How Many Females?

[Julia Rafferty]

I have two boats who are going to be neutered soon because my friend is moving and she has to get rid of her two sows. I was glad to take them. I know that two does and two boars almost never work out so how many more females should I get in order to put them in the same cage?

 

[Tim]

Two boars in the same setup with any amount of sows will most likely end up with the boars fighting, sorry. You would need two setups, one for each pair.

 

[Betsy]

with @Tim. The best scenario would be 1 boar and 1 sow in two separate cages. It is very rare that two boars in with sows don't fight. I have somehow managed it with 2 boars in with 3 sows but then mine were extremely well bonded brothers (who are so laid back they are practically horizontal) and I have a VERY dominant sow who won't let anyone step out of line. However, I do keep a constant lookout incase of any fall outs and I do have a Plan B. So far everybody has been getting on with everybody else for nearly 18 months and they are constantly cuddling up with the each other. Also I think it helped that the girls boys knew the girls were there before I bonded them all and vice versa so have grown up knowing female pheromones. (Meg, Christian and Dennis were a surprise shop litter.) They weren't suddenly introduced to the girls. The first summer I had all 5, the boys would be in the run on the grass and would chat to the girls in the hutch and then when it was the girls turn in the run they would chat to the boys in the hutch.

 

[Wiebke]

I have two boats who are going to be neutered soon because my friend is moving and she has to get rid of her two sows. I was glad to take them. I know that two does and two boars almost never work out so how many more females should I get in order to put them in the same cage?

None!

Two boars in a group will simply not work unless you have basically got a whole room for them to live in! The only functional groups I know of where more than one neutered boar are living in the same enclosure have several square feet of space for each boar to have their own territory away from the other; ideally on more than one level. And even then you are not guaranteed that there won't be any fights!

Please keep the sows and the boars in different cages, ideally well away from each other.
Or bond the boars with one sow each after their 6 weeks post-op wait. But two boars just won't work, however many sows you stick with them unless you have got oodles of space and two extremely laid-back and closely bonded boars. One dominant boar on the rampage, and you can say good bye to any dreams!

Are you able to provide this amount of space and are your two boys really getting on so well that they can cope with the presence of sows? Often just the smell of sow pheromones being introduced into a room where there hasn't been any can upset a boar bond; irrespective of whether the boars are neutered or not. Neutering only takes away the ability to make babies - otherwise your boys have all the instincts and behaviours perfectly intact!

Neutered / De-sexed Boars And Neutering Operations: Myths And Facts

 

[VickiA]

You really need one neutered boar per set up ie one NB and one or 2 sows each but completely separate from the other NB and his sow or sows.

 

[Pound Shilling & Pig]

Hi, as others have said it is highly unlikely your boars will get along when living as a group with sows, so not worth the risk of fighting and injury.

I once had a group of elderly piggies consisting of two neutered boars age 8 and 7, two spayed sows aged 7 and 6 and two un-neutered sows both age 6, who got along just fine but I put this down to their age. Gloucester, the 7 year old boar was introduced to the others at the age of 7 when his friend died. Jethro the 8 year old boar simply took no notice of him one way or an other. The only pig who was not to keen on his arrival was one of the 6 year old sows but only for a short while. Also they lived in 6 foot by 6 foot pen so had lots of space. If I tried to do this when they were young I have no doubts there would have been carnage!

From my experience pairs of boars and pairs of sows can be kept in the same room without any problems, provided some basic rules are followed: Do not keep the sows above the boars as bits of interesting smelling bedding,etc could drop into the boars accomaodation, do not keep the cages close to one another, and floor time will need to be a seperate room to where the cages are kept with a sperate area provided for the baors and sows.