Piglets? Tonight?

Only my family will catch the reference in that title.  

"Pictures?  Tonight?" was said in a pleading little 3 year old voice, by my youngest brother Marc.  We used to gather in the living room, my Dad would have the slide projector and screen set up, and we'd sit together and watch slides of....ourselves.  Well, it was family history, and a chance to be together and reminisce.  Little Marc loved it, and would plead for more.  We loved hearing about ourselves as little kids, or chiming in with memories of the younger siblings as the slides progressed through life stages for each of us.  There was a sense of impatience as we tried to wait for the next time the projector would be set up and we could sit in the darkness, watching our younger selves.  

Impatient is how I feel about the impending delivery of piglets.  

Piglets?  (Maybe...)  Tonight?

Bea joined Lawnmower in the boar's pen on November 25.  I check and recheck the calendar, to be sure I've calculated from the correct date.  Then I check and recheck the gestation calendars online, to see if maybe I've missed something.  

No, she and Lawnmower seemed to hit it off on November 25, the first day I put them together... Lawnmower was supposed to be sold in the first week of January.  I wanted one more litter sired by him, and Bea was the obvious choice.  The breeding needed to be done earlier in the winter than I had planned, because...well...Lawnmower was supposed to be long gone by now.  (Good news, he is being purchased by the breeder who bought "Batman" the other boar from me.  Leaving next week.  He will have a good home on her farm in Wisconsin)

Anyway, the first photo is Bea, by the filtered light of the filthy window.  Second photo is the view on my computer screen, via the barn cam.  

Bea has been restless.  For two days.  

She makes a nest, carefully chewing up the hay and spitting it out in finer bits.  Meticulously using her front legs to paw the bedding backward into a sort of cradle for her large body.  

After her beauty sleep, she destroys it and starts all over.

I have walked out several times to the barn to find her with her head in the corner, or sitting with front legs propped up.  

She has babies kicking and moving deep in her belly, visible just above her growing "milk stations".   They are twitching hard enough to sometimes cause her to draw up her back leg in quick reaction.  That should be a sign that delivery is close, right?

Yesterday she was flicking her tail.  All day.  She never flicks her tail like that unless she is ready to have her babies.

And yet, no delivery.  She was due several days ago, unless the apparent breeding was not the actual breeding. 

Piglets, tonight, would be a welcome finale to this particular waiting game. 

Here's the unrelated, strange part of baby season this year.  

The sheep?  Were "due" on March 9, but there are still no lambs.  I think that I inadvertently simulated the "ram effect", by housing the rams out of sight, out of mind last fall.  They were introduced to the ewes on October 15.  If they had been housed in a stall or pen where the ewes could see them (last fall, before I divided the ewes and rams into their breeding groups), I'm sure the lambs would have been born by now.  

The ewes look hugely pregnant and soooo uncomfortable.  So if the initial introductions did not produce a pregnancy, it should be about 20 days later, give or take a few.  Hmm....  Next week?

And two more goats.  I knew that they would be having their kids later than the others...  I'm not obsessing about them just yet.

Next week is spring break.  For the first time in 3 years, the family did not make plans to go anywhere, and it's a good thing.  The last 2 years, everyone went without me.  It was kind of nice...I had to be here for babies being born.  I enjoyed the peace and quiet in the house for the first few days that everyone else was enjoying warmer weather "down south".

This year, I "planned" to have all the babies born before now, in case we went away.    

The best laid plans do often go awry.  It's a good thing I didn't plan to leave the farm for any vacation, because we are still awaiting so many deliveries.

People have been asking to come and see the babies.  I blocked off three afternoons next week, during spring break, and put out a Facebook invitation.  The number of babies might be disappointing to our guests, though, unless things start hopping here.  So far...two sets of twin goat kids.  And a litter of very young rabbits.  Hardly the bonanza of cute little ones that everyone is hoping to see and maybe even cuddle.  

I guess it is, what it is.  Nothing will hurry these mamas along.  We'll just ooh and ahh over whatever is out there, and be thankful when the healthy babies arrive. 

 

The deliveries will probably be in the middle of a farm tour.  I can see it now.  All five ewes will deliver at once.  I'll be covered in delivery "goo", while everyone snaps photos with their cell phones.  :)  

It would make for an experience not too soon forgotten, for our guests.  I would be fine with that!!!

