my last hog killing was in the 80's when my husband's uncle killed that one.I remember him lighting a paper and singing the hair.My grandfather used to hang his in the smoke house but I never remember flies being in there.

Folks probably hung "fly paper" around, to keep the flies down. I don't recall the lye treatment, except to make soap afterwards. My grandpa just hung, the scalded, then scraped, to remove the hair (as I recall). Of course, I was only 5 or 6 years old. It was a big deal to me. Jess

They also usually done it in the winter, so flies were not a problem. The meat kept longer, also. Jess