I said goodbye to Barney today, the little black and white pot belly boar piglet. He was very small for his age, but not the runt of the litter. Barney had a very good disposition, but Wilbur, the father of the piglets, was a little iffy. When he was young, he loved to be scratched behind the ears, but as he got mature, he was quite protective of the sows and would chomp and froth at the mouth, something that boars do when they want to get into a tussle, especially around sows. I smacked his butt a couple of times pretty good, though he likely just thought that was more of a challenge. So, he went to freezer camp. Clara had complications after her last litter and passed away in her sleep. I was not aware she was having troubles, so was very surprised. The piglets were adopted by the other sows. 

So Barney, Fred, Wilma and Betty hid out when the piglets were being collected to go the butcher shop. There was no way they were going! Smart little piggies. I was pretty surprised to find them camped out in the big hay bales the next morning, but had to give them credit for their brains. That saved their lives. 

It was not my intention to continue raising pigs, and I originally thought Fred was a girl as Barney was always breeding him, Upon close investigation, he was a he, not a she! So, the piglets are 5 months of age and likely are already bred. Drat! I am not sure they will have successful litters though. I have tried to lock Fred up many times, but that guy finds ways to get out of places I did not think were possible. How, I am not sure! 

Wilma and Betty are Ossabaw hog and Potbelly crosses, so they will be quite petite, but Fred is a Large Black/Meishan/Potbelly and who knows what size he will end up. 

I baked one of the butchered piglets whole for my supper tonight. It was delicious. The piglets were still nursing so this a milk fed meat, tender and delectable. I am still not over raising animals for food. It seems so utterly barbaric, but as I do eat meat, I might as well know what goes into the critter and know they were humanely spoiled with lots of love on my farm. I think Fred will miss Barney the most. Barney went to a lovely home though. A grandpa came to pick him up for his grandson so the mommy pig and he can have baby pigs. Awe. So long Barney! 

A sow about to farrow will separate herself from the herd and find her spot. She will have picked it out some time before and built a nest for the young ones. The nest will have a furrow for her and a space to keep the young in close to her. She will stay in the nest for a few days, usually about three, only emerging to eat and drink and relieve herself, which she would never do in her bed unless forced to. Unfortunately, Sonia will have no choice, because the only way I could keep the piglets from her was to close her space off entirely. Otherwise I was concerned that the piglets would nurse from her and force her newborns out in the cold. That happened with the last sow that farrowed. She had adopted Clara's piglets a week before farrowing and they drank her colostrum leaving the new piglets to starve and freeze. So, to prevent that from happening, Sonia is locked up. She has about 8 square feet, enough to lie in any direction and still have lots of room. 

She was bred to the pot belly boar, Wilbur, even though she resisted for some time. The other sows were much more cooperative, much to his delight. Sonia is smaller and likely not so much of a challenge for the potbelly, who is a smaller boar himself. 

Sonia had built her nest yesterday. I tried to get her to stay there and fence her in, but she was having none of it, though today, she was supremely cooperative. I got the little piglets out of the way and Sonia laid down in her nest. Her vulva was very enlarged and jiggly, a sign of labour and delivery impending. I thought by the end of the day she would have farrowed, but I checked her before I retired and there were no piglets yet. There will be tomorrow for sure. 