If you missed the invitation on Facebook, and would like to come out for a visit next week, let me know.  I set aside two hours on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday afternoons.  We'd love to see you, and show you the barn babies that have bounced energetically into our little livestock world.  

Laura

American Chinchilla update

American Chinchilla rabbit babies. Looks like 8, all snuggled in their nest of fur. 
This will be our last litter. I love the breed, and think they are beautiful, but so many cages with bowls of frozen water in each one (to re-fill two or three times each day) finally made up my mind to move out of rabbit breeding. After hauling warm water out to all the other thirsty critters, this became a chore that I dreaded. 

All of the breeding adults have been spoken for, all in good placements (or soon to be) with people who love the breed as much as I do!
(If a pair doesn't actually leave, I would keep them as pets, but...it's time to concentrate on the larger animals.) :) 

I'm not emotionally attached to these rabbits, so this is easier than saying goodbye to Bessie or to a favorite sow or ewe.  

The space where the cages hang will be used for sheep and/or goats.  

Interestingly, the sale of just one lamb or goat kid equals about all of the rabbit sales from the past year.  In terms of what makes best use of the space, sheep/goats or even pigs makes more sense.  Financially, the rabbit venture was a loss.  Not even a break-even.

We'll clear out the cages, clear out the mounds UNDER the cages (great for the garden!!!), and put down fresh straw.  Voila!  Ready for something different.

Fine-tuning the livestock operation is a good thing.  This change will be just fine.

 

Laura

Thinking of cows

Facebook likes to spur conversations and connections by vomiting up memories from past posts...  

Today's had tears in my eyes.  I followed Facebook "etiquette" and re-posted the memory on my "timeline"   Here it is, but there are really no words for all the emotions that this photo brings up for me.

In any of my wildest dreams, I never dreamt that I would love a cow so much that it hurts to remember her.

"Memory from five years ago. 
 Bessie went to (literally) greener pastures at a farm south of here in January. And yesterday, we sold her last calf to friends of ours, who will raise him. So it's bittersweet that this photo shows up on my screen this morning.
Ten years ago, if you had asked me if I'd ever own a cow, I would have looked at you and laughed. We weren't even on the farm back then, not even THINKING about a farm 10 years ago. 
 Bessie was a challenge for someone who had never milked a cow except maybe at the petting farm (one little squirt into a bucket, that type of thing). I learned so much from owning and caring for her. 
 Sweet grazing, dear Bess!"

 

Laura

The Boy

We sold Bessie's calf today.

Friends came over to see him, gave him his vaccination (he will be joining other cattle at their place) and he will stay here for 2 weeks in semi-quarantine until they come to pick him up.

With Bessie gone, he was warming up to us just a bit. We figured that it would cost us several thousand dollars to raise him to the 2 year mark, making for some pretty expensive beef, even if it was from a *friendly* steer. We would have 18 months to go, feeding hay every day with maybe a mouthful or two of green growing grass...

The timing to sell him is good. The hay supply is dwindling, and he was being bullied by a goat that is only a third of his size...

Still, it will feel very strange to not have a bovine here on the tiny farm. And I'll be busy enough to hardly notice. Sometimes that's a nice reality.

 

Laura

Cameo the pig is going to the Zoo

Photo:  Cameo with her first litter, a year ago

Here is why it's a good thing that Cameo and Lawnmower did NOT go to Indiana as planned.  

The Lincoln Park Farm-in-the-Zoo (Chicago) is going to use Cameo as the first American Guinea Hog from our farm to give birth to piglets at their facility.  

We had been waiting for this process to get started since about last June.  There had been nothing, so I offered my sow Rose to a friend, who wanted to raise the litter and get into breeding these great little hogs.  

After we sold Rose last fall (of course, AFTER!), the zoo got in contact with us and started the conversation about our hogs (thanks to our vet, who LOVES our hogs!)  :)  Rose would have been my first choice, but the zoo had not gotten in touch yet, and I needed to sell one adult sow before winter.  

That left Cameo and Bea, and Bea is not going anywhere as a trial run, because she is my favorite.  The talks stalled during the winter months, and I put Cameo up for sale.  The guy from Indiana would have bought her, Lawnmower the boar, and one of Bea's younger gilts (female offspring).

And that fell through.

Fast forward a month or so, and the zoo started talking about this again with us.  When they came out for the farm tour, I pointed out Raspberry (pregnant with her first litter, due in April), Cameo (who Lawnmower was in the act of mating with as we looked on in mild amusement), and a few of the other younger gilts.

