Yesterday afternoon I saw that the sow was starting to chop up her hay into short, fluffy pieces, and I knew what that meant: she was getting her nest ready! I gave her more hay in the course of my other chores, made sure she had plenty to drink, and prepared myself for a long night.
Daylight Savings Time doesn't jive with me at all. Changing sleep schedules for four kids, and feeding schedules for a host of animals, leads to a lot of heartache and misunderstanding. But I have to say, with the clear weather for the last couple of days, it made for two beautiful milkings: Saturday night I milked by the light of the nearly full moon, and Sunday night I milked by the slanting, golden light of sunset. Being able to do evening chores without a headlamp is nice, I'll grant, but so was doing morning chores without a headlamp... ah well. The days are still lengthening.
Anyway, night fell, and I was nervous. I like to be involved when my sow is farrowing; she's a good momma but sometimes hands are really... well... handy. Yep. Anyway, I know that if I'm not there, sometimes things that are easily solved (like a pig born inside its amniotic sac) can become fatal, whereas if I am present, I can save that particular pig. So I settled in on the couch by a window that faces the hog pen, knowing that once a substantial amount of little pig noises were being made, I would be able to hear them and get outside.
This went exactly according to plan. After falling asleep at 10:30, I woke to some high pitched screaming... yep, sounds like piggers! I jumped up and glanced at the clock as I pulled on my coat: 11:30. Welp, glad I got one hour of sleep anyway. I slipped on my boots and headed out.
There were 2 piggies already born, both acting alert and trying to nurse. I waiting a while and no more came, so I went in to wash my hands in case I had to turn a pig internally to get things moving. A couple contractions after my return she had 2 pigs, almost at the same time! That's the thing with pigs, sometimes they come far apart and sometimes they just pop out. In between births, I listened to a night flight of canada geese taking advantage of the full moonlight, and also a great horned owl. No peepers, though, which bummed me out. By around 3:30 AM there were 15 pigs plus one still birth, and I decided it was safe to go in: the few times she had gotten up to turn over had gone well despite the large number of piggies, and I doubted there were many more to come.
Of course I barely slept even then. I stayed on the couch and listened to the occasional screams as pigs imagined themselves to be stuck under a teat or just unjustly wronged in some fashion by their siblings, and also momma's occasional indignant barks when somebody bit her. I dozed lightly until 6:30, when I got up and went to see how things were going.
Momma was up and hungry, so I gave her breakfast. That let me get a good look at the piggies! I was pretty sure i was counting 16, but not 100%. I did the rest of my chores, peeking at them a few times. One looked a little weak and his color wasn't right. Turned out that one didn't make it either; some of them don't. But, there are still 15 pigs as of now--a very fine litter from a very fine momma sow! I'm so proud of her.
Daylight Savings Time doesn't jive with me at all. Changing sleep schedules for four kids, and feeding schedules for a host of animals, leads to a lot of heartache and misunderstanding. But I have to say, with the clear weather for the last couple of days, it made for two beautiful milkings: Saturday night I milked by the light of the nearly full moon, and Sunday night I milked by the slanting, golden light of sunset. Being able to do evening chores without a headlamp is nice, I'll grant, but so was doing morning chores without a headlamp... ah well. The days are still lengthening.
Anyway, night fell, and I was nervous. I like to be involved when my sow is farrowing; she's a good momma but sometimes hands are really... well... handy. Yep. Anyway, I know that if I'm not there, sometimes things that are easily solved (like a pig born inside its amniotic sac) can become fatal, whereas if I am present, I can save that particular pig. So I settled in on the couch by a window that faces the hog pen, knowing that once a substantial amount of little pig noises were being made, I would be able to hear them and get outside.
This went exactly according to plan. After falling asleep at 10:30, I woke to some high pitched screaming... yep, sounds like piggers! I jumped up and glanced at the clock as I pulled on my coat: 11:30. Welp, glad I got one hour of sleep anyway. I slipped on my boots and headed out.
There were 2 piggies already born, both acting alert and trying to nurse. I waiting a while and no more came, so I went in to wash my hands in case I had to turn a pig internally to get things moving. A couple contractions after my return she had 2 pigs, almost at the same time! That's the thing with pigs, sometimes they come far apart and sometimes they just pop out. In between births, I listened to a night flight of canada geese taking advantage of the full moonlight, and also a great horned owl. No peepers, though, which bummed me out. By around 3:30 AM there were 15 pigs plus one still birth, and I decided it was safe to go in: the few times she had gotten up to turn over had gone well despite the large number of piggies, and I doubted there were many more to come.
Of course I barely slept even then. I stayed on the couch and listened to the occasional screams as pigs imagined themselves to be stuck under a teat or just unjustly wronged in some fashion by their siblings, and also momma's occasional indignant barks when somebody bit her. I dozed lightly until 6:30, when I got up and went to see how things were going.
Momma was up and hungry, so I gave her breakfast. That let me get a good look at the piggies! I was pretty sure i was counting 16, but not 100%. I did the rest of my chores, peeking at them a few times. One looked a little weak and his color wasn't right. Turned out that one didn't make it either; some of them don't. But, there are still 15 pigs as of now--a very fine litter from a very fine momma sow! I'm so proud of her.
Anyway, I crashed pretty hard today, but two naps later I'm starting to feel like myself again. This weather is such a blessing--keeping little piggies warm can be a real struggle, but with this warm sunshine they're all as cozy as can be! I know it won't last, but by the time temps drop too far they'll be a little better able to regulate their own temperatures. And of course they have the little creep area with the heat lamp, which they seem to really like. Over all I don't know how this could have gone better!
Comments
Post a Comment