Piglets Galore! Part 1

Since last week, I have been meaning to post. But I've been too busy during the day and too tired at night! Pig farrowing has begun and of course things didn't go according to how we planned. Don't the pigs know our itinerary?

Where do I begin?.....

Well, I had mentioned before that we had separated two sows(#2 and Darla) into their own paddocks, since they were going to be first to farrow. Due date March 12th for both of them. Next two to separate would be Mary Lou and Abbie. I wasn't sure of the exact due date but by the looks of their milk rows(as of March 10th) I was thinking two-three weeks. Okay...so the plan was to separate Mary Lou and Abbie on March 13th. They are in with the Berkshire pork group in the woods and of course needed to come out of there into their own paddocks near #2 and Darla.

During the usual feeding Thursday morning, I noticed Mary Lou's milk rows. They still were not that full but when I squeezed, there was a lot of milk. With my experience, that means the sow will usually farrow within three days. A quick glance at Abbie...no, her milk rows are still pretty small. There's time with her.

"Scott, I think we should go ahead and build out paddocks for Mary Lou and Abbie."

"Sure, no problem...I'll get the huts up there later this afternoon."

"Perfect...I'll quickly build paddocks after I pick Sam up from school."

Around 1:00 pm I was getting the woods hogs some water. Being a warm day, they enjoyed rolling around in the extra water I poured on the ground. Mary Lou came over, got a big drink and laid on the ground. After a few minutes she got back up and carried on with her pig business and I carried on with mine. Sam and I got home around 3:00pm and I grabbed the needed supplies and headed up to where I would build the paddocks. It was such a good feeling being ahead of the game and having a good control of the day. As I reached the top of the hill, I noticed Mary Lou on the ground. Odd that she would be sleeping in that location, I thought. Getting closer and closer, I realized she wasn't sleeping. She had her litter! A bunch of nursing piglets. In two hours she went from not showing any labor signs to having all of her piglets...nine of them(really ten but she may have laid on one). Completely shocked, I ran down to tell Scott. I was also worried about the nine other hogs and what they might do if they got too curious. Scott had to stop what he was doing and focus on how we were going to handle this situation.

Mary Lou was in the woods with no shelter. Heavy rains were coming for the weekend so that was the first item to deal with. So now what would be best? Maneuver the farrowing hut through the trees to her? Or build the paddock as planned and try to move her and the piglets up to the hut. Scott thought it was best to bring the hut down to her. It wasn't the simplest of tasks getting the hut through the trees, but Scott was able to do it. I brought plenty of straw down while he built the electric wire fence around Mary Lou. We were able to get the piglets into the shelter but Mary Lou wasn't so sure. It took a while for all of them to get settled. Thankfully they did.

Since Mary Lou had her litter, I was concerned about Abbie. I checked on her again and she still appeared to have more time. Good! It's almost dark at this point and there are many other things to do.

So later on, when it was completely dark, I felt I needed to check on all hogs. Still no piglets for #2 and Darla. Mary Lou and her piglets are doing great and snug inside the hut. The other woods hogs are in their shelter. They don't seem to mind what's going on nearby with the new mom. Hmmm...where's Abbie?

(sorry to do this, but there is so much to tell and I need to go to sleep!)