It is generally considered best to grow 2 at a time, they will have company, may grow more efficiently and there will be some extra to sell. A castrated male is best with a female being very acceptable. No boars is generally the rule.
A feed formulated for growth of swine is the best along with supplements from extra eggs to garden & kitchen waste. We grow 4-5 per year and absolutly save money, we make a good piece of change on what we sell also.

I have a friend that grows pigs and he collects left over food from the school cafeteria to feed them. They give him a lot.

Just an idea

Usually have lots of eggs, LOL, and at the rate I've been collecting seeds this year hear should have TONS of vegetables. We have a mill in town here I get my chicken food from, I'm sure they'll have pig food. Next pay day I'm going to go and get the stuff to make the pen, and then I guess I'll start pig shopping. His/her name will be "pork chop". Or like everything else around here, maybe just "pig". LOL.

My husband agreed to A pig, I know two will be out of the question. Did some researching today, and although I saw where several places reccomended 2 pigs, I also saw several people who only had one pig, and they said it worked out ok.

wish me luck LOL.

Good luck! We are just finishing up our first two pigs and here are a few things we learned as newbies: We also got two instead of one. They keep each other company (and warm). Consider that two are no more difficult to house and manage than one and boredom could lead to some escape problems. The pigs were relatively cheap to buy, I think $20 a piece. We got two females. We had a time trying to find proper feed for ours at first. When we do it again, we will be getting ground corn and mixture of grains from the Co-op. Right now we feed them twice a day and to do it again would have some kind of auto feeder. Ours are fat and healthy but not as big as the ones where we got them. The guy we bought them from has already butchered their siblings who dressed out at weights that seem heavier than ours will be. I stress the ground grains as the whole grains seem to pass right on through them without them getting much from them, it seems. We also offer alfalfa hay, which they love. We of course feed kitchen scraps and such which they also love.
I will definitely be getting more pigs in the future as I've enjoyed these girls quite a bit. Such is the circle of life, though, it is time for them to GO and I won't be sorry about it, LOL. These are just my thoughts on it but keep in mind I am a newbie about it too. I didn't see where we saved any money doing it but you could be thriftier. Plus, at least you know what all your critters have eaten and the circumstances of their lives. Lori

I have not kept pigs myself. I have considered feeder pigs and have done a lot of research into it. Here are some great sites:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2007/10/how-much-land-per-pig.html

http://extension.unh.edu/Agric/AGDLEP/docs/pigraise.pdf

http://www.mofga.org/Default.aspx?tabid=805

http://www.familyhomesnetwork.com/homeandgardens/pigraising.html

http://www.homestead.org/CJMouser/GettingStartedwithPigs.htm

http://journeytoforever.org/farm_pig.html

I am considering pasture raised pigs, as I am equating pigs in small pens with chickens in cages, but it probably depends on the size of the pen. My chickens are usually penned and have lots of space to run around in it.

Hope this helps. I would like to hear what you get and how it goes. The only reason we have not done this yet is that we will have to kill and butcher the pig ourselves, or pay a $300 inspection fee to have it done (in Ontario). That's on top of the fee to have it killed and butchered, so it's not really worth it for us to raise a pig unless we do all the butchering ourselves. Since we both work off the farm, full time, we just don't have the time for it right now, but we are still considering it.

Please keep us informed of how you get on with this and what problems you encounter, what type of pigs you get, how they do with the feed, etc. I would like to know what to expect.

Thanks for the links! And the advice, everyone.

I wont be getting the pig for at least a month or two, as I need to save the money to build the run, find where to get food etc., before jumping up and buying one.

If you ever been in a hog confinement, you'd know a pig would consider a 8x10 run utter heaven compared to the pens they have in them. They literally cannot turn around in them.

I really never had no problem with commercial farm practices, I really still dont, except for those confinement pigs. I worked in one for exactly one day. Then I quit. I am by no means an animal rights type folk, I hunt, trap, and butcher my animals but man, those confinements are ROUGH.

Anyways, thanks everyone. I get paid on wednesday and then I'm off to look at hog panels. I worked over 5 hours of overtime this week so that should help with hog panels LOL.

We basically just made a square out of hog panels, one panel per side. Even with their 3-sided shelter they have room to run, albeit in circles, LOL. Others may have different views and priorities but our thinking was not to give them TOO much room, like on pasture. We wanted happy critters but did want some of their grain to find its way to their waist:) They have plenty of room, their toilet area is well away from their feed area and like I said, on the days they are feeling giddy they can run around the sides. Lori PS Do you live in a farming community or have any farms around? These panels we used were salvaged from my in-laws. Not new but did the trick. You may call around and see if anyone has some old panels they would part with cheap.

We used pallets that were nailed together with field wire. Some places give wooden pallets away.

If you make a hexagon out of 6 hog pannels you will need to buy 50% more panels but you will get 150% more room for them. Hog panel is typically sold in 16' lengths to my knowledge and $25 each, that's $100 plus what ever you are doing for posts (sorry no estimate) to fence 256 sq ft, with a hexagon you are looking at $150 plus postsX1.5 for 665 sq ft.

Hexagons are just fantastic, that's why bees use them.

Brendan, a very good post!