Dora & Daisey *sigh*

The time that we all were waiting for finally arrived! Dora had 9 babies on the 12th of February. Unfortunately, only one survived. We did not know she was even in labor until we saw a piglet following her the next morning. Jason went to feed like normal and to check her out to see if she was starting labor, looked up and saw a cute little red piglet following her around trying to nurse. She didn’t even seem to notice the little guy. Jason went in to check on the babies and saw that Dora was not the mothering type (if you get my drift). We managed to save the Lucky little guy from his mama. We attempted to put him in with Dottie but she wasn’t having it. We then had to rescue him from a mama that cared. She thought Jason had snatched up one of hers and boy was she not happy about that! Everything worked out in the end and no animals (or humans) were harmed. Now we have a little bottle baby at the farm and our daughter decided that she was going to raise little Lucky for 4H.

Miss Daisey on the other hand, finally decided to share her babies with the world the evening of February 19th. She managed to give us 10 on her first litter! Wow what a blessing, or so we thought. She had a tough time navigating the little critters and Jason had to rescue one while mama was in labor because she moved wrong and squished him a bit. Jason got him going again and everything seemed to be going good. The next morning, like normal routine Jason went out to check on the new mama and babies. Three did not survive the night. We think she accidentally squished two and we know one wandered too far from the house in the freezing cold. That was a tough morning. Today (Tuesday the 22nd), Jason returned to the farm after being gone the majority of the day and noticed that Daisey had moved houses. Upon further inspection, she only had 5 babies with her. He investigated some more and found two more babies that had perished in the first house. According to her actions and demeanor, Daisey seems to be a good mama, especially since this is a first for her, so we are pretty sure that these two got too cold in the late February weather. This is not uncommon in piglets because they are not able to regulate their own body temperature for the first two weeks of life. Daisey didn’t farrow in one of the well built farrowing houses, she chose one that was not complete and the wind still comes through the pallet walls.

I wish this story was one of happy news, but alas it is not and this is part of winter farrowing off grid. We will breed Daisey again but Dora will be sold off. We cannot keep a sow that cannot farrow successfully. Next year, we are hoping to have some better options for our sows when they go to farrow, including electricity so we can heat houses. This will help us have a better mortality rate for our babies. Currently, we are counting on well built wooden houses with lots and lots of straw.