I believe all will agree...what a beautiful and much appreciated weekend. It feels so good to finally check items off of the list and see progress. Feels great to walk and run across fields without high stepping to get through the snow. Feels fantastic to have the four-wheeler working again! It makes feeding and watering go much faster.
The Red Dalmatians were weaned and put in a pen next to Max and the Large Black Hogs(Opie, Bea and Biddy). Max and his friends need to be retrained on the electric wire. So right now they are learning boundaries again. Ramona was moved to another area, out of sight from her newly weaned litter. Frances was put in with her to keep her company. We'll keep Ramona there until she is reconditioned and rested. Then she'll go back out with her group and Ollie the Boar.
Darla and #2 were moved into the same field. They are due with litters very soon. We are so pleased that our brother-in-law, Dan, came down and built three more farrowing huts, making it now a total of five. These huts are well built and have a great design. It's roomy enough for mom to farrow and has a hinged entrance in the back so I can assist or handle the piglets if I need to.
Since we moved Darla away from our big Tamworth boar(Big Daddy), I decided to try and put a Berkshire gilt in with him in his field. Daisy hasn't produced for us yet. She's normal with her heat cycles but it just doesn't seem to be working with her and Ollie. I'm stumped with what the problem may be. I really want to try hard to get a litter from her because if she doesn't...well...you know. It took us a while to get Daisy over there, but we succeeded. She's in heat now so I thought for sure Big Daddy would be interested. No...he was more interested in the feed we brought over with us. After some time I noticed Daisy and Ollie pacing the fence line. Our driveway divides the two fields. Up and down they went with Ollie frothing at the mouth. I took it upon myself to get Daisy back over to her field with Ollie. Maybe that short separation will do the trick.
The chicks seem to be doing fine. We lost one egg layer and several broilers. I did notice two more broilers limping. I'm sure it's safe to say that they won't make it.
With all that we were able to do this past weekend we still find ourselves behind with more projects to add to the list. But that's okay...I'm so grateful it's warm!
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