Sonia is Ossabaw Hog, a black and white pig breed often cartooned because of the long skinny snout and round body. Literally at this point she looks like someone stuck the bellows up her butt and blew her up! Tomorrow she will feel so much better. And I cannot wait to see those little gaffers. Sonia is black and white spotted and the boar is black. The dominant genes will be what colour the piglets are. They would be so adorable if they were black and white spotted. I wonder if they will have the round body or the potbelly style. Stay tuned for the news and pictures tomorrow. 
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The Meishan and Ossabaw gilts were all bred basically at the same time. One of the Meishans has already farrowed, almost 10 days early. I am not sure how many babies she actually had because I cannot find any trace of where she farrowed, but then, the dogs will clean that up as part of their job not to attract predators. The thing is, there are two nests built, in two different huts, but I believe she farrowed in the third hut and did not build a nest. I found two dead piglets, and 6 live ones, which is half the size of litter she was expected to have. The sire was a Pot Belly boar and they only do have small litters, so perhaps there was that influence or perhaps there were more. The piglets are not well tended as this is the pig that adopted the deceased pot belly sow's brood. She allowed them to nurse which brought the milk much quicker than needed. The vet said a week prior to birthing her own, the piglets should be removed to allow the colostrum to build, but she farrowed early. The piglets are very small, the size of potbelly babies, not Meishans. Meishans should be 2-3 pounds at birth and these are likely all under 2 pounds for sure. I planned to remove the babies from the deceased sow on Monday, which technically would give her 5 days to develop colostrum. Plan failed! Because she does have 20 functioning teats though and she has 10 live piglets to nurse, I am hoping for the best. 

So, the second Meishan gilt should farrow anytime, though technically she too has 8 days to be on schedule and the Ossabaw sow should be right in their too. I am guessing it is those two sows that have built nests, since the first one is in the hut without any straw at all, plus the littlest piglets cannot get in and out because of a large step. I made a ramp for them and as long as the big pigs do not dislodge it, they can come out. I suspect some of the piglets perished because they were cold, since they do not have any nest at all. I will give them some clean straw this afternoon after coming back from getting dog meat. 

There are always strange things on the farm. Some of them make my heart heavy, and I am learning not to count my chickens before they are hatched so to speak. I was worried about having so many piglets and as it turns out, there are only 5 from Clara's litter and 6 from Meishan 1. So, unless the other two sows have successful litters I won't really have much to worry about at all. But, I feel terrible about the loss of those little lives. I really do. 

Clara came to the Fat Ewe Farm in the arms of her previous owner, a cute little pink and white piglet, a little shy and very sweet. She was cute as a button and Wilbur, her mate, and she grew up together. When Clara was about 8 months old, she had her first litter of piglets. Potbelly babies are so tiny and delightful when they are born, one cannot help but fall in love every time. Clara was a very good mother, more protective than I would have liked, because it was hard to tame the little piglets since she would not let me pick them up and pet them. The first ones were told to pet homes and I hope they are doing well. 

Clara and Wilbur had many litters, not all great successes. The ravens sat on their hut while she was having the piglets and took every single one except the last one, which she was then able to defend. The current litter is 29 days old, actually old enough to survive on their own and be weaned. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on which way one looks at it, one of the Meishan gilts, who is bred herself to farrow in a month, has adopted the piglets and is allowing them to nurse, which has brought in her milk. Technically, the 4 week old piglets no longer require mother's milk. It is a problem as well, because when the sow has her own litter, she will need the colostrum for her babies, and how on Earth would she manage two litters of piglets who are trying to nurse? Potbellies are small enough that to fence them off from her is nearly impossible. I will have to catch them and put them in the hoop shelters until the Meishan's piglets are well on their way. 

Clara will be sadly missed at the Farm. She was a fixture here, always seen in the pen with a grunt and a waddle. I think Wilbur will miss her the most. He was in bed when I removed Clara's body, but in another shelter and I felt he was grieving. The babies were watching intently and they too, knew that was the end for their mamma. 

Rest in peace, dear Clara. Your absence will be sadly noted. 

Clara's belly was so big this time, it actually dragged on the ground. She waddled around a bit to eat and drink, but mostly laid down in the past three weeks. I cannot blame her. She did not suffer any problems with this pregnancy that she did last time when she had hemorrhoids of all things. Poor girl. After she delivered, the problem corrected itself and all was well, but she only had 6 babies. This time she has 9. She only has 8 teats though, so I may end up bottle supplementing one or two piglets. Bottle feeding piglets is not the easiest process, but I have had the pleasure to do so before with Tavy, a sweet female with a strong will to live . She was a Berkshire baby, the runt born so much tinier than the others, who refused to die. After a couple of days, I took pity on her and started to bottle feed her and she thrived and I was in contact with the lady who purchased her from me recently and she still has her! She must be a very big girl by now. 

