# Feeding pigs coal???



## Beeman

I've heard many people talk about feeding pigs coal, they're not real clear on why but I think it's for worming. Anyone hear of or try this?


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## highlands

I think perhaps they were referring to natural charcoal, not dug coal. Natural charcoal, burnt wood, preferably hardwood, absorbs heavy metals and toxic substances from what I've read. People in some countries eat it for this reason. Our pigs love to eat up the charcoal where we've had a bonfire cookout in the field.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org


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## Beeman

No mistake, I'm talking coal not charcoal or anything else.


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## Siryet

This is one opinion.



http://www.geotimes.org/apr06/column.html

I understood it was for worming the hogs.


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## DianeWV

Beeman - when I was a kid, I clearly remember Grandpa throwing in lumps of coal in the hog pens. He used it as a wormer. Take Care.


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## Beeman

Funny thing is some of the feed coal for worming stories have come from the same people as put salt mixed with lard on open wounds/castration. 

The article is interesting about pigs finding coal but I don't think that's where the term "pig iron" came from. it was from the size and shape of the iron molds they captured the molten iron from when they used iron furnaces.

Pigs do like to crunch and chew on stuff and maybe coal just happens to satisfy that desire.


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## Gregg Alexander

Make sure it is High Sulfur Coal for worming. Just put a pice about the size of a football in the pen and the pigs will bite and nibble at it , works great. I have done this for years, my grandpappy taught me this as a kid.


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## Ronney

This is interesting because I clearly remember getting into the coal bunker as a child and eating the coal - and my mother going off her head at this filthy child she then had to clean up. Why did I eat it? I have no idea but as my younger sisters got older, they did the same thing. My father was a roofing asphalter and he would chew of a piece of bitumen. Isn't bitumen a derivative of coal? He's gone now so I can't ask him why he did it.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## Misty

does it have something to do with the same reason some little kids will eat ciggarette ashes if they are lacking in a certain mineral? I can't remember the whole jist of that, but I had a roommate once who's little daughter ate her ciggy butts and ashes all the time.


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## joycebrandon

I remember reading about mineral deficiencies in children & pregnant women - causing them to have the desire to eat strange things like clay & other things I can't remember... this could be along the same lines.

And about the salt on the wound... I know it hurts - just get it in a paper cut! But in the past when I've had a canker sore from too many strawberries or bit my lip & it was slow to heal my father always recommended gargling sale water (same with sore throats). 

I think there is something to the idea - since bacteria don't generally do well in a salty environment & it helps healing occur without as great a risk of infection - which in turn may lead to faster healing.

Now this doesn't mean it won't burn like fire, but considering the lack of antibiotics... in the past a raging infection was a far greater risk that a few minutes of discomfort from the burn of salt on a wound - I think this old wive's tale had it's heart in the right place.

JoyceB


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