They were looking for up to 3 female Guinea Hogs to give birth at the zoo, over the course of 5 months or so.    The pregnant gilt Raspberry was in the running, but that made me nervous for a couple of reasons:

-She had no track record of successful pregnancies and deliveries

--I had not seen her being bred, so had no actual due date to tell the zoo

I had said from the beginning that the pick-up of a pregnant sow needs to be 3 weeks before her due date.  They had offered 2 weeks, but were willing to do 3.  I don't think I can budge on this, because that sow needs time to get situated in her new set-up before the piglets come.  This is even more important to me, if it's a first timer gilt who has never given birth before.  Three weeks is the minimum, four weeks would be even better.  

The contract still needs to be finalized, the pick-up date *could* be March 30, they asked for details about the pregnant gilt and I said "The gilt is due the following week, so that is not enough time to let her get settled before delivery".  

I think everyone breathed a sigh of relief, because this takes away the stress of getting things finalized in just a few short weeks, and we can approach it with a bit more organization and planning.  

That means Cameo, the experienced mother, is now the first choice.  She is due June 1st.  Still plenty of time for getting her there, letting her acclimate to the nicer, cleaner digs, and the Chicago public will see baby piglets at the very beginning of summer if they visit the zoo.  

Cameo is also the hog who doesn't mind being alone, so this makes for a good sow to send by herself to a new place.

Cameo's history:  Her first litter was 6 piglets.  The first large male was being delivered back feet first, with someone else's umbilical cord around his back leg, stopping everything up.  Cameo was straining, but there was no way for that piglet to be delivered.  He was firmly anchored from way back inside of his mother, past all of the other piglets ready to pop out of the birth canal if he was only out of the way.  When I saw the cord around his leg (a tremendous push by Cameo made that visible), I was ready for the next contraction and hooked one finger under that cord, easing it down and around the little hoof.  Baby was delivered immediately, but had died from the stress.  This was not a genetic thing, but it could have cost the lives of the entire litter and the mother.  It is the delivery where I realized the importance of not just leaving the animals to have babies without someone keeping an eye on things...

Back to the piglets:  Five healthy little ones were delivered quite soon after the first dead one.  And Cameo raised them all, with the exception of one male who spiked a fever at about 5 weeks of age and didn't recover.

Second litter:  7 babies, delivered with ease.  One died within the first 24 hours (not unusual).  All the others thrived.

This is a good sow to send to the zoo, a good representative of the breed, and also (bonus!) my prettiest American Guinea Hog.

They are happy with Cameo as the first hog to be transported, I am happy that it will be an experienced mama who is also a very good mother, and Raspberry will have her first litter here.  It all works out.

There are still some minor details to talk through, and an official version of the contract to sign.  The zoo typically castrates males as newborns, to which I said....that's pretty stressful for them, and they will be very small.  After the zoo vet talked with our vet (who does the castrating here for our pigs), they have agreed not to stress the newborn piglet and wait a few weeks.  Some other minor details, like...they will give iron shots to the piglets, even though we don't do it here.  The iron shots are a non-issue, just different than what we do here.

And they will order feed from the mill where we order, so that the mama and babies are eating the same diet that they will get when they are returned to us.  Same diet, same ration, plus the hay that ours get, so that they fill up on something other than corn-based meal.

It will be exciting, and a bit nerve-wracking, to have one of my animals under someone else's care, while still belonging to me.  

I foresee a few visits to the zoo in our future to check on mama and babies!  

On, to the new adventure!  :)

Laura

Zaney's kidlets

So, baby goats.  Yikes, what a potentially dangerous delivery for Zaney!!!

First photo:  What I saw on the computer screen in the house, which sent me dashing out to the barn immediately.  Zaney had obviously started labor a bit earlier, so I was watching closely on the barn cam.  

One back hoof and the entire leg was "delivered" and hanging limply with the rest of the baby's body still firmly inside of my goat.  Zaney was acting as if she expected to see a baby on the straw, in the middle of all the amniotic fluid.  No contractions happening.  She was fully involved in "clean-up".  I checked to see if I could push the leg back in to rearrange the presentation of the baby.  No, didn't seem possible.  Called the vet.  He was going to head right over.

