Why these tiny FAT Pigs Might be Perfect For Homesteading
American guinea hogs eat almost anything, including dead chickens and weeds, and stay calm and social around humans and other animals. The hosts test new fencing equipment, work through a milking routine with carrot pulp, and train their dog Laurel on basic commands.
Chapters
Good morning, how are you?
How are you?
How are you?
You want to smell? You don't want what's in there. It's chicken guts. Good morning. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 3 more days. So nervous, so nervous. It's gonna be the first time shooting a pig. I said, Rebecca, what are we gonna do with all our food scraps after we get rid of the pigs? I mean, 3, 4 pounds of food scraps today without even blinking, without even thinking. Give them to the chickens.
Yes, yes.
I've almost forgotten since I've gotten pigs. Chickens are pigs with feathers. They're also like dinosaurs. Can I tell you something else about the guinea hogs, the American guinea hogs? Well, first of all, they follow food better than the traditional hogs. Yeah, you guys, this is gonna count because they're not really following my food. Hey, Josiah, can you come lead with the food? I'll help herd. Come on, come on. Yeah, they're not responding to me. They eat absolutely anything without hesitation, including weeds.
3.
2, they don't get terribly big. They don't have an ounce of aggression. And 3, they didn't hesitate to eat chickens or any other dead thing that happened to be on the farm. Fish, mouse, just ate it right up. Made super— were super efficient with everything. Well, they're probably not gonna eat that lemon peel, but they eat, uh, watermelon rinds, banana peels, broccoli stems— things that chickens maybe would eventually eat before it rots. Kind of not really. And the other thing, as much as they'll eat a dead chicken, which is great because if a chicken dies, it's sad, but there's some redemption when that chicken— when you can turn that chicken into bacon. But one day Actually, the other day during that crazy wind— we had some crazy wind— it actually blew up the pig shelter and tilted this up on a willy. I don't know if we had a kickstand or not. A chicken died. A chicken got squashed and died, and then the pigs ate it. But yet they don't eat these guys. Now I don't know if it's because it's the American guinea hog or it's their particular nature, but they've lived very well with these chickens. I might be a little bit nervous with those traditional hogs. That's my take on, uh, guinea hogs. And did I say they would follow you anywhere? They would follow a bucket. They'll follow a bucket. And in Jim and Rinda's experience They don't even need to follow a bucket.
They will follow you anywhere. I mean, I had them like 200 yards away. They followed me all the way home, and I had no food with me. Just seeing me was enough to get them to come along. So they're attached.
Um, we gotta get these cows moving. We do have some grass across the road and in the other field, but we got to get our lane ready. It's a new way to— it's a new insulator for the T-post. What's— what I think I liked about it is that you could mount it sideways on there. You're not just restricted to one direction. All right, before I even put this on, I'm not sure this is gonna— here, let's try it. Okay, so there it's on. That went on a lot easier than these. How you gonna get this in there? Uh-oh. You're supposed to be able to put poly rope in there. Oh, maybe that's how you do it. Uh, can't put poly rope in there easy. Let's see what it's like to get it off. Wow, that was easy. Easy to get on, easy to get it off. You can mount to the side, which I really like. That's really nifty right there. I want it to work for me, it's just not gonna. I'm sort of disappointed about that. I was counting on those in the video they showed poly rope going in. It looked easy. It wasn't easy, so I have to look at that again, but in case I'm doing something wrong. But there is some stuff I can still do. Oh, that's broken. No wonder we have this. All right, well, there's still stuff we can do without these. You want to run the rope? You're back. Okay, we got— we got— we got—
we did pretty good.
We're almost out of time. Not enough time to start again. Ran out of insulators. We have more line. We'll have to get some more insulators maybe today. Um, 2 strands right through here. Hopefully that's enough to keep the little calves in. If not, we'll add more. We got all the way up there, all the way down to the, to the road. It's a few minor things left, but it is milking time. We got carrot pulp from our carrot juicing. See if she likes that. Pour a bunch on there, see if she'll actually take it or avoid it. She doesn't like it. Has she already eaten all her alfalfa? Yeah. Oh wow, she likes it, I guess. She's kind of working around it. All right, hey, before we wrap up this vlog, I gotta give you guys a huge shout out The movie, The Great America Farm Tour, as you probably know, it's on Amazon Prime now. My mouse is not working. And we launched it last weekend and you guys went and watched it in unbelievable numbers. I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm glad you guys are enjoying it on Amazon Prime. Some of the stats are in now. I want to pull it up. Boom! Look at that. Can you see that? That's the 3 days. Day 1, day 2, day 3. Over 400,000 minutes, guys. That's like 3,000 views all the way through. People are really getting this. You guys are really getting this. Oh, it's so amazing. You probably have Amazon Prime. You probably watch it for free. Yes, thank you. Thank you so much. I'm glad you guys are enjoying it. I missed training yesterday with Laurel. I'll be honest. She's been in a funk. She hasn't been wanting to obey lately, and I'm sort of depressed about it. Well, depressed is a strong word. I'm sort of upset about it. I'm discouraged. Discouraged is better. I don't— I'm not really motivated to continue if you've been having like ridiculous amount of progress and then it's like no change, no change. Laurel, you ready? Looks like maybe you're a different attitude attitude. Hey honey, we're gonna have fun. Laurel, come. Good, good. Okay, sit. Yay! Oh my, maybe we had a change, maybe we had a change. Laurel, come. Yay! Maybe your attitude has changed. Laurel, come.
Sit. Yay!
No, not a belly rub.
That'll do.
Laurel, come.
Yay!
No, I'm holding her up. I don't want her to do it unless I tell her. Okay, Laurel, sit. Good job!
Yay! Good job, good job!
I don't know what happened, but she's, she's back. She's eager to please. That's good. Lie down. Yay!
Good job, good job, good job!
She's acting weird with the cat. Let's see if she'll come. Laurel!
Come. Good job. Good job.
Good job. Lie down.
Good job.
Oh my, that's the closest we came to a proper lie down yet. Laurel, come. Sit.
Good job. Good job.
Lie down. I'm not gonna rub her belly. We'll go with that, right? She's laying down sideways. We'll work on that. We work on that.
Stay. Stay.
I gotta come and put her back. Stay.
That'll do.
Laurel, come.
Ah, that's my Laurel!
That's my— that's my Laurel! She's back! She's back!
She's back! You back? Hey, you back? Oh, you back?
Oh! Oh, oh, are you bad? Belly rub, belly rub.
Where are you going?
What are you doing? Okay, come here. Hey, belly rub. Oh, good, good.
That's a belly rub.
Belly rub, belly rub.
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