# How bad do they smell?



## JenJenWv (May 4, 2008)

My husband and I have been planning to get three piglets this year to raise for meat. He started digging the foundations for the pen, but now my parents who live next door are starting to worry about smell. We were planning to put them on the hill by our house probably about 150 feet from the house. My dad is saying this is too close and we will regret it. (He's even saying they will probably smell them at their house which is almost a quarter mile away.) Moving them much farther off would mean we couldn't see them from the house and we are a bit worried about anything happening to them. Would coyotes bother a pig? I've read that with a large enough area, pigs will pick an area for their potty and if that's cleaned out regularly it won't get stinky. Plus straw for bedding instead of leaving them to wallow in all the mud.

I could use some opinions weighing in on this. How close are your pigs to your house? Do they smell or can it be kept in check?

Thanks!


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## Dutchie (Mar 14, 2003)

My first pigpen was about 150 ft from the house. If you plan it in such a manner that you don't have pigs during the hottest months of the year, you should not have a problem. Also, check the predominent wind direction and have the pen somewhere down wind from you and your parents' house.

As far as giving them hay/straw for bedding, don't for a minute think they won't hang out in the mud. A layer of mud on them protects them from the sun and they love wallowing in it.

Good luck!


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## Ed Norman (Jun 8, 2002)

If you give them shade instead of a mud wallow they don't smell at all. Also, raising them for meat doesn't give much time for the manure and smell to build up. If your pen is on a hill with good drainage, I wouldn't worry about it. And if the parents are against the hogs, see what they say when they smell your pork chops grilling in a few months.


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## Beeman (Dec 29, 2002)

Nothing on earth has the smell and staying power of pig poo. The pigs don't smell but their poo is incredible. When I built our pen way down hill and back towards the woods my wife was giving me a hard time about how far away the pen was, it's proably 200 yards downhill and back behind a wooded area. in july there was no doubt why they were back there. Occasionally when the breeze was right you could catch a wiff at the house. They are in a very shaded area and very well drained. Also remember the more you feed the more they poo.


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## tinman1 (Jan 20, 2009)

What 3 did you keep?


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## tinman1 (Jan 20, 2009)

Hi Rose, which 3 did you keep?


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## Rogo (Jan 1, 2006)

What you feed also affects if the manure will smell as well as leaving them on pasture or roaming free instead of penned.

Had a hog ranch down the road from one place I lived. Like my place, theirs had no odor.


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## MariaAZ (Jun 5, 2007)

Rogo, what did you feed your pigs?


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## nehimama (Jun 18, 2005)

Penned when quite young, the pigs' area had a pretty bad smell. I moved them onto pasture after several weeks, and the odor was not a problem on pasture.

NeHi


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## Rogo (Jan 1, 2006)

Maria, I free choice feed diatomaceous earth (DE) for good health, the 28 trace minerals, and no smelly manure. I feed hay free choice. Have heard it also stops the smell. I also feed the excess whole, raw eggs. (Toss them on the ground.) I don't feed anything from my kitchen. 

I'm experimenting with the next batch of pigs, altho it won't be for a while. Going to be raising Potbellies for meat. All the above but no bagged pig feed. Others have said the pigs will thrive well.

There's only one brand of dog food I've found that I'll feed my dogs. Tried it on my free roaming poultry a few years ago - the kibble is beak size - and ever since they won't eat grain, which is fine with me. Egg production and fertility are high. I may give it to the pigs. Strongpoint Maintenance, available at feed stores in just a few states.

No pasture here in the desert. My livestock roam free. Three sided shelters. My dogs protect the stock.

I tend to think outside of the box!


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Our pigs are out on pasture. In the winter we feed hay. The furthest they roam from our house is about 1,000' and the closest is about 40'. The smell is fine.

There is a brief period during mud season in the spring when things are a little aromatic, not awful, just more than normal but you get the same thing with chickens, cows or even sheep as the winter paddocks melt and five months of ---- thaws.

If the pigs do not have fiber in their diet (e.g., hay & pasture) then the ---- might smell more. The carbon helps.

If the pigs lived in pens then it would definitely be worse, but the same as with any animal. Confinement stinks.

Cheers

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


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## Aintlifegrand (Jun 3, 2005)

What kind of hay do you feed them? A grass or a legume?


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

We feed primarily second cut in round bales. It is a mix of grass and legumes. Some square bales too. Some 1st or 3rd cut.


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## farmergirl (Aug 2, 2005)

Our hog paddocks are the closest to the house of any of the animal enclosures we have. Didn't build it that way, just sorta worked out best to have them where they are. Anyhow, they are due west of the house, and we primarily get winds from either the north or the south so the winds don't blow the hog smells into the house. Most of the year, the smell is just a pleasant farmy smell, nothing that any normal person would mind  Sometimes when it is very hot in the summer and the hogs spend alot of time wallowing in their bogs (and peeing in the bogs, too), there is more of a hog stink, but we only smell it in the west part of the house if the wind blows just right, so it's really not bad. 

Our hogs have lots of space to move around in, and are not kept indoors, so the smell is nowhere near what you'd get with a confinement operation. Most people that worry about hogs stinking are thinking of what they've heard of or observed with a confinement set-up.

We've had several city dwelling friends come to stay with us who have mentioned that the hogs don't smell bad like they thought they would.


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## highlands (Jul 18, 2004)

Interestingly the smell issue came up in a phone conversation today. Someone who bikes buy our house was telling me that our pigs don't smell. It came up because he was calling about buying piglets and we were discussing management.


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## GoldenSeal (May 21, 2009)

I've had mine for about a month now and my husband just built a movable pen. We move it everyday and they don't smell at all. The idea it to not let them sit in their own excrement for to long. That way it doesn't built up. That's what makes the smell stay around. They are about 100 ft from my house. You can do this with cows as well. You should look up Polyface Farms. They guy, Joel Salatin, has written a few really good books on the issues of farm animals stinking, why they do and how to stop it. He also talks about how to utilize your animals, for example using your pigs to turn the manure. There's a tone of great information.


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## myheaven (Apr 14, 2006)

Im down wind from my pigs. 16 of them 4 adults the rest babies. No smell here. they have almost an acre to run and eat mainly grass/hay with some grain and mineral. Not to mention milk lots of milk. Give them room dont go heavy on grain and youll be just fine.


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