The adventure of this week was when one of the American Guinea Hogs escaped from the pen! On Wednesday morning I looked out the window to find Hillary rooting around the front yard, right outside the house. Let’s take a quick look at how this happened and what I did to fix it.
The Back Story
Over the weekend we installed temporary electric fencing to cut the guinea hog pen in half. We wanted half the pen to be pig-free so the ground could rest and start to rejuvenate. Here are photos of the fencing and the part sectioned off.
We knew there’d be some growing pains as the pigs became adjusted to the new boundary. A few times pigs went through the fence, and usually they’d go right back through it to be with their friends. The fact this only happened occasionally showed the electric fencing was working, and they were learning not to go through it.
On Tuesday evening, as we were driving away from the house, we say Hillary on the wrong side of the fencing in the newly restricted area. We figured she’d make her way back to the other side like the other pigs had.
The Escape
Apparently Hillary found a better alternative to going back through the electric fencing, she managed to make her way under the perimeter fence and out of the pen entirely! Here’s where she escaped. You can see the field fencing is pushed up slightly at the bottom.
While we have a strand of electric fencing along the inside perimeter of the pen, apparently she could squeeze under it here.
Hillary must have squeezed out in the evening and spent the entire night outside of the pen, judging by the damage to our yard.
Catching Hillary
After seeing Hillary in the front yard, I went out to the garage and grabbed a bag of pig grain. I carried that to the guinea hog pen, opened the gate and left it open behind me, and dumped the bag of grain for the pigs to eat. Hillary was right on my heels the entire time, walked right in behind me, and starting feasting with the other pigs.
Luring pigs with grain is so easy, a toddler could do it! Rebecca can attest to that.
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