Nobody breathed a bigger sigh of relief than me that young Dorothy (pictured right with me bottle feeding her as a baby) has come up with the goods and given birth to our cutest litter yet. As can be seen nest building is not one of her strong points (didn't actually attempt to spread the biscuit of hay just put it next to her) and she decided a ditch looked about right. They are so cute with their mottled colours and Dennis shaped ears and heads. We are on day 2 and although I had to shoo her out of the wallow this morning in case her babies drowned whilst trying to feed so far (touch wood) everyone seems to be doing well. Clearly the mothering instinct in pigs is hereditary as her mother Debra farrowed last night by just lying down under a tree, there were 3 straw filled huts for her to choose from however again..dirt won. We found two of her piglets this morning attempting to join other litters - one with Britney who is in with Maguire the boar but who babysat very competently until we could put him back. I spent last night with one of Lucy's little ones feeding every 2 hours until she was strong enough to go back this morning, much to Emi and Felix's disgust (they named her Layla and thought she would be perfect for show and tell) and as I type we have had 12 from Rosie, 6 from Molly (first litter), Beverly has built a beautiful straw nest and is about to farrow and Harriet is lying in water and thinking about where she will pop hers out.. Maureen is due as well and all in all we are happy because the girls that are on their 2nd and 3rd litters are pretty reliably birthing about 11 - 14 babies, which is fantastic.
Nobody breathed a bigger sigh of relief than me that young Dorothy (pictured right with me bottle feeding her as a baby) has come up with the goods and given birth to our cutest litter yet. As can be seen nest building is not one of her strong points (didn't actually attempt to spread the biscuit of hay just put it next to her) and she decided a ditch looked about right. They are so cute with their mottled colours and Dennis shaped ears and heads. We are on day 2 and although I had to shoo her out of the wallow this morning in case her babies drowned whilst trying to feed so far (touch wood) everyone seems to be doing well. Clearly the mothering instinct in pigs is hereditary as her mother Debra farrowed last night by just lying down under a tree, there were 3 straw filled huts for her to choose from however again..dirt won. We found two of her piglets this morning attempting to join other litters - one with Britney who is in with Maguire the boar but who babysat very competently until we could put him back. I spent last night with one of Lucy's little ones feeding every 2 hours until she was strong enough to go back this morning, much to Emi and Felix's disgust (they named her Layla and thought she would be perfect for show and tell) and as I type we have had 12 from Rosie, 6 from Molly (first litter), Beverly has built a beautiful straw nest and is about to farrow and Harriet is lying in water and thinking about where she will pop hers out.. Maureen is due as well and all in all we are happy because the girls that are on their 2nd and 3rd litters are pretty reliably birthing about 11 - 14 babies, which is fantastic.