But back to Clara. Clara is a nervous mother, the sort best left to tend to her babies on her own. She otherwise gets worrisome and steps on them or lays on them, sometimes to their demise. I put a bale of hay out for her and she carried mouthfuls to her chosen spot and built her nest. It was not where she slept usually, or laid down in the heat or rain, but a different shelter not shared by any of the other pigs. They respect her at this time and give her space, watching from the other side of the fence. Wilbur, on the other hand, goes in to check on her once in awhile, but she scold him and sends him out. Begrudgingly, grunting his disapproval, he exits and leaves her to her mothering business. 

I was not able to tell how many boys or girls Clara has since she is a nervous mother, but I did manage to snap a few photos of the new arrivals. Cute or what?

Pretty much everyone I know loves pork, and who doesn't love bacon? Large pigs grow fast and eat a lot. The Fat Ewe Farm had Berkshire hogs a few years back and started a lot of folks in this area with their own Berkshires. They are easy going pigs, good natured and not too hard on fences. And their flesh makes great pork meat for human consumption. But one pig is a lot to eat, so I gave them up. I had to buy grain for them and the cost to raise the pigs was almost more than if I bought some one else's pig already cut and wrapped. The problem is I was never sure what the other pigs were fed and that made a difference to me. 

So last year I got some pot belly pigs, Clara and Wilbur. They have had quite a few litters together, though the ravens got one litter except for one and she had one group in the dead of winter and they froze. She was inexperienced then and scattered them out of the nest she so carefully made. 

A friend had two Meishan pigs that their family had outgrown which she offered to me and they are part of the pigs on the farm now. Meishan sows have 20 teats and can raise that many piglets easily. They were imported to Canada from China to increase the numbers of piglets that our North American sows had, but the cross breeding didn't work. The crossed sows were not able to support large numbers of piglets so then some of the Meishan pigs were sold in markets around the country. I am not sure how my friend acquired them. They are mid sized black pigs with floppy ears and when they are babies they have lots of wrinkles. 

The Meishans are bred to the Pot Belly Boar. I hope to sell the piglets, dressed whole, for Christmas dinner alternatives. Long ago, especially in Britain, piglet was served for Christmas, whole on a platter, but roast to perfection of course. After butchering the Pot Belly piglets at 4 months of age and eating the delicious pork, I would not like to go back to the large pigs again. It is that good. There is no bacon on a pot belly though, but Meishans have excellent bacon so perhaps the crosses will too. Clara is pregnant and due in a few weeks. This litter will be ready for butcher in October and the Meishan cross piglets should be ready in November or December depending on when they were bred. Perhaps I can also start some small farms back to raising smaller hogs for family use. 

Today a third breed of pig joined the farm, the Ossabaw hog. They have long thing pointy snouts and seldom exceed 200 pounds. The breed was likely a Spanish pig that was left by sailors on the Ossabaw Islands off Georgia in the USA where it became feral and survived in poor conditions. With good feed the pigs develop gross amounts of fat around the belly, but the meat is considered the best for charcuterie and is highly sought after. The pigs do well in a forage based operation. 

On the Fat Ewe Farm, the pigs have pasture to root through and grass to eat as well as their barley feed. I am thinking of allowing them in the bush by the creek where they can root around and find things they like to eat. That is much healthier than sitting in the grain bucket for their food. It will be interesting to see or rather taste, the difference between the Pot Belly, Meishan and Ossabaw pig meat. Would you like to try some? 

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I check on Clara and the piglets two or three times a day at least. Today when I came home from work, I went to see Clara and the kids and they were not there. It is a bit early for her to take them out in the world, but sure enough, nobody was home. 

I looked around in case they were out and about and saw no one. So, I went to Wilbur's shack to see if he was in. Yes, Wilbur was snoozing mostly covered in hay, but I could see the hay rising up and down and black boar bristles in between. Wilbur was in. Then I heard Clara grunting and Clara had moved in with Wilbur and brought the kids, but not all of them. There were only 5. 

