I decided to secure our garden fence with some electric and keep them in our garden spot for a few months to end out the winter season. I was hoping it would help the pigs as well as help our garden by stirring up the dirt with their rooting as well as adding some fresh fertilizer to the soil. They had already grown some by the time I took any pictures of them. Here they are in February at 3 months of age:
The milk crate gives an idea of their size just a few months ago.
By the beginning of June they had grown considerably:
Simon has done a great job raising this group of pigs. He has been the main one responsible for making sure they have food and water and are safe and healthy.
But he has had some helpers from time to time:
Christina ended up staying at the barn to take care of Gracie, which left a crew of boys to take care of the hogs on this day. Since Simon is often on solo duty, I think he was pleased to have the whole gang pitch in:
Timothy checked them out. They are looking good:
Nearly every day Simon fills up buckets of water down at the house and carries them with a 4-wheeler up the holler for the pigs. Here he is delivering some much appreciated water for the hogs:
Timothy helps feed them sometimes:
With hog chores being completed, the boys took some time that day for a little fun, as well. Matthew likes hanging around the hog lot:
Here is Simon relaxing in that same tree:
And of course, Timothy wanted to try, also:
Yesterday I took some more pictures of them. I think they have gotten noticebly bigger in just the past 3 weeks!
When we bought them we were told that theses three pigs were born on November 11th, 2011. (I wonder if they came at 11:00?) That makes them 7 1/2 months old now. According to the formula using their heart girth and length measurements, each of the barrows are over 300 pounds now. They are definitely ready to be processed into prime cuts of pork! The female was a runt and is still smaller, but she has gained with no problem and really looks great now! I think she could be a very good mama sow some day. If we keep her, I think I will name her "Kimper" after the place she came from in Pike County. (We don't generally name our pigs unless they will be part of our family for more than 6 months.)
Which brings me to the original reason of this post: To introduce you to our new boar, Blackie. He is from K and T Showpigs and was born around May 7 which makes him about 6 weeks old now. Here he is meeting the two girls we got April 22 from the same operation in Mason County:
The girls were farrowed March 18th at K and T Showpigs. Their mama won the Reserve York Jr. Show and Champ York Open Show at the 2011 Kentucky State Fair, so they come from a good pedigree! The girls are 3 months old already, but you can tell that they are not too much bigger than Blackie:
The girls really seemed to like him! I was worried that there may be some squabbles at first, but there were no problems at all. I am tentatively naming one of the girl pigs "K" and the other one "T", but we'll have to wait and see if those names stick!
Here is a picture of the daddy boar of all three of these piglets from K and T. His name is Maker's Mark:
I find it interesting that K and T sells doses of Maker's Mark semen for $150/dose because of his genetics! Hopfully this means that making two trips to Mason County for pigs will pay off for us in the long run with good quality piglets in the future!
The piglets themselves were priced fairly. We gave $45 a piece for three girl piglets back on April 22nd and made arrangements with Kevin to come back later to get a boar from a litter in the near future. It turned out that the 3 little pigs got sick and one of them eventually died on May 9th. When Kevin heard about the one fatality he said that we could have the boar I wanted for free! When I picked up Blackie yesterday I tried to offer money for him, but Kevin wouldn't take it! They really seem to be a good operation at K and T Showpigs and great people! So, we still only have $135 (plus gas) invested in the three pigs from K and T.
The plan is for Blackie to get about 6 months old and be ready and willing. By that time, he would have a very large one year old sow named Kimper that had never been bred, as well as two 8 month old sows that would also be wanting to be bred. We may try to space out the farrowing times for the three litters instead of having them all three at once, but we'll see.
Anyway, if the plan comes together, we should have piglets once again running around Pure Water Hollow by the end of February or beginning of March! And then it will be time for a new post about the Pure Water Hollow Pigs of 2013!
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