cantankerous pig

[Bird]

I have only participated in one pig slaughter but maybe Hawaiian pigs are just a bit thicker skulled.

I couldn't help but wonder if it wasn't a bit like something we had happen once (and only once, thank goodness). Dad usually killed the animals himself, and I've never seen anyone who was a better shot with a .22 than he was. But he also hired another fellow, who was in the business of butchering animals, at times to do the slaughtering. Neither of them ever failed to drop a beef or hog either one with one shot. However, the pro sent his son to butcher a hog for us once. I guess the boy was new at it. We let the hog out of the pen and put some corn out for him to eat right under the big tree limb we'd later use to lift him with the single tree. Well, the hog moved his head just as the kid pulled the trigger, so the kid shot the hog in the cheek, and then that kid, Dad & I spent a considerable amount of time chasing a squealing hog all over the pasture. It did eventually settle down a bit and we got it back in place for the kid to shoot a second time and that time he got it right.

 

[Egon]

We also used a single tree and rope wire strecher to lift the hog.

 

[Bird]

Egon, I was just thinking that a lot of our members may be too young to know what a single tree (or a double tree for that matter) is. And we called that rope wire stretcher a block & tackle.

 

[sandman2234]

I thought it was snake season the year round in Fla.due to it being warm all year.

LBrown59,
Snakes aren't out all year round. They hybernate a week to ten days during the cold season, then come back out refreshed.(Just kidding)
David from jax

 

[Egon]

Golly Bird, we cannot be that old.

What we called a wire strecher had proper ends for gripping wire and also had a cam lock device on the rope to keep it tight.

For beef we used a double tree with two hooks. Our trees didn't have big enough branches so we had to fasten a pole between two trees.

 

[Bird]

My mistake, Egon. I know what you're talking about now and the wire stretcher is different from the block & tackle we used. And both of the places we lived when I was of an age to observe, and even help a little, with the slaughering of hogs and beef, had a nice big oak tree with a limb strong enough to lift the animals.

 

[Egon]

No mistakes Bird. The wire strecher is just a refined version of a block and tackle. When I get home I'll take a picture of it and post it. It's older than I am for sure.

 

[Renze]

Pigs are nasty animals. When we had to keep all our pigs for a couple of months and ran out of barn space (all farms in our area couldnt move animals due to foot and mouth disease a few years ago) we had to keep them outside in an area enclosed by barn walls on 3 sides, and in the equipment shed.
We couldnt tell my old man enough, to be cautious going into one of the 3 groups of 60 hogs alone without a stick to defend himself. Off course the pig areas were knee-deep mud puddles, so if a person would fall because a boot sucked stuck in the mud, the hogs would curiously check whats on, and slowly starting from watching, sniffing, biting and eventually tear you apart.

My grandfather was a poor farmer, and in those days a dead chicken or a cow's afterbirth meant a conciderable saving on hog feed...


Oh and for butchering pigs, we tried the rear of an axe to aenesthise a pig, but that didnt help much. Most humane is to cut off the throat quickly (cut the blood flow to the brains) and it'll be braindead in a few seconds.
Even for butchering hogs, a FEL is the farmers most versatile helper

 

[Bird]

Pigs are nasty animals. When we had to keep all our pigs for a couple of months and ran out of barn space (all farms in our area couldnt move animals due to foot and mouth disease a few years ago) we had to keep them outside in an area enclosed by barn walls on 3 sides, and in the equipment shed.
We couldnt tell my old man enough, to be cautious going into one of the 3 groups of 60 hogs alone without a stick to defend himself. Off course the pig areas were knee-deep mud puddles, so if a person would fall because a boot sucked stuck in the mud, the hogs would curiously check whats on, and slowly starting from watching, sniffing, biting and eventually tear you apart.

My grandfather was a poor farmer, and in those days a dead chicken or a cow's afterbirth meant a conciderable saving on hog feed...


Oh and for butchering pigs, we tried the rear of an axe to aenesthise a pig, but that didnt help much. Most humane is to cut off the throat quickly (cut the blood flow to the brains) and it'll be braindead in a few seconds.
Even for butchering hogs, a FEL is the farmers most versatile helper

Renze, pigs are only nasty because they usually have to be to stay cool. Given a choice, they'll stay clean but since they cannot perspire, heat will kill them, so wallowing in mud to stay cool becomes a necessity. And they are the only animal I know of that, no matter how many are in a pen, will pick one corner as the "bathroom" and they all use it instead of spreading it all over the entire pen like cattle will do.

And, yes, it used to be common to hit hogs (and cattle) in the head with a heavy hammer to knock them out, then cut their throats. But just to cut the throat quickly . . . well, that reminds me of the story my old rancher friend once told me. He said when he was in high school, his ag teacher told them that was the best way to kill hogs. Now his dad shot them, but when they had a couple to butcher and his dad shot the first one, he told his dad the school teacher had said it was better to just cut their throats. His dad gave him the knife and told him to do it. He said by the time he got that hog killed and both the hog and himself covered in blood, he had decided to never tell his dad how to do anything again.

When I was a kid, country boys sometimes told city boys to not be afraid of hogs because they can't bite you as long as you're standing up. Hogs have pretty rigid necks; can't turn their heads enough to bite anything that's vertical. Actually it was true; there was just one small detail omitted. Even a small pig can hit your legs like a bowling ball and knock you down and then they can chew you up easily. And of course those with tusks can do immeasurable damage without actually biting.

 

[gotrocks]

Ok, I can't resist. Here is my hog (pig) story from High School days.
I was rasing chickens for 4H and a neighbor was using our pig pen(lot) to keep his big black and red hog. I thought I was loosing a few young chickens but could not really get a good count.
Came home from school one day and when I went out to check, one of my young pullets was out of the chicken yard and in the pig pin. That hog was "slidding" along the ground over rocks stalking my chcken that was innocently scratching/pecking away for something to eat. I grabbed a rock about baseball size and popped that hog right in the side but it did not faze him. He grabbed my chick and ate feathers and all............
I'll tryto keep this short but here is the rest of the hog story. The day came to butcher the hog, my step-dad had a S&W 5 shot revolver. The neighbor ask to use it to kill the hog. They put a little feed in the trough and when black&red came up they shot him in the head, he gave a little grunt and kept on eating... after 4 more shots in the head he did leave the trough and run across the pen. The butcher said go get me an axe. He got into the pen and finally on the third solid lick to the head the pig lost his footing, but was still trying to get up. Then the butcher took a long knife and cut the throat. Not a pleasant sight.
To this day I still wonder what the "death certificate" would show as the cause of death. I think he bled to death. End of story.

Please pass the bacon.