Missed breeding opportunity and egg watch

As I came back to the farm last evening I noticed an unusually large amount of food remaining in pig's pen.  She is pretty good about cleaning her plate/bowl/bucket unless it is full of potato peelings - a girl can only eat so many potatoes.  There were oranges and a hunk of meatloaf - those are not items she would normally choose to leave behind.  A bit concerned, I turned the car with the headlights towards pig's pen and checked to make sure her path wasn't too icy or if she appeared injured in any way.  Immediately she popped up out of her warm hay bed headed straight for the fence grunting and squealing as she came across the icy pasture.  Exiting the car, I gingerly walked down the short but slippery slope to her fence.  I scratched behind her ears and rubbed her back thinking that she was a little stiff, I hoped she was staying warm enough.

Although the temperature was hovering around 12 degrees her water was mostly unfrozen so I headed back to the car.  I noted that her house was looking a little worse for the wear, like maybe she had been chewing or rubbing on it a lot.  I haven't been out to see pig much in the past week.  I had gall bladder surgery on January 2nd and am not allowed to lift anything heavier than 15 lbs for at least ten days.  Admittedly I have been lifting my son probably more than I should as well as toting out garbage and moving some bins full of holiday decorations weighing more than 15 lbs that await the end of the restriction period to be stored until next year.  Carrying five gallon buckets of water (weighting far more than 15lbs) across the door yard to pig has also been out of the question so Little man's father has done that chore since the New Year began.

Inside to evening chores and dinner, pig had settled into the back of my mind until Little man's father mentioned that she had gotten her appetite back eating more today than she had in the past three days.  It was then that I realized that we had missed this month's opportunity.

Pig came to us as a rescue from a farm that could no longer care for her.  She is a four and half year old Gloucester Old Spot. She has farrowed before and we are hoping to get one or two breedings from her to keep the farm in pork and perhaps generate a little extra income.  Our hopes had been to line up a heritage breed boyfriend for her before the end of last year.  Without the possibility of a local suitor, we have been monitoring her heat cycles planning to order semen and have her artificially inseminated.  I am hoping that my research and education in addition to participating with the vet to breed her this winter will allow me to do it myself for any sows going forward.  We do not currently have the facilities or fences to keep a boar on the farm and I have promised myself no permanent new additions until we catch up on all of the projects that are already in progress.

After dinner I went back out with a flashlight and talked to pig, and confirmed that she was in fact in heat.  Her back end was red and swollen and when I pressed down on her back, the stiffness I noted earlier was confirmed as her standing and bracing herself in preparation for the weight of a boar.  Other tell tale signs of a sow in heat include loss of appetite, chewing like the damage I saw on her house, demanding attention, and being very vocal.  Pigs go into heat every 21 days.  I have marked my calendar for 19 days to start watching for signs again and I will order semen on the 20th or 21st day depending on how she is acting.

If she comes into heat on schedule and the vet can come and semen is available then we should be breeding her by the end of the January for piglets around Memorial Day.  It will be fun to have piglets on the farm again!

Egg watch - two days of 11 and 13 eggs respectively, then back down to 7 per day.  With the warm weather predicted for this weekend I am hoping to add some chicken to the freezer and perhaps decrease the competition for the nest boxes.  The new feeder will also be completed this weekend allowing for them to free feed throughout the day and allow for less competition at feeding time.