With the upcoming farrowing of our mini-pot bellied pig Lady-Bug, we knew we had to build a separate enclosure for her (farrowing pen). It is very important that laboring pigs have a quiet, undisturbed birth experience to encourage healthy piglets and good mothering.
We love to re-purpose pallets (who doesn’t!) and had plenty hanging around the homestead. We wanted to build a secure farrowing pen for Lady-Bug but weren’t quite sure how to put it together. With some brainstorming, we hadn’t decided on the best option. Since I was a bit under the weather on the day hubby and I were supposed to build it, my hubby gets full credit for this project!
We have two houses in the pig pen and wanted to utilize one of these for the farrowing house. They are pretty close together and super heavy. You want the farrowing pen to be secure and private, but access to assist the laboring pig if needed. We also wanted plenty of places to watch!
Hubby arranged the pallets around the second house and used some of the existing trees as support. He then took wood scraps we had on hand and screwed all of the pallets together across the tops. With the areas in between the pallet panels, you can place chicken wire so the piglets don’t slip out of the cracks (if you have mini breed pigs = tiny piglets).
We used a large piece of board as the gate that you can just push it in and out. If you have larger pigs, I would recommend securing the gate with latches as well as attaching a few more boards around the bottom of the pallets for extra security. Larger pigs are much stronger than our little ones!
We used 10 pallets, scrap wood and wood screws. Not too shabby for not having to purchase any additional materials!
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