For our second set of chickens, we built a second chicken tractor. We personally like this design better, but need to make it lighter so that we can pull it by hand versus by tractor.  It’s heavy! But it’s easier to water, feed, and circulate air. Plus it was cheaper to make and took A LOT less time to put together! 

  

A few weeks ago, I set up our fenced paddocks for my 3 pregnant gilts to frolick in the lush green grass, root up grubs and bugs, and stay cool in the shade of the grove trees.  Sounds like paradise, right?  I brought them out there on a nice morning and they were genuinely happy! Running, rooting, sleeping in their A-frames, doing what pigs do naturally. 

   

This paradise lasted 2 days.  

They wanted their straw nests in the barn. So they went under a fence and found their way back to their barn.

I waited a few weeks until it got warmer and the rain passed to try to put them out again. I also set up an electric fence to help deter them from going under the fence again.  So I brought them back out again this evening during feeding time. I turned my back for a few minutes and bam, they pushed their way through the electric fence and through the woven wire fence and walked back to the barn. So I guess that’s it. They want to stay where they are comfortable and what is familiar to them.  Moving to a new place isn’t exciting for everyone, especially for 2 out of the 3 gilts. The other one, Red, loved it out in the pasture. But she also wants to be with her herd. 

So now to plan B: setting up farrowing pens in the barn. I’m not going to give up on my pastured pork. I just have to figure out how to train them to electric fencing.