We had noticed with growing anxiety, very few weaner piglets for sale, due no doubt to folk with more foresight than us having already snapped up all the available weaners who were now, no doubt, well on their way to being Christmas fare. Jennifer found some on offer on Trade Me and won the bid for two. Porker Villa was all but finished, when the piglet gilts arrived a day early - and very small they were too. Realisation dawned that these two could easily escape by burrowing under the yard planks, so much hurried scrabbling (in foul weather) to find suitable extra planks from the mountainous scrap wood piles. However - all in vain as the little sods were out within 10 minutes and spent the afternoon hooning all around the neighbourhood paddocks.
We spent most of the evening rounding them up (they had been christened Penelope and Poppy at this stage) only to have them escape from a new place in the enclosure. As it was dark and we had already walked miles and miles and miles, we turned in for the night. We were out at daybreak the next morning after fixing the last escape exit by torchlight, and found them huddled far out in a neighbour's paddock. They were duly rounded up and herded home - only to escape again later that day. The frustrating thing was that they didn't respond to the usual 'rattle clunk' of the feeding bucket, to 'Here, Pig Pig Pig Pig Pig' or to following you with bread or feed nuggets, so we assumed they must have just been taken from their mother.
Regular escapes occurred over the next two days, with each exit blocked after discovery. After herding them home again at near on dark, they broke out of our fence and under the neighbour's fence and off into the moonlight. We had had enough. Denise swore she was off pigs forever. We both lost some weight over these few days and developed blisters on our heels.
As so much time and effort had now been put into the construction of Porker Villa and its sunken water trough, abundant pea straw bedding and sunny recreational area - Jennifer went off to the Livestock Sale held weekly at Clareville, north Carterton, and came home with two more gilts. Quite a bit bigger than Penelope and Poppy. These two were named Phyllis and Prudence. Later that evening, while entertaining a guest for dinner, three glasses of wine down and it was already dark, we had a knock on the door from a neighbour advising that two pigs were running around the paddock. We managed to retrieve Phyllis and block the escape route, but Prudence was last seen heading south. We hoped she would turn up at the villa next morning, but she never appeared again.
The price of three pigs down, and we had one. Pigs need company, both for amicability and general wellbeing, and they snuggle together to keep warm. Phyllis was rather dejected. Her tail never quite made it to curly. The following Friday, Jennifer visited the Livestock Sale again and came home with a companion for Phyllis - a handsome lad who was christened Pharoah. Phyllis was well pleased, and upon his arrival, after a shared lunch, they disappeared into the villa to make the bed.
Phyllis and Pharoah were getting along just fine, and both had very curly tails within a day or so. Anyway, about 4 or 5 days later, a neighbour rang to say that a dairy farmer away east about 2kms away had our two piglets - Penelope and Poppy. They were duly collected from the kind dairy farmer who had been fattening them on excess milk with a promise from us to return with some bacon.
So now we have four pigs. We hope to be able to send Pharoah off for hams and bacon in time for Christmas. He is getting to be a bit of a worry and is getting very athletic with Phyllis, but we are sure they are both too young for such shenanigans.
Penelope, Phyllis, Pharoah and Poppy waiting anxiously to be let out for the afternoon's free range. We only let them out when we are home, and in the afternoon. They range all over the paddocks (under constant supervision!) and get under the gates and annoy the sheep and cows. They now respond beautifully to 'Here Pig Pig Pig Pig' and the rattle of the food bucket and hassle you back to their yard to get fed and locked for the night.We are lucky in that Denise gets to bring home a 10 litre bucket full of yummy food scraps such as left over bread and fruit and the like. Neighbours and friends also help out. Every night we cook on our woodburner, a big stock pot full of peas. Lovely warm mushy peas for breakfast every day - yum. When there's a shortage of food scraps, we use pig nuggets. With the free ranging in the afternoon - a pig will eat grass and forage in dirt for nutrients and will consume one third of its daily food needs. Plus all that sunshine and fresh air and running around!
Phyllis (at back), Poppy and Pharoah doing what pigs do best - using those little snouts to forage and dig. Note those lovely curly tails!So, the lesson well learned - don't buy livestock off the net. Much better (and cheaper!) to buy at the Livestock Sale where you can see what you are getting - just hoping nobody else is after weaner gilts when you want two.
No comments:
Post a Comment