Posted 9 years ago
hotairfan
(385 items)
posted are four hog oilers from my collection. So, what are hog oilers? they were used mainly in the Midwest hog growing country of Iowa and Kansas. To keep the hog pens free of lice, the farmer would place the oilers in the pens and fill them with insecticidal oil, or, sometimes plain old drain oil. When the hogs itched, they would roll on the hog oilers to relieve the discomfort. This rolling would raise the oil that was stored in the base, to transfer to the hogs skin, this in turn would kill the insects that were bothering them. They may not have known what was causing the discomfort, but the itching stopped.
Hog oilers have become quite collectable. They were made of cast iron and the different shapes and designs were only limited to the imagination of the makers. Shown here in the photos are: A Ball type oiler, a Watermelon oiler, a Lenox ( has a crude pump in the body that the hog bumped to pump the oil), and a Hog Joy oiler.
I like to paint them up and take them to engine & tractor shows for display (that is, when I feel energetic enough to lift all that cast iron on to my PU truck.
lol....I knew what they were. We just had a plain simple one on the farm. Yours are NEAT!!
These are very neat. The corn cob Hog Joy is my favorite.
When I displayed them at engine shows, I also displayed a miniature corn sheller that shells (mini) small ears of popcorn. I shall the popcorn to demo the way the sheller operates. I tell the kids that if they can guess the number of kernels of corn that I have on the Hog Joy Hog Oiler, I will give them a bag of popcorn to take home and pop.
After they are just about ready to come up with a number as their guess, I deliberately bump the oiler, rotating the drum which misplaces their count. After enjoying their expressions of disappointment, I send them off with a bag of popcorn anyway.