HOUSING OF PIGS
In the general management of pigs there are many points on which
improvements might be effected without any very considerable amount of
trouble or expense. Far too frequently this neglect or want of care and
thought is observable in the housing of pigs. Many of the sties in the
country districts are neither wind nor water tight, and they are far too
often in a most unsanitary condition, indeed in such a disgraceful state
that some excuse was afforded for the drastic, if injudicious order of
the sanitary authorities which prohibited the erection of a pigsty
within from sixty to one hundred feet of a dwelling house. Undoubtedly
it would have been wiser to have permitted the keeping of pigs within a
much shorter distance of the house only so long as the necessary steps
were taken to prevent a nuisance or a risk of the residents in the house
suffering in health. The proximity of a pigsty to a house can be
rendered perfectly innocuous with ordinary care, and the cottager not be
deprived of very considerable advantages not only in making a profit,
but in the provision of manure for his allotment or garden which will
benefit greatly from its application.
The mistakes or want of care in the erection of pigsties is by no means
confined to the owners of cottages or small holdings, as a considerable
proportion of the piggeries on which great outlay is expended are
equally as unsuitable if not so insanitary. Even in so-called model
buildings the piggery has often been the last thing thought of; the
stables, the cow house, etc., have been conveniently placed for feeding
the occupants, for air, light, and sun, and then the piggery has been
placed in whatever spot may have been left unoccupied, and as this
generally happens to be on the northern side of the buildings, the
unhappy pigs are deprived of the rays of the sun, which are to them
quite as necessary, if not more so, than to any others of our
domesticated animals.
This same want of sun, and the exposure to cold is noticeable in only a
lesser degree in those buildings which comprise a double row of sties
with a passage down the centre, a store and a cooking and mixing house
at one end, and an exercise or feeding yard adjoining. It matters not
whether the building be placed north or south, or east or west, one half
of the sties have a wrong aspect; even if the sties facing the west can
be said to possess one. The trouble is still greater with the system of
having a yard attached to each sty. The north or east wind renders the
sties with such an aspect a most uncomfortable and unhealthy place for
young pigs during more than half the year, whilst older pigs cannot
thrive on the same amount of food as they would if their quarters were
comfortable. Apart from the waste of food which results from these
draughty and cold sties, the latter are the chief cause, with
injudicious feeding, of that most troublesome ailment amongst pigs,
rheumatic gout, or, as it is commonly termed, cramp. How very draughty
and uncomfortable these sties are which have an open yard attached, and
an inlet at all times usable, can be readily discovered in cold and
windy weather by noticing the position in which the occupant has made
its bed. This will be found not on the highest part of the sty, which
will be opposite to the opening into the yard, but in the corner next to
the opening, since in this position it is less exposed to the cold wind
which rushes into the sty through the opening.
Apart from the unhealthiness to the pigs resulting from the exposure to
draughts it is not apparent to the writer that any advantage is gained
from the provision of these yards. In many instances they serve only for
an excuse to limit the height of the sties, as unless these are of a
fair height there is a considerable difficulty in cleaning them out. The
money expended on building the yard would easily cover the extra cost of
raising the side walls of the pigsty by two feet, and thus not only
render it free from draughts, but also make it far more healthy and less
subject to the extremes of heat and cold.
The ordinary sty with a yard attached is unhealthy for a growing or
matured pig, but in the colder weather it is simply cruel for newly born
pigs, of which numbers are annually lost from exposure or are greatly
checked in their growth.
One of the very best places in which to house pigs in the experience of
the writer was a large barn with a thatched roof. This was divided off
into sties by partitions some 4 ft. 6 in. high; owing to the height of
the building the temperature was not unduly high in the hottest weather
nor did the pigs suffer to any extent during severe weather. These
advantages arose mainly from the slight changes in temperature, and an
abundant supply of uncontaminated air.
One of the greatest drawbacks to the majority of the pigsties is the
absence of ventilation without draught. This trouble is especially
noticeable where the side walls are not more than about 4 ft. high,
whilst the proximity of the roof to the pigs increases the sufferings of
the pigs from the heat when the weather is excessively hot.
Some of our most successful pig feeders on a large scale have found it
profitable to erect cheap buildings very similar to small barns, the
side walls being at least 10 feet high. This will permit of thorough
ventilation, quite free from draughts, whilst the variations in the
temperature will be comparatively slight. The building being complete
within itself, and entirely used for the pigs, there is no disturbance
of the pigs between the feeding times, so that the pigs will rest and
grow fat. These houses are most suitable for a number of fattening pigs,
whereas for sows and for young sows smaller sties or houses are more
convenient. These should be at least 10 ft. square, the front 6 ft. 6
in. high, the doors divided so that the upper half can be opened when
the weather is favourable; ventilation can be obtained by hanging or
sliding doors just under the eaves so that the pigs are not affected by
the draught; the floor should be laid with brick and gradually incline
to the front of the building so that the liquid can run through an
aperture in the lower part of the front wall into a cesspool placed
close to the building. A row of these houses, which should face to the
south, can be more cheaply erected than a single house, as the wooden
partitions between the houses need not be more than 4 ft. high, and one
of these would take the place of two gables or ends. Several of the
houses which the writer erected had brick foundations and feather-edged
boarded sides and ends; the roofs were of tiles unpointed, as in this
way the houses were much cooler in the summer, whilst in the winter the
upper portions of the houses were packed with straw which still
permitted of the escape of the foul air, yet greatly added to the warmth
and comfort of the building.
The one thing of all others most needful in the sty or house for the
well doing of pigs is a sufficiency of pure air without draughts; pigs
of even a few days old will suffer less from cold than from moist and
foul hot air. It is not the most costly building in which pigs will
thrive best, but the one in which they are the most comfortable and free
from the extremes of heat and cold with a dry bed on which to rest and
be thankful.
When making a tour of the Agricultural Experiment Stations and
Agricultural Schools in Denmark some few years since, the writer saw
near Aarhuss what was then a novelty in the form of a two decker pigsty,
i.e. a sty with a sleeping place above--one could scarcely term it an
upstairs room as access was gained not by stairs but by an inclined
board with struts of wood fastened across it to give a firm holding to
the pigs as they ascended to the upper story. The incline was very
steep, but the pigs seemed to have no difficulty in getting up and down.
The advantages claimed for it by the principal were that the sleeping
compartment was so much cleaner and sweeter; that less straw was
required for bedding, and that the pigs were far more comfortable and
rested better than when boxed up, especially in the summer season when
the heat in the lower portion was very oppressive. The feeding took
place in the lower portion. It was stated that nearly the whole of the
urine and dung was deposited below. This was a great advantage as the
moisture ran off at once into the drains, and the solids were easily
cleared out as there was no litter mixed with them, or the dung could be
readily washed into the drains by water from a hose, which was used in
the summer for the purpose of bathing or of washing the pigs.
The chief objection to the plan would be its expense, as unless the
pigsties were in a barn or a shed already erected for some other purpose
the pigsty would have to be so much higher on the side walls and
consequently more strongly built.
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[Illustration: _Photo, Sport and General._
LARGE WHITE SOW, "WORSLEY SUNBEAM."
To face page 112.]
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[Illustration: _Photo kindly lent by Kenneth MacRae, R.U.A.S., Balmoral,
Belfast._
LARGE WHITE ULSTER BOAR.]