Oh no! Did the ravens get the other two? That is always a big concern because the ravens are much bigger than the piglets and they would be easy targets for those predators. Off to check the old house I went, hoping that they were there. I didn't see anything and started poking around the hay. Out came a squealing piglet. Maybe the other was there too? I poked the hay and out came the second piglet. I picked the two little gaffers up and after a bunch of squealing, they were fairly quiet, so I marched over to Wilbur's place. Robbie was thinking he would help and the piglets were terrified. Robbie was getting excited though and did not want to leave. The other dogs were coming to see what the commotion was about too. 

I gave one piglet to Clara but wanted to keep the other one, a cute pink, black and white spotted little one, for a few minutes.  Clara was not having any of that though, and she came out of her nest grunting and barking at me, "Give me my baby!" I put the baby down, who started to squeal at the top of his little lungs, which brought the dogs back, and he started to follow his mamma, so she went to the other piglets. Robbie scared him though and he got sidetracked, so I had to pick him up again. Oh the noise!! Oh, the noise! Those little things can squeal. Clara came rushing out to rescue the piglet and I shooed her back in and put the little guy in with her. Whew! 7 found, safe and sound. Another adventure at the Fat Ewe Farm for the day. 

Clara had her piglets! She had 7 babies, 6 normal sized potbelly babies and one tiny one. She has 8 teats, but two are difficult for the little ones to access, so technically only 6 lunch taps are available. That means that the poor little runt does not have a good chance at life. This is survival of the fittest. I have bottle fed a baby piglet. It is a lot of dedicated work, but very sweet too. If Clara does not reject the piglet, it might be possible to supplement the baby with a bottle and leave him with his mother (or hers, I didn't look) which is the best plan. Clara is oblivious to the number of babies at this point and is just likely very relieved to have them out and done with. She was fatigued and hardly able to waddle these last few days. I made a place for her to have her babies, away from Wilbur, the boar. 

Surprisingly, Wilbur respects Clara's privacy. He protects her too. When I arrived at the pen to check on Clara, he challenged me just a little, saying, maybe I should not want to go there. But Wilbur and I are good friends, so he let me pass. Clara was in a tizzy and had just had the last baby. I snapped one or two quick pictures and left her to tend to the kids. 

Later I returned and counted the babies. Clara had just passed the placenta. Some sows eat it, some don't. I never actually know if she does, because the dogs will clean it up for her if she does not so as not to attract the ravens and other horrible predators. The ravens were not in sight when Clara had her babies, thank goodness. 

Two of these babies are spoken for to become breeders on a new farm and raise potbelly pork for the family there. There will be at least 4 others up for sale in 4 weeks. Clara herself is scheduled for sausage at that time, so depending on how many females there are, one daughter may be retained for breeding unless I can find some one to trade piglets with. This is Clara's third litter and she is much more relaxed as a mom, which is a good thing. I am hoping to be able to handle the babies without upsetting her too much. They squeal very loudly when they are picked up. In nature, the only time  a piglet is picked up is when it is caught by a predator, so you can understand the predicament for them. 

​Thank you Clara and Wilbur, mostly Clara! Well done little mamma. 

Clara is a "pink" pot belly sow. She is not really pink, more of a grey colour, but her skin is pink that shows through, with a pink belly too. She must have been adorable as a piglet. I only got her when she was already 5 months old. She arrived shortly after Wilbur, the boar did. They got married right away, good thing too, because the kids were on the way not too long after that. Pig gestation is 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days more or less, some add 3 hours and 3 minutes too. 

But the ravens took Clara's first babies, all except Piglet, a little boy. He stayed with his mom and dad until he kept trying to have relations with his mother. His father thought that was disgusting and tried his best to keep him away from her, but the little guy just couldn't seem to help his incestuous feelings, so he got locked up in a hoop coop. At first he was terribly lonely. Pigs are herd animals and need other pigs to be content.PIglet was visited daily while he was in jail for those two months. He ate and drank well, like a pig, and gained a little more weight. And then, the inevitable day came along and PIglet was no more, just fondly remembered on the barbeque. 

