Adorabelle is a mum

One of our newest addition to the Wessex clan at Greenvale was Adorabelle which we purchased from Fernleigh farms along with a young unrelated male called Dominator. Adorabelle fell pregnant earlier than I had planned to Dominator and also farrowed earlier than I had plan as such it was a rush last night to set up new accomodation for the impending farrowing. I was so impressed with the accomodation I felt like moving in myself. A snug hut made of large bales overlooking the hopkins river.
This morning I ventured out to find 7 healthy little piglets and 2 not so healthy. A very good breeding litter which was made up of 6 females and 1 male.

Our guest watched the less than 12 hour old piglets as they fed on mum.

New Berkshire Sow is first time mummy

Last week we took possession of two 10 month old pregnant sows and a 4 month old berkshire boar. Brother Scott undertook the 7 hour drive to Adelaide to pick them up. As with our Wessex Saddlebacks the Berkshires, or Berkies as owners of these breeds sometimes call them, are also considered Rare Breeds.

This morning Ben and I went out to feed the pigs at around 8:30 and were surprised to find one of the sows walking around with a little one that couldnt have been more than an hour old wriggling through the thin layer of hay. I was surprised that the sow was up and about and at the same time concerned as a first time mum, I wasnt sure she knew what had happened and what her responsiblities were. After tucking down some food however she went and nestled down and proceeded to pop out 8 more. There was a 10th which she had trouble producing and I tried to help every time I saw the feet come out and retract back in. After about 5 minute I caught the feet and helped bring the piglet out however it was dead on arrival.

Throughout the day all 9 remaining piglets were trying to find teats and get their first dose of mums milk.

The other sow should have her piglets in the next day or so......

New Piglets

Our distinguish lady of the farm Beatrice has given birth to 3 strong and healthy piglets early last week and the Bissell family was here to witness the exciting event.
At a week old we have one male at 1.4 kgs One Female at 1.6 kgs and another male nearly doubling the other two at 2.7kgs this is definitely Princes boy.

Unfortuanetly 48 hours after the birth of the 3 sadly Beatrice passed 3 more still born. Very frustrating but its part of life and apparently common in older sows.

Today I tagged and documented them which involves weighing them, clipping their ears for identificational purposes, counting teats and documenting markings.

I managed to muck up the ear noticing and instead of marking the second piglet as number 5 on our farm Ive marked it as 802. I think this mistake will not cause any issues at all as its going to be several years if not decades before we will have produced our 800th pig.

Three little pigs

Pigs new digs.

Today we finally got the new accomodation for the piglets and their mums sorted out. A nice little patch at the back of the house dam with a couple of nice big old gum trees and some lush grass. We had put little to no thought what so ever into how we were going to move the new pig shed Id built from the place where we had built it to the the paddock. In the end Scott dragged it the 400 or so meters using the bobcat.

For the new enclosure we had to errect a electric fence, add a gate and run water down to the new paddock.

Once I had Beatrice, Doreen, B2, Dixey and Daisy safely down in their new digs they settled in and gourged themselves I think on the onion weed. A weed as its name suggests has a small onion shaped and colored bulb.

The primary goal for the new accomodation was to wean the piglets. So after a couple of days Ill remove Beatrice to begin with and shortly afterwards Doreen so that the piglets can concentrate on the important job of growing. As this is such a large field for 3 little pigs it looks like Ill be getting another couple of small weaners to keep them company.

Small Piglets day out

Beatrices baby seems no longer to be a baby and she (B2 as we call here at the moment) is scampering about all over the place. So we readied the fences in the paddock behind the farrowing pen and we let B2 out into the field for the first time in her life. Not sure about the surroundings at first B2 stayed close to the farrowing pen. Beatrice however coaxed B2 into the Paddock. B2 was very intrigued with the chickens and started chasing them around.

Seven Little Dwarfs

At 7:15 am the sun was peeping over the escarpment into a crisp clear morning. The heavens had left a nice little gift in the rain gauge of 7mm of precipitation which fell last night. After emptying the rain gauge I wandered over to the farrowing shed where I had put Doreen nearly two weeks ago when I produced colostrum from her teat. We had no idea when Doreen was going to give birth as we had originally thought she had been in pig when we picked her up from Fernleigh farm but for some reason she didn't take and by process of elimination we deduced she had been serviced by Prince just after we picked her up. It could have well been on the way home from picking them up as Scott had to stop the ute due to it swaying all over the road as Prince was attempting to mount Doreen.

