Sheds?

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Yes I have 11 sows who live in groups of 2/3 currently. How would I go about introducing them to one another? They get on okay when they're in the run together but then on occasions it looks like they might try and nip each other... They're all quite laid back apart from Holly who is a bit troublesome sometimes!
 
mine have always been together and when I get another female shes put straight in with the others and theres never any trouble they've so much room they dont bicker or argue, no need plenty of pigloos and food and water bottles, they accepted marleys 2 girls in february march time marley went back in and all of them are fine , to be honest I ahev yet to se one of my females fight they might just give a leg lift or a head nod to anyone annoying them but thats it,
 
Okay thankyou, I guess when they're all together in a large area they're not threatened by each other especially when they have more than a few toys and hiding places and different bowsl/bottles.

I have a couple of weeks off towards the end of June so I think I might go and see sheds I like during that time and hopefully find a suitable one.

I was originally going to get all the piggies new, larger hutches, but a shed really does make more sense and is more practical for me.
 
My sows are all the same...but I only have one dominant sow in the group so thats probably why, I would say its down to the individual sows :)
 
Well Rowan, Socks, Snowball and Holly seem okay with each other and same for Mia, Button, Skye, Rosie and Lola. The two groups just haven't met yet and they also haven't met Lucie and Pickle... My boar Peanut will also be de-nutted to go in with them now and he's adorable. He loves to whistle at the other pigs and I think he'd love living with some other pigs too.

Rowan used to be a right little madam but she has calmed down in old age (she's about 5 and a half now). Holly is alright she just causes the occasional squabble. The rest are plassid enough though, I can't see there being many problems to be honest.
 
I've kept my sows like this for years even in my old shed and on occasion the eldest tend to be boss pig before for instance it was squeek then Ruby but since they died theres no boss pig, no one sticks out as being in charge so to speak,
 
michelle what are your electric bills like? I am definatly gonna buy a thermostatically controlled panel heater for my shed this winter, maybe just to keep the heat up higher than the 5 degrees (which is all i can get it to with the radiator out there) maybe aim to keep it a contstant 10 degree.
Just worried about the electric bills, our quartely bill came through a few weeks ago and it was £200, the highest i have ever paid. Not sure my oh will be impressed that more money will be spent on my piggies.
 
when we used the oil filled radiators it was ridiculous £600 plus so I had a look around and found panel heaters that cost less then 1p a minute and use the thermostats on them , but if you can only find ones with out thermomstats use timers theyc an be made to heat the coldest part of the night going off as the morning warms up might work out cheaper, but oil filled rads are a big NO NO
 
Agree, with what other members have said about sows. Providing they have their own space, enough places to hide and there is plenty of food etc, they should get along fine. There is always a dominant guinea so this will have to be worked out but once they know their places there should be no problems whatsoever and if you are putting a boar with them he should keep them in check. O0
 
I really cant think of whos the dominant sow in my herd none of them fit the bill maybe they are so chilled they dont need one ;) have had them before but right now no one is boss
 
Michellemuffin♥ said:
when we used the oil filled radiators it was ridiculous £600 plus so I had a look around and found panel heaters that cost less then 1p a minute and use the thermostats on them , but if you can only find ones with out thermomstats use timers theyc an be made to heat the coldest part of the night going off as the morning warms up might work out cheaper, but oil filled rads are a big NO NO
Click to expand...

glad you told me,was looking at oil filled ones on ebay today.
 
I guess I wont be looking at any oil filled heaters either - thanks for the heads up!

I'll also be finding out when the time comes which of the pigs prove to be dominant... it will be nice to have them all as a little community though.
 
I had my girls (7 at most) in a shed free range. It's a 6ft x 8ft shed with a hole cut in the side which leads into a 6ft x 1.5ft hutch which is inside an aviary so in the nice weather I open the hutch & put a ramp down. The aviary is about 6ft x 10ft. So there's loads of space. I laid the shed down to newspaper, shavings (which I don't use anymore), shredded paper and hay. There were 3 hutches on the floor with open doors and loads of pipes, stick shelters etc. I had a stable door so I could lock the bottom shut and then there was a grid top which bolted shut or the rest of the door could be shut up at night. To stop them running out when I opened the door we nailed a piece of hardboard about a foot high across the bottom of the door so I could just step over it. I had various nails on the walls to screw partitions to for when I had new guineas in. Because there were ventilation spaces all round the top we nailed wire over to stop rats/mice getting in.

It was really great and I loved it but it got too hot in the summer and I couldn't cool it down and it was too cold in the winter even with infra red. I think if you can solve this, sheds are great as they're such natural environments. I'm going to use the hutch and aviary part and possibly part of the shed this year, not sure, have to do some fiddling round with it.
 
your shed sounded exactly like my old shed and runs , I too used hutches but tookt eh doors off for them to sleep in and they had free run of the sheds too it was an L shape so boys were round the corner to the girls
 
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