Do's and dont's of building a bay pen

[baydownsouth]

I am very new to hog dogging and am looking for yalls input on building a bay pen such as size, materials, enviorment. anything from a-z would be helpful. my email is gabe2138@aol.com but i never use it. Thanx

[Lance]

Build it strong and tall. You would be surprised at what a big boar can escape from. I've seen them climb or jump out of 5 ft. pens and seen them hit net wire and bull panels going wide open and go right through them. Plywood with a bull panel behind it works good because the hog can't see freedom on the other side and is not as likely to attempt escape. If your gonna work smaller hogs then it does'nt have to be very strong or tall.

[Purebreedcolt]

Make sure you got a good door/gate that you can get in and out of and make the fence strong enough you can jump up on it. Haven't had them go over but they pushed my gate open once.

[Purebreedcolt]

Didn't mean to post yet also make sure if it rains a lot you have a high spot especially in the cold months and they will create a mud hole if you let them.  I like my hogs relatively clean when messing with them so I use a trough to water them.

[Peachcreek]

make it round.... a corner will have the hog beating the hell out of the fence and himself.

[Easttex91]

Lacey man posted some videos of mine it's 40' diameter round pen tin all the way around including the gate which they can't push open from the inside it's worked very well for me. One thing I'm going to change pronto is I wanna have an easy way to separate the hogs.

[MrsLouisianaHogDog]

I'm looking forward to reading all the responses here. We have been making due with a small pen that was already on the property when we bought it, until we build our nice big one. We covered all the walls with tarps to try to deter the hogs from wanting to escape, and I'll be damned if them suckers still jump the corners. It is a square pen. I can't wait till we get our nice huge pen built up.

[DoubleJHogDogger]

My pen is a 48x64. The actual pen is 48x56 with a 8x48 holding area in the back. On one side of the holding area is a chute to turn the hogs to the pen and the other side has a return door. All of the corners are forty fived so there in no real corner for a hog to back into. I done with cattle panel which i believe is 48" then i have to two 2x6's spaced 4 inches apart on top of that. So it is roughly about five and falf foot tall. It has tin covering the hog panel. All post are 3" wood post spaced every eight foot. Good and sturdy and never had one escape. A few close calls but none to date. I built this more less just as a project for something to do. It has kind of turned out to be a wasted space because i do not go to bay competitons, the only use is to get young dogs barking at a pig. So if you are not going to go to bay competitions and you are already limited on space i would keep it simple. JMO

[KevinN]

56     HOG & DOGS / HOG DOGS / Re: Bay pen ideas?    on: April 16, 2012, 11:35:19 am
If your looking for long term use...4" post, 16ft cattle panels, large holding pen ( don't want pig poop in bay pen, pups/dogs will eat it, be distracted if not already started good), small separation pen leading to in line chutes, hog exit gate with very small pen just big enough to hold hog and attached to for mentioned separation pen. Entry/exit for people. Bigger is better. 50 to 60 ft across.
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[Peachcreek]

I'm looking forward to reading all the responses here. We have been making due with a small pen that was already on the property when we bought it, until we build our nice big one. We covered all the walls with tarps to try to deter the hogs from wanting to escape, and I'll be damned if them suckers still jump the corners. It is a square pen. I can't wait till we get our nice huge pen built up.

take a half a panel 8' long and bend it into a radius in them square corners

[baydownsouth]

Im honestly just trying to build something to keep trying to improve my dogs baying skills. What is the minimum (as far as dimensions) that i should make it? It will be out at my ranch so space is not a factor but unfortunately money is tight right now. So just trying to get biggest bang for my buck.

[boarboy]

my pen is 32 by 16 yea i know its tiny but i built it for free put a mean hog in there with no teeth your dogs will learn to bay real good they dont have a choice

[justincorbell]

I have a 16x16 pen with 1 85-95lb or so sow in it, i never put a dog inside the pen, i just use it to start young dogs and to let people try new dogs. I was gonna build one 48'x32' but i started thinkin about it and realized that i had no need for a pen that big when all i wanted it for was lettin young dogs see a hog and givin em a bit of practice here and there. It has worked great for me so far. Its nothing fancy and doesn't even have a gate but for what i needed it has worked for me.....think about it, if you have the same needs that I do then it may save you money in the long run. Just a thought.


"the sun is shining somewhere in texas" -Jason Boland

[jimco]

I have a 16x16 pen with 1 85-95lb or so sow in it, i never put a dog inside the pen, i just use it to start young dogs and to let people try new dogs. I was gonna build one 48'x32' but i started thinkin about it and realized that i had no need for a pen that big when all i wanted it for was lettin young dogs see a hog and givin em a bit of practice here and there. It has worked great for me so far. Its nothing fancy and doesn't even have a gate but for what i needed it has worked for me.....think about it, if you have the same needs that I do then it may save you money in the long run. Just a thought.


"the sun is shining somewhere in texas" -Jason Boland

X2, I have a 8 x 16 pen made out of t-post and horse panels with the 2 x 4 in. mesh. I mixed sack cement for the floor so it wouldn't be
such a mess. I left a small spot un cemented so he could make a mud hole. It worked out great. I don't let the dogs get inside. They bay from the outside the pen. I use it to get pups fired up and keep the other dogs fired up. We take the hog out the pen and bring him further in the woods and do mock hunts when we want to work on their finding and baying skills. All it took for the pen was 6 t-post and
3  8 x 16 horse panels.

           
           

                              This is a friend of mines pen, pretty much the same pen .
           
             

[halfbreed]

 probably the most athletic and amazing thing i have seen to date was a bout a 350# spotted boar clear a hog panel like a deer lol this was seen by me at our corral trap in ola texas  . just something to remember when you think about the hight of the pen

[redtick23]

probably the most athletic and amazing thing i have seen to date was a bout a 350# spotted boar clear a hog panel like a deer lol this was seen by me at our corral trap in ola texas  . just something to remember when you think about the hight of the pen

i had a boar that would go around 400lb that would clear a 5 ft fence with out any problem .