THEN - OUT OF NOWHERE - WE HAVE PIGLETS!

Some days, you never know what to expect around here.

It seems like only Wednesday that I was asking one of my neighbors about breeding hogs. Then, two days later, something happened. Normally when I call my pigs for a meal, they all come running. Today, only three did.

For some reason, the pig that Hive account@smailer bought for us did not come. I could only think of three potential reasons:

It died.
It escaped.
It was giving birth.

The first two reasons seemed unlikely, though possible. It was the third that I was specifically wondering about. This particular hog is a Large Black & Red Wattle mix, so it has a different build than the other three. Lately though, it seemed like it may be even "tubbier" than usual. I wondered if she might be pregnant.

All four of these hogs were picked up from two different places which both raised their hogs on pasture. This means that for the most part, all of their food was provided by what grew in their pens. A little grain was still used to keep them coming to the owners, but other than that, they just lived out in a field.

It seemed like both places may have used a more natural approach to breeding too. The males and females seemed to just be left unattended in the fields. As it seems, unattended hogs may get bored and make more hogs when you are not looking!

When I went to investigate, I saw her lying in a corner. I startled her, so she quickly arose, but there next to her was a tiny piglet. (Look just in front of her head in the photo above.) Quickly I took a photo and texted it to Hive account@mama-pepper. I needed reinforcements.

The three biggest Hive account@little-peppers quickly rode their bikes down ready for action!

I knew that sometimes more "domesticated" hogs pretty much have zero maternal instinct. This means that the mothers are more likely to accidentally kill their piglets than they are to raise and nurse them. For this reason many will make a "safe place" in the pen where the piglets can get away from the mom for a bit.

Some of the neighbors once disassembled some infrastructure at a hog barn and still had it laying around somewhere. It was off in the woods with trees growing through it, but it was there and I was granted permission to use it. Soon, I had some of it loaded up and ready to go.

I figured that I might as well invite Hive account@mama-pepper and the rest of the Hive account@little-peppers down to watch the whole "miracle of birth" thing. It was getting to be our lunch time, so Hive account@mama-pepper brought down the waffles and blueberry topping that they had been working on before I interrupted with the news.

Life on the homestead can often throw you a curve ball, so it is nice to have such a flexible family that can roll with the punches. While we ate, the mama pig had more babies.

One after another they came. Finally, things slowed down.

In the end, she had nine little piglets. Once the last one came out, the placenta passed. This signaled to us that the show was over and life with cute little piggies was about to begin. As I cleaned up the mess, I felt somewhat like a midwife. I've seen them in action after a delivery and for some reason cleaning up the afterbirth and tidying up the place made me feel like one.

The little piglets are very cute and very small. All of the Hive account@little-peppers were very delighted in the pleasant surprise. We were hoping that our pigs would be making us more pigs, we just were not sure if they actually would. Now we know!

So far we are impressed with the job that the mama is doing. Most of the time, she is found lying on her side nursing her young. Sometimes she does lie down partially on top of one, or step on them for a moment, but nothing too major has happened.

When we took a stroll down after dark she was found in the same position, with all nine piglets with her. I spent some time "piglet-proofing" the place and making a safe place for the little ones to get away from mama too. So far everything has went very well, considering that we were not exactly planning on this.

We even gave her a celebration dinner. Those are big at some hospitals these days and we did not want her to miss out. I let some whole corn soak in some beef broth and then fed it to her out of a bucket with me holding it mostly. I want her to be comfortable around us still, and so far it is working pretty well. She will certainly grunt when you get close to her and the little piglets, and she won't hesitate to see what is going on when a piglet squeals.

One thing that I cannot get past is that the first three pigs were bought with SBD that I cashed out. Then, Hive account@smailer donated so that we could buy this one. Now, we have nine more, all because of steemit! That is absolutely #amazing!

I'll try to post some cute photos of the piglets with the children from the Hive account@little-peppers account soon, so stay tuned for that. Otherwise, we'll keep you posted!