Hog Harvest Sale & Piglets

Last week we prepared the brooder for the arrival of our first batch of chicks for the season. The arrival of the first batch of baby chicks is always a sign of early spring.  The organizational test of finding all the stowed parts, equipment and miscellaneous things we need to make it all run smoothly are all a part of that feeling of the beginning of spring. 

This week, like every week for the next 17 weeks, we welcomed another batch of chicks. We also welcomed a new batch of piglets! Lewis and Lovett have embraced with pride their role as “piglet friends.” If you’ve followed any of our pig adventures, or watched my pig chore video you can see that not only are the pigs social, they also enjoy our company, and some of them want a good scratch. This is an important management tool that makes the pigs easy to handle so they will follow you to the next pasture, or perhaps home from the neighbor’s yard…and it all starts with spending time with them as piglets.

We met Tim on Thursday afternoon in between rain showers. Evan has been generously and cheerfully helping me prepare for their arrival, which has been a huge help. We decided to bring in one of our small chicken coops, which will not shelter its first batch of chickens until the last week of March. So we thought, why not let the piglets move in?

Lovett and her friend Ayana helped me prepare for the piglets by making sure they could properly nest in the hay. The girls took turns burrowing into the hay, and then trying to find one another. The bedding was deemed just right for the piggies, and we eagerly awaited their arrival.

Tim was grateful we had positioned the “pig coop” as close to the road as we could, since a heavy snowstorm and a few days of rain has our pastures feeling more like bogs than fields. Even on the “dry” end of the field by the gate to the road, there was still some good slipping and sliding in the mud to position the back of the pickup truck up to the door of the coop. 

Since the bed of the truck is above waist height, Tim and I used some of our “pig boards” to make a chute and ramp out of the back of the truck. It was not so enticing that the piglets willfully slid down the slide, but with Tim’s expert piglet catching we gently slid each piglet into their new home where they immediately started rooting and chomping on the hay.

With Susu watching eagerly from under the tailgate of the truck, and Lovett and Ayana peeking in from the sides, we unloaded the piglets in just a few minutes. As Tim and I chatted about pig breeding, weather and family, Ayana and Lovett diligently started their work. They calmly sat with their backs against the hay bale reaching toes and hands out to any “brave” piglets. 

On Friday morning Evan and I met at 6am to check on the pigs and set up an electric fence inside their coop to begin training them to the ways of an electric fence. As Evan and I gathered our things at the house and were about to head out, Lovett appeared in the window with her sleeping blanket wrapped around her. Mama helped her open the window and she reminded me that she wanted to come out to see the piglets before school.

We agreed she would get dressed while Evan and I gathered our supplies. By 6:30 the morning rain grew heavier and Evan and I returned to the house to find Lovett and Lewis dressed in full rain gear, with toast and egg snacks still warm from Mama. We all piled into our UTV and headed to see the piglets. 

By 7:30, one piglet (the bravest) sniffled Lovett’s hand, a few pigs got shocked on the new electric fence, and we were home and eating breakfast with time to spare to make the bus to school. 

Happy Spring.