Clara Potbelly is overdue by a few days.She is snuggled up under the hay keeping warm and has a nice nest built. The weather gas been cold and warm, and sometimes the change in the barometric pressure triggers labour, or so the old wives tales are told. I was hoping Clara would have her piglets on one of these warm days and not when it is so cold.
Today was -10 but yesterday was +5. Yesterday would have been a great day. I have a heat lamp hooked up and ready, but if she has the babies in the middle of the night or inbetween times I see her and it is reallly cold out, they may get a chill and even die. Hopefully, she will keep them in her nest with her and cover them up too, just as she does herself. Most sows, though, with my limited experience, make a furrow type of nest with a bank that keeps the babies in the nest but do not cover them. The last experience I had with a potbelly sow was disasterous. She made the nest but attempted to cover the babies and instead, scattered them out of the nest with her fierce dragging of the hay. They were frozen solid and hard to find amidst the mess she made. Clara at least seems to be consistent in her nest and where she wants to be.
The little boar daddy, Wilbur, has been relegated to the pen beside her and anxiously paces the gate a hundred times a day. He has busted through the fence a dozen times as well, and every time I repair it, he seems to find a way to unfix the repair. He is very strong for such a tiny fellow. These pigs are the smaller size of potbelly pigs. They are livestock on this farm and are here for meat production. They are cute, and intelligent and personable, but so are the big Berkshires that were here. It is hard ot raise an animal for meat, against my grain really, so we shall see if the outcome really will be that. They may just be sold to pet homes!
In the meantime, Clara, please get on with the job!
Today was -10 but yesterday was +5. Yesterday would have been a great day. I have a heat lamp hooked up and ready, but if she has the babies in the middle of the night or inbetween times I see her and it is reallly cold out, they may get a chill and even die. Hopefully, she will keep them in her nest with her and cover them up too, just as she does herself. Most sows, though, with my limited experience, make a furrow type of nest with a bank that keeps the babies in the nest but do not cover them. The last experience I had with a potbelly sow was disasterous. She made the nest but attempted to cover the babies and instead, scattered them out of the nest with her fierce dragging of the hay. They were frozen solid and hard to find amidst the mess she made. Clara at least seems to be consistent in her nest and where she wants to be.
The little boar daddy, Wilbur, has been relegated to the pen beside her and anxiously paces the gate a hundred times a day. He has busted through the fence a dozen times as well, and every time I repair it, he seems to find a way to unfix the repair. He is very strong for such a tiny fellow. These pigs are the smaller size of potbelly pigs. They are livestock on this farm and are here for meat production. They are cute, and intelligent and personable, but so are the big Berkshires that were here. It is hard ot raise an animal for meat, against my grain really, so we shall see if the outcome really will be that. They may just be sold to pet homes!
In the meantime, Clara, please get on with the job!
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