But this morning was the morning and as I approached the shed I could hear a little unmistakable squeal and upon opening the door there was one little piglet snuggling up to mummy's tummy, I had thought that there were something wrong with the back legs as they seemed to be stiffly splayed forwards . I came back into the house to get the camera and by the time I returned another piglet had been born and was still mostly encased in membrane.

I stayed around to witness the next two being born back feet first and I gave both of them a sling by the back legs to help flush fluid from their airways in an attempt to give them a better chance of survival. The birthing process was quite interesting and most of what I had read was actually happening, Doreen shivering and the twitching of the back upper leg then there was the clear discharge prior to the actual arrival.

After the fourth there was, what I had presumed, the afterbirth. On checking back a little later another piglet had arrived and then by 11:30 there were 2 more to make seven, and what looked more logically to be the placenta.

Its very scary watching by yourself even after reading all about the processes as its difficult to really establish whether or not there really are problems and exactly how and at what point you would intervene. Probably much like you wouldnt read a book about cricket and then go out and play a game without some hands on training.

Where as Beatrice had given birth late afternoon before a cold night, Doreens birth was in the morning in much milder conditions, even so I had the heat lamp already in the shed turn on. This didnt however prevent 2 casualties that evening where Doreen had rolled on them. Its so disheartening to find the squashed bodies, the alternative is the farrowing pen which goes against letting the animals exhibit their natural behaviours.

We now stand at 5 little pigs with the runt surviving, 3 males and 2 females all snuggled up under the heat lamp and Doreen having a well earned rest as we enter into the second evening.

The Three Little Pigs

Friday evening was a bizare but rewarding evening. At 5:30pm with my usual feeding routine I headed to the pig paddock to feed the crew. No one was in sight so I yelled the ritual, "pig, pig, pig, Prince, Doreen, Beatrice" Prince being his usually enthusatic self stuck his head out of the galvernized iron water tank converted into a pig shed and looked around then bolted the 50 yards toward me. Doreen then emerged and waddled in my general direction. I yelled several more times for Beatrice but she didnt appear. I got to the shed and stuck my head in and was bowled over by the sight of Beatrice lying on her side and two tiny little pigs staggering about in their fragile state not really bigger than my hand.

Panic set in, this wasnt meant to occur yet. Beatrice hadnt even looked like she was ready. She had dropped around the back udder area, however her teats hadnt looked like they had formed yet, not compared with other near farrowing sows Id seen.

In the Chaotic state of my thoughts there were a number issues I was trying to resolve quickly, getting Doreen and Prince out of the Paddock, creating a barrier so Beatrice could exit the shed but the piglets couldnt, establishing an escape area for the piglets, food, water and protecting the piglets against cold and foxes.

I lead Doreen, then Prince back to the house pens individually and by the time I returned to the shed at 6:30pm the third piglet was born. I took the tail gate off my ute and put it against the pigshed entrance propped up by rocks dirt so the piglets couldnt excape and then put a gate inside the shed as a piglet escape area. I gathered food and water for Beatrice and as for guarding against foxes I pondered getting our keplie sheep dog, Basil, and tying him up near the shed but thought that he would bark all night and possibly stress Beatrice so I decided to park my ute next to the shed and camp for the night. I hoped that me checking regurally and the body heat of Beatrice would protect against the cold and for 2 of the 3 it did.

I dropped off between about 3:30 and when I awoke at 4:30 I checked and found the last piglet born lying out by herself and when I picked her up she was alive but ridgidly cold. I brought he back into the ute and cranked up the heating. At 6am her body temp had returned and I bought her back to the house and placed her under a heat lamp and went and collected colesterum from Beatrice and then every 30 minutes fed her Natalies baby formula. She then started to struggle breathing like there was still fluid in the respirtory system. As per the literature I swung her by her back legs between my legs. This did provide some relief however Im guessing the fluid had been down there for too long and she passed away around 4pm.

Not long after that we brought Beatrice and the two piglets up to the farrowing pen they were meant to be in to begin with. We were hoping there would be more then 3 however not surprised as Beatrice is getting on and aparently litter sizes decrease the older a sow becomes.

Tomorrow Ill be ear notching which is required for identification purpose. I think Doreen is now also close to farrowing so Ill be a little more prepared however I wasnt expecting them both to be farrowing around the same time.

After writing the above and before retiring for the evening I went to check on the piglets. Only one was visible. After looking around the pen I nudged Beatrice to move and as I suspected one of the piglets laid squashed to death underneath. So the Three Little Pigs are now One. Its a harsh reality of life.