Clara had six babies with her next litter and all went on to be quite well and happy. It was around four months of age that the young boys wanted to breed everything in sight, including their sisters and mother. Again, poor Wilbur attempted to prevent this, but he had a go at his daughters too, so the kids were all sent to freezer camp. The smallest was around 40 pounds and the biggest was closer to 55 pounds or so. 

I must say, raising these pigs for meat makes much more sense for a small family (of one in my case) than most other animals. The piglets are ready to butcher in 4 months. The mother completely cares for them for the first month, so really they are only fed for 3 months and they do not eat a great deal because they are small animals. But they produce lots of red meat, which is what the flesh looks like, pound for pound. 

Clara is going to have piglets today or tomorrow, I think. She has prolapsed a little, that is her back end never returned to the tight package it should have been after her last litter. That means this will be Clara's final litter and then she will have to go to freezer camp as well. Already a boar and a sow are sold to the man who is renting my pasture this year. He took quite an interest in the small pigs and wants to give it a try. I would prefer to sell the babies rather than butcher them, so perhaps I will be more fortunate with this litter since it is going into summer. No one wants to raise animals over the winter when it is so much work here. 

I am thankful for Clara and her contribution to the farm. She is a good girl and has had a great life. Normally she and Wilbur have the run of the barn yard, but with her so close to delivery they are in their pen for safety. Hopefully the ravens will leave her alone this time. I put a big bale of straw in one of the shelters where she had been building her nest. Wilbur will have to sleep in the old quarters by himself for a week or two. 

If anyone is interested in some pot belly piglets, in 4 weeks or so, they will be ready for their new homes and they are so adorable! I hear one squealing your name...

Unless you are vegan or vegetarian, you are definitely a meat eater. I am, but have not always been. For a while I practiced being a vegetarian, more to learn about how to feed myself properly without meat than from any conviction about eating meat. I do not like the way most animals are treated, though, and it always bothered me to think about their lives. Chicken, for example, is slaughtered at 6 to 8 weeks of age, when on the farm, a chick that age is still a tiny little thing snuggling under its mamma's wings. 

But on the farm, I do not need to eat the quantities of meat that most people do. I live alone and other than the occasional guest, most of the time I cook for myself. I do like a good chicken soup and a great stew or curry is heart warming on a cold winter's night. At first I raised big Berkshire hogs. One hog, slaughtered at 250 pounds is around 8 months of age. The sow had 11 and 13 piglets though, so unless some of them were sold, I was not raising one hog. It was hard to sell the pigs for a good price too. That is the thing about small farms that I do not understand. People will go to the store and buy pork for $5 a pound, but they won't pay $2 a pound for pig from a farmer. So, I quit raising the big pigs. 

Now I have little pigs, pot belly pigs. They are not so tiny and not large, have very easy going dispositions and are friendly, but the best part, is they do not eat much compared to the big pigs. A litter of piglets, usually 6-9, are raised by the mother for the first month to six weeks and then they begin to eat what the parents do, with no particular special consideration. At four months old, they have reached approximately 40 pounds. Six piglets will give a hanging weight of approximately 40 pounds each, so in total 240 pounds of pork, but it is piglet, not grown hog and it is much better tasting, more tender and delicious. The meat is red in colour as opposed to pink. The pigs eat grain, vegetable scraps and hay or grass depending on the season. They like a bit of salt and minerals too, but again, not the same amount is needed as for the big pigs. 

Pigs are delightful to raise, quite non intrusive if they have enough of what they want where they are, and if they are pastured, they fertilize as they turn the soil. They are an excellent choice for an acreage owner as well as a farmer with lots of land. I would recommend that folks stop looking at the pot belly pigs as pets and give them a chance as livestock. That is what they were bred for and that is where they shine. Although I do not like to raise animals for meat and it makes me cry every butcher day, I do enjoy knowing where my meat comes from and that the animals were loved and had good lives. And I do love barbecue pork or ribs or roast pork too. There are some ribs simmering away for tomorrow.Would you care to try some with me?