Pigs are among the most routine-bound animals on a smallholding, and a house or yard move lands far better when you treat it as a smell-and-habit problem rather than a transport problem. Your pigs map their world through scent and memory: they know their pen by its smells, their day by its order, and their people by voice and routine. The goal across the whole move is to keep as much of that as possible unchanged — the same feed, the same feeding times, the same voices, and bedding that smells of the old pen carried into the new one.
Start with the new yard, not the trailer
Walk the new pen before any pig sets foot in it, and walk it at pig height. Pigs root, lean and push, and a fence that looks sound from standing height may have a soft spot at ground level where a determined snout can lift and work. Check the gate latch, the shelter, the water supply and where a wallow can form or be dug for warm days. Set the pen up completely in advance: water filled, feeder in place, shelter bedded, and a layer of used bedding from the old pen spread inside so the first smell your pigs meet is their own. A pig walked into a finished pen settles; a pig walked into a building site does not.
Practise the loading before it counts
Most move-day disasters happen at the ramp, because a pig that has never been asked to climb one is being asked on the loudest, busiest day of the year. Build the skill early instead. Put the trailer or ramp in the yard days ahead and feed near it, then on it, so it becomes a place where good things happen. Use a pig board — a flat panel held at the pig's shoulder — to guide rather than chase, and keep the ramp low with solid sides so the pig cannot see a drop or a gap to aim for. Short, calm sessions that end after one small success teach more than a single long battle, and a pig that has loaded happily three times at home rarely argues on the day.
Moving day: cool, quiet and unhurried
Travel pigs in the cool part of the day. Pigs cannot sweat, so a hot trailer and a stressful wait can push them towards heat stress faster than almost any other farm animal; load last, travel promptly, and avoid long stationary periods in sun. Feed lightly well before loading so they do not travel on a full stomach, and offer water before you set off and the moment you arrive. Keep voices low and movements unhurried around them, load them with their usual companions rather than singly wherever you can, and drive the journey like you have eggs in the back — because in pig terms, you do.
The first days in the new pen
On arrival, let the pigs into the prepared pen and simply leave them to map it: noses down, a slow patrol along the boundary, a drink, and usually a long sleep. Keep feed, feeding times and your own routine identical for the first week, even if the new yard tempts you to reorganise everything at once. Walk the fence line daily through the opening days, because pigs test a new boundary thoroughly once they feel at home, and watch appetites — a pig off its feed for more than a day after the stress of a move deserves a call to your vet. Family Sharing on KinsLe is simply a way to give relatives you select access to the profile for each pig during the move.