What an exciting evening we have had here at Pure Water Hollow Homestead! We have once again witnessed the miracle of birth and we are thanking God for all He has done! Our two sows gave birth this evening, and little piglets were popping out simultaneously toward the end of the birthing.
I think you can now officially call us "pig farmers"! This is the 4th set of piglets we’ve had from our two sows and this time it all went by the book. We noticed that our boar Rufus was trying to breed our sows, Nellie and Sally, about 3 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days ago. (The books say a pig’s gestation time is 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days.) I had projected a due date of December 5th back in September, so on Wednesday, December 3rd, we led Sally and Nellie down from the pig lot to the barn to get ready for giving birth. They are each 2 years and 3 months old now, and they have become old hands at giving birth. We put several bales of straw in their stalls and made them comfortable. I am so glad we moved them when we did, because the piglets came a day early (which was within the margin of error). When they gave birth in July, they surprised us and caught us off guard. We lost several of the piglets in those litters, partly because of poor planning, I think. But this time it felt like we knew what we were doing; I felt like a professional pig farmer!
In Sally’s stall Christina exclaimed, "Here comes one!" I looked over at Sally and Christina for just a moment and then trained my flashlight back on Nellie. I couldn’t believe that the beam revealed another piglet for Nellie! It must have come out just a second or two after Sally’s. This scene was repeated again about 5 minutes later. Christina delivered another piglet of Sally’s and I took a picture and then looked back at Nellie. This time my flashlight found two brand new piglets still attached by the umbilical cords to Nellie! They must have come, back to back, at nearly the same time Sally had pushed hers out!
All together, I witnessed Nellie giving birth to the last 6 of hers and the last 5 of Sally’s. I got home at about 4:30 and the last piglet was born at about 7:00. When Matthew had gone to check on the pigs earlier this afternoon at about 2:00, Nellie had already given birth to two piglets with one of them still attached by the cord. He flew down to the house on his 4-wheeler to let everyone else in on the news and then raced back up the hollow. Erica, Christina, Simon and Lisa with Timothy in her arms, arrived at the barn shortly thereafter. They were on hand to see Nellie deliver her next several and Sally’s first 9. Sometime around 4:00 Timothy declared he had had enough of standing around in a cold barn, so Erica and Simon took their screaming brother back to the house. Lisa stayed a couple of more hours and Christina did not leave until it was clear that all the piglets were born and safe.
Christina actually delivered all but one of Sally’s piglets. As each one came out, Christina made sure their airways were clear and she wiped them off and made sure they found a teat to nurse on. So, after 5 hours of birthing, Nellie had 13 adorable piglets nursing and Sally had 14 beautiful, healthy little piglets nursing.
Matthew and I did not leave until 9:30 because it was important to winterize the barn as much as possible. We stapled up feed sacks over all the cracks in the wallboards and over all the windows. By the time we were leaving, ice had formed on the metal gates in the barnyard, the mud in the road had become a frozen crunch, and a heavy frost was covering the hillsides. The low tonight is forecasted to be 18 degrees and the high tomorrow just above freezing. Tomorrow night the weather man says will also be 18 degrees and the 10 day forecast shows below freezing lows for the next 10 nights! The first week of life for these piglets will be a very cold one! Their first four nights are predicted to be 18, 18, 21, and 15 degrees with the highs only in the 30s!
This is the most piglets we have had to date, and if they all survive it will mean a substantial amount of possible cash. If we can sell 25 of the piglets in January for the going price of $40 each, it would mean $1000 in our pocket in just 5 or 6 weeks! If we sell them at a bargain basement price of $25 each, it would still be $625. And that would still leave 2 of them for us to raise as market hogs which we would either put in the freezer or sell for around $100 each live, or have processed and sell the packaged pork for a substantial profit. I really can’t believe we have 27 piglets! From what I’ve read, Hampshire pigs usually do not have litters this large.
Praise be to God from whom all blessings flow!
I did take pictures and I will try to add them to this post someday soon.
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3 comments
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sassyfras on December 5, 2008 at 3:23 am
We raised pigs when we first came to the farm. I can still remember our first litter. I loved watching it. Our oldest, now 33 was just a little gal and she stayed out in the barn for hours, because she was afraid the mommy would roll on them. She will never forget the things she learned, or saw. What a great learning tool. The Farm, thanks for sharing
sassy
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Heritage Hill Homestead on December 5, 2008 at 7:34 am
Great update on your new additions! I have never been around pigs much, I didn't realize it took so long…..5 hours wow. I am used to goats and they are much shorter, of course they don't have 14 either! You were truly blessed as you said with possible income very soon, how wonderful for you. Isn't it something that they gave birth at exactly the same time.
Marilyn
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amanda on December 5, 2008 at 10:23 am
My hubby and his Daddy used to raise pigs when hubby was a child in the mountains of W. VA. He told of a time when the little piggy's came on a really cold night. His Daddy bought them into the house!
I'm not so sure that I could have done that. But hubby said that pig farming was how they got their money and he wasn't about to let those pigs freeze to death.When its your living, you do what you have to do.
Happy Farming!
Amanda <><
II Corinthians 5:7
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