The day we were flying home from Hollywood, Sara was busy with a homecoming surprise for us. A new litter of pigs! And a nice litter, it is. 9 live (6 boys, 3 girls) and 2 dead.
This is the best picture I could get of them, in their creep in the little wooden shed on skids that we use for broiler chickens in the summer. Matt said they were out of the shed yesterday, but I haven’t managed to catch them out and about yet.
Notice all of the “red” color in the bottom one. Winston is a purebred Large Black, so it doesn’t come from him. Sara is a white pig, but must have some Duroc crossed in there somewhere. Usually you can’t see the red in the piglets unless the light is hitting them just right.
My brother came over Saturday to castrate and administer tetanus vaccines. One of these days Matt has got to learn how to do all that. Notice I said Matt. I can possibly see myself learning to do it, someday, in the future, but it would take quite a while for me to work up to that!
I do all shots but I think I would agree with you on the castration. I was heartsick for days when Doc Nathan came to band our male goats. I had to hold them while he “did the deed” and they avoided my for days after that. 🙂
They are so cute! It must be great to be you — love all the Spring arrivals!
Just before I came here, I read a post at Sugar Mountain Farm http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2006/03/boar-meat.html about Walter Jeffries’ experiments in not castrating the boars.I don’t know anything about the subject but thought I’d pass along the link.
The first sentence is something you just don’t ever expect to read on a farm blog – – “The day we flew home from Hollywood”…… I still can’t get over your excellent adventure.P.S. These are some cute pigs!