I’ll describe the process of building that before I move on to the more permanent structure I’ve just finished. Unfortunately that lovely little ark was destroyed in the storms earlier this year, when a tree … Read More

A pig with something on its face

Keeping pigs a joy everyone should experience, but before going out and buying a couple of weaners there are a few legal issues that need to be dealt with first. If you read my post on the legal requirements for keeping goats, you’ll already know most of the ones pertaining to pigs, but here they are anyway:

1. Get a holding number. Known as a CPH number (which stands for country, parish, holding), this is required for all places where farm animals are kept, whether you have 50 chickens or 50,000 sheep (or

Now that the summer holiday is nearing its end, it’s time to start planning for the winter. And this means, preparing to get in a couple of pigs.

Here’s the annual pig plan, which I reckon should work for any microholding with a vegetable plot of 20 square metres or more. Unless, of course, you feel you have to grow winter crops, such as sprouts, kale and leeks. I’m not overly fussed about them, nor do I care for harvesting in the freezing cold, though I’ll admit I did enjoy picking leeks and sprouts on Christmas day a few years … Read More