Today we will be moving 6 new mothers to be into a nice clean pen to get them ready to have their first litters. These girls have been together for a long time so we are keeping our fingers crossed for how well they will do having their litters together.
In the wild sows will "group farrow." This way one or two mothers can stay with the piglets while the other mothers go out and forage for food. This winter we have discovered that our gilts (first time mothers to be) seem to do better if they are alone. With food being brought to them they do not have to go looking for feed and by them selves they seem to pay more attention to their piglets. There also appears to be a lot less accidental deaths when they are alone.
Just like with people, we have some really go mothers and some bad mothers. We have hogs that love being mothers and others that want nothing to do with the piglets. One advantage to having them seperated is that we can see exactly who is good and who isn't.
So we will be moving our very pregnant girls this morning and getting them all settled in. We will also be praying for them to all be wonderful mothers.
Popular Posts
-
I hear on a regular basis the weird things that pigs will and will not eat. I have heard that I have to be careful or they will eat me. I ...
-
For those of you that know me you have a good idea that it takes a lot to make me mad. Yes, I have a very dry sense of humor. I am very br...
-
I have talked to a few of my customers and they don't understand why it is sooooo hard for us to make money selling a great product wit...
-
Allia was born to a first time mother in overnight in the beginning of November. Her mother was small and we missed how close she was to ...
-
Dave got quite the surprise this morning when he took milk out to Luke and Samantha. As he was pouring the milk in their bowl he looked i... -
First - using our Cajun burgers, ground and brown and mix in Dirty Rice. Serve with salad and dinner is done. Second - using our bratwurs...
-
I understand why so many people associate white eggs with the bad grocery store eggs however it has nothing to do with the egg being white. ...
-
Luke is our newest piglet in the house. He is now 5 days old and doing great. Luke was discovered pushed away from the rest of the litter... -
Thanks to Rick Bayless and the Frontera Grant we are getting a new (used) and as you can see much larger truck. We are going to be able t... -
Forest Pigs Hate Johnny Cash 05/10/2011 0 Comment(s) Pulling up to C & D Family Farms in Knox, Indiana, the last thing I expected t...
So if a hog mom is not very good at the job, do you move her piglets to another nursing mom? And what's the upside to having the six new moms together today? Good luck to the C&D Six, and I'll see you tomorrow in A-ville.
ReplyDeleteOne of the upsides to having them together is if one of the moms has more piglets then she can take care of it is easy to move them over to another mom in the pen. Although this can only be done if they both have piglets within 24 hours of each other.
ReplyDeleteAnother upside is warmth, two moms can move into one hut with their piglets. The down side of that is there is a greater chance of a piglet getting stepped on or laid on.