Thanksgiving Surprise: Piglets

Way back in the summer, I obtained a big, black sow -- some of you have seen a pic of her in my (late) Tercel -- and a scrawny, stunted boar (I got a good deal on him). I put them together in the forest pen, and hoped the boar would figure out how to surMount a significant size disadvantage. A couple of weeks ago (months later), the sow showed no sign of having been bred, and my neighbor David came by for a look. Pushing 80 and still going strong, he grew up just down the hill, helping his father raise 150 hogs at a time. He declared she was healthy but not "showing", and so I gave up and moved her to the big forest pen. Last night, when I went to feed the pigs, this sow did not come running. For people who don't know, it is extremely unusual for a pig to not come running for corn. But I could hear her about a hundred feet back in the woods, making some strange -- but not bad -- noises. Ezra and I walked in and found her there with piglets, in a nest she'd built out of leaves and twigs. It was already getting cold out, and I worried about those piglets, but I knew the best thing to do was to let nature take it's course... it had worked so far! This morning, the temp hovering around 18F, we went out to get a better look. All the piglets had survived their first night. I called up David, who responded with something like "I'll be darned" and 4-wheeled up through the ridiculously steep woods to see for himself. He declared them perfectly healthy and, after watching her for a while, declared she would be a good mother.

My neighbor David came by to see for himself. He said they all looked healthy.

Upload IP address

204.116.219.60

29 November 2013 19:24

Here you may be able to see that mama has built up a bit of a nest of leaves and twigs. The piglets stay warm by cuddling up against their metabolic powerhouse mama.

Upload IP address

204.116.219.60

29 November 2013 19:24

Black mama, white babies! What's up?!

Upload IP address

204.116.219.60

Linnaea Marie Andelmanha ha ha...

29 November 2013 20:07

29 November 2013 19:24

Upload IP address

204.116.219.60

Linnaea Marie AndelmanHey...I think you need to list Ezra's names of the piggies....especially the mama pig....lol...

30 November 2013 00:01

Erik AndelmanOh yeh, mama is "black manta"

30 November 2013 08:13

Kelly Shipe JeffersOh Golly! That's cuteness:)

30 November 2013 08:51

29 November 2013 19:24

Upload IP address

204.116.219.60

29 November 2013 19:24

This is the boar: Oolong, named after the perverted, shape-shifting pig from Dragonball. BTW, this pic was taken this past summer - today was beautiful, but not that warm!

Upload IP address

204.116.219.60

29 November 2013 19:32

Generated by Erik Andelman on Thursday, 4 October 2018 at 11:26 EDT