death on the farm

As weren't sure of the virility of our male pig, you can imagine our surprise when we discovered that not just the adult female but also her daughter were pregnant, because they are all so goddamn fat it wasn't evident until they were about to drop.

It's winter, it's cold, it's wet.

Last week I guessed the older female was about to drop, there are signs that led me to this conclusion that I won't go into here, she did drop, every day for three days I had to pull out of the sty dead piglets, mostly squashed some a bit more than that. Today, or probably last night the young one dropped, and yet again 2 dead piglets in one sty and one in another. It's been very sad and quite an eduction. There is no real explanation for it, it's cold is the obvious one, the other one is they are all living in one house and the two adults are very large, so not surprising the little ones got crushed, it's common.



As we are trying to do things as naturally as possible, we have left them alone, I am keeping a close on them, they all seem fine. Short of investing in yet more fencing to separate them and live with the consequences of that, break outs, constant crying. We are letting them get on with it. The male chased me out of field today,



he's horny and the girls are in-heat, so no doubt they'll be up the duff in five minutes, in-time for a spring birth.