Amberli Farm

So why don’t I tell you about our new little piggies.

Our gorgeous Carmen the Berkshire Pig, gave birth to eight perfect little piglets – all girls! Daddy is our Berkshire boar; Bruce.

First timers at this (Us and them!) I poured over the internet for information, watched a few very gruesome YouTube videos of births before looking for the signal from Carmen that she was ready for a husband. At her cue we put the two in together, they were very cute getting to know each other, a little push here, a little tussle there. After a week or so, and daily inspections by me of her private parts, I deemed Carmen to be “receptive” to Bruce’s advance’s.

Bruce appeared to be one step ahead of me on the cues and was straight in there, foreplay was over! We left them to it – giving them their privacy and all that, not wanting to cramp Bruce’s style. This turned out to be more of a negligence, as we didn’t actually know if the deed had been done, and if it had, exactly when that was. So, zoom forward 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days (albeit approx. 7 days earlier than we expected) and Carmen didn’t come running out for breakfast…… something was going on.

Within an hour and a half we had our first piglet, half an hour later we had another, they came in quick succession, in textbook fashion, no more than half an hour apart. Rubbing them dry from the cold air they squeaked and wriggled, eager to get to mummy. By lunchtime we had the last of them, I sat there looking at the miracle of life, and how cute are little pigs? – the cutest! I’ve been by the side of my dog while she delivered litters of uber cute Cavoodles but even they don’t come out as cute as piglets do. They almost jump out, walking around straight away, the perfect mini-me’s of their mummy!

But there is always that reminder of the fragility of life, and trying to be self-sufficient always has its grounding moments. At their one week mark I went to check on the piglets to find Carmen feeding them and grunting profusely, she would grunt to encourage them to come and feed or to warn them, or to round them up when they were running around. But this sounded different- insistent, that’s when I noticed the piglet laying just off to the side of her, she wasn’t coming to her call to feed like the other piglets had, she was just laying there – asleep? Unlikely, but I was hopeful, I ran around their pen through the gate and into their paddock, Carmen continued to feed the others until I touched the still piglet, she jumped up as I lifted her, checking for a heartbeat – there was nothing. Carmen started nudging at my legs with her snout, she didn’t like that I was heading out of her hut with the piglet, she nudged at the back of my legs as I tried to get the gate open. I was telling her I needed to take the piglet, but she didn’t care. Once away from Carmen and safely on the other side of the gate I laid the piglet down, she was still very warm, I rubbed her chest (for a split second considered mouth to mouth), but it was too late. She was warm but I believe that was because she’d been trapped under Carmen and suffocated – it happens and it’s utterly rubbish. Everything I read said that 15-20% loss of a litter is normal, I had even given my children this information telling them, that’s why they have such big litters, to allow for this loss.

But it doesn’t make the reality on easier and of course you’re always hopeful that your experience will be different; we are so attentive, and the piglets are thriving, and Carmen is so fit and healthy – our piglets will all survive…. unfortunately, reality inevitably has a different story.

Three and a half weeks old now, all seven are thriving, we’ve started “creep” feeding and over the next couple of weeks we will have them completely weaned, so that Carmen can return to the more luscious grazing paddocks. She will also go back and see Bruce, who has become a little grumpy since losing his bestie. He can still chat through the fence, but that’s not quite cutting it anymore!

Well, thanks for reading and hearing a little bit about our home, I’ll be back next week with more about my creative side……..