Sills 1 × 4 inches.
Posts 2 × 2 inches, 20 inches long.
Braces 1 × 1 inch.
Plates 1 × 2 inches.
The covered part of the coop is made of ³⁄₈-inch matched and beaded hard pine; the floor of any light wood ¹⁄₂-inch or ³⁄₄-inch, matched, but not beaded.
PIGGERIES
Fig. 126. Temporary shelter for a brood sow.
A piggery of any considerable size is the most difficult to plan of all farm structures. One of two methods may be adopted in the East with fairly satisfactory results. If there are woods and some pasture land adjoining or near to the barns, cheap separate pens ([Fig. 126]), one for each brood animal, may be built near the border of the wood or on the edge of it. There need be little more than a slanting roof, with the triangular corners at the ends boarded to keep out the wind. The earth forms a most comfortable bed if kept dry and covered thinly with leaves or straw. Of course, these pens are not suitable for brood animals farrowing during the winter months. Where but one litter of pigs is raised annually, there is little difficulty; if two litters a year be desired, the first one should be farrowed in April or May, and the other in September or October. In either case these cheap detached pens may be not only satisfactory, but they will serve to fit into a system of pig-raising which may be carried on at the minimum of labor and expense and supplementary foods. By means of a tank or barrel mounted on wheels the animals may be fed, either once or twice daily, in large troughs placed in the pasture. This system presupposes ample areas of grass and woodland, which should furnish not only a healthful run for the animals but much food for them.
Usually the mistake is made of confining pigs in small pens, which may or may not have attached to them small yards or runs. These are always devoid of grass, and offensively dusty and filthy a part of the year, and an impassable mud hole at other times. Wherever circumstances will permit, there should be allotted to each brood animal and her offspring one-fourth acre of land. Two small fields might be provided, one of which would serve for pasture ground for all the animals, while the other would be used for raising crops for soiling the pigs or for other purposes. When the lot became fertilized from the droppings of the animals and the grass injured, it should be plowed, cropped and seeded, the animals being pastured meantime in the other field.
Fig. 127. Pig pens. At the left is shown a vertical section, with the roof over the rear. Yard on the right.
Cheap but somewhat more elaborate pens are shown in [Fig. 127]. These may be built in detached pairs, or several pens may be placed in juxtaposition. Each pen, including the small outside yard and feeding floor, both unroofed, is 16 × 16 feet. The part roofed is 8 × 8 feet. After the pigs have attained some size, all doors are opened and the entire herd may be grazed in one field.