It seemed like an eternity, but she started pushing again in about 5 minutes.  I cringed with every contraction, right along with Zaney.  And miracle of miracles, one tremendous push and that little doeling slid right out!  I think the vet was a bit disappointed, as he was just getting into his truck to head over when he got my update...  I had been mentally thinking through what he would do, how I would learn from his example, so in the middle of my relief was a tinge of regret as well.  But...on to more important things.

The baby was sneezing and coughing, with fluid in her airways.  I had one of those icky blue bulb syringes for just such a reason, but the little fighter did just fine without my help.  

That is photo #2, the doeling being loved on and cleaned by her mother.

Photo #3.  The cousins in the adjacent pen, watching in amusement and playful glee, as Zaney encourages her new daughter to stand for the first time and simultaneously/painfully pushes out her son.  You can see little white hooves in the sac of fluid, just waiting to enter the world with a literal splash.  

Zaney is a truly amazing mother.  She alternated cleaning her new buckling with reassuring and encouraging her doeling.  She warned off any curious dogs with a stamp of her front hoof, despite being in the middle of contractions and delivery.  She ignored the curious cousins in favor of much more important things...  She cleaned up the bedding with stomach-turning zeal, leaving everything fresh and not a trace of what had just taken place...

And photo #4:  Baby doeling and buckling, wearing matching home-made sweaters, the gifts from my friend Merry when she visited last July.  

Babies are doing fine today, still enjoying the heat under the lamp but getting some spunk to their attitudes and looking adorable.  

Zaney is understandably perturbed, because new farm dog Remy is housed in the stall right next door to her precious newborns, and there is a lot of foot stamping and glaring going on from the goat pen towards poor Remy.  Thankfully, the over-the-top reaction on Zaney's part has eased up a bit since last night and is now mostly loud snorts (from Zaney), when she catches sight of Remy...

The new doeling seems to be polled (naturally no horns), while buckling should have horns (there are little nubs where the horns will grow).  This is perfect.  For any goats that stay, I think we will keep females with no horns but bucklings or wethers with horns.  :)

This year, despite customers who will want goats with no horns, I think we will opt not to call the vet for disbudding.  It involves scorching the horn buds with a very hot round iron to kill the root.  

Some people won't buy a goat with horns.  But after holding the little doeling who "needed" to be dis-budded in July last year (for a customer), I just don't want to subject any of the babies to such a procedure again.  It is bad enough with the bull-calves, who are much larger.  Burning round holes into the top of a baby goat's noggin just seems like a hideous thing to do every spring.  

So we won't.

Whew!  Glad that particular birth is over with and the babies are safely delivered.  

I have no clue who will deliver next...  Best guess?  April, the sheep.

The miracles of spring keep rolling right along.  I love it!

 

Laura

Remy

We got the word yesterday morning that Remy was on his way north from Arkansas, where he had been staying with a trainer for a few weeks.  By 5 pm last night, Jeremy and I were in Rockford, meeting Elaine Reynolds to bring him home to the farm.  Remy was very shy, but soon was licking Jeremy's hand and leaning into him for the hour long ride home.

It's been a long and emotional wait, but he is here, getting used to barn noises, wanting so badly to be with his new people but also needing time to get accustomed to everything that will be his domain.

Carrie's dog Waldo is here for a week, too, so we are doing doggie introductions slowly.  Taffy got to sniff Remy through the crate bars, and Rem was shivering with excitement and wanting to play (Taffy growled...)  

Rocky (husky, and quite the bully) and Remy will not meet each other face to face for quite a while, and Remy will have the pasture as "his" territory when he is off-leash, eventually.

Today Remy will get walked in the pasture, to get used to the sound of squealing pigs and the bellowing steer, and will be walked close to but not too close to the electric fence, to establish safe boundaries for when he's off leash.  

Rembrandt (Remy) is a purebred English Shepherd male, bred by the same breeders who brought Taffy into our lives, and he already has great potential as the farm dog "presence" that was hoped for.

Also yesterday...  Two more goat babies were born.  I'll post pics of them tomorrow.  One was "born" with only her back leg delivered, and the rest stuck.  The vet was on his way when Zaney gave a tremendous push that had me cringing, and a little doeling was born, sneezing violently to clear her airways...  More on that next time.  

The Remster is waiting to be let out for his morning break, and I'm itching to greet him and see his shining eyes this morning.  (Itching...might be literal.  He came with fleas!)

And it doesn't need to be said, but I will anyway.  I love him already!

 

Laura