A Baby Story- The Piglets are Here

As a “hobby” farmer I find that I spend the late fall, winter and early spring months pining away for warmer weather and longer days.  I read seed catalogs, plan gardens, make lists and dream of all the things I will get accomplished during the high time of summer.  I have my head in the clouds, a boat-load of ambition and too much time on my hands.

And BAM!! Just like that! Spring is here and the fast paced, crazy days of a farmer ensue.  I have too many things to do and not enough time to do it in- and I love it.  This season has been exceptionally busy for us as we have had a lot of first time experiences.  So I apologize for being a horrible blogger.  I have been busy birthing piglets, running races, raising meat birds, hatching chicks and ducklings, and gardening.  All of which, I will blog about-I suppose, it’s better to be late than never.

The absolute highlight of my summer was the highly anticipated birth of the piglets.  As I wrote about in “Domino the Gigilo”, we borrowed a boar in April to use as a stud for our two sows, Esmerelda and Petunia.  And although I did, much to my stunned awe, witness “The Act” I wasn’t sure if either sow was pregnant.  Sows are very large animals and do not show a pregnancy as readily as other animals.  There are expensive tests you can do, or (if you are really organized) you can keep track of their heats and determine if they are pregnant by the lack of one.  I did neither of these things,,,,,and so I had to wait.

Everyday I would go out to the pig pen and feel my ladies’ bellies, “Do you have babies in your belly?” I would ask each of them.  The suspense was killing me!! A pig’s gestational period is approximately 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days.  According to my calculations that would bring us to about mid July.

As the months went by I did notice that the sows were getting larger, but pigs will just keep growing.  My ladies were a year old in June, and weighed about 350-400 lbs.  Pigs can grow to be about 800-1,000 lbs, so they could just be growing.  As July approached I was pretty certain that my girls were pregnant and that we would be having piglets.  Now it was time to stress a bit.

I have never experienced a birth, not an animal birth or a human birth.  I do have a son but he was born by cesarean section, so the whole birthing thing was very intimidating to me.  Not to mention, this is a very large animal that may or may not allow me to be present if she needs help.  The research I had done indicated that pigs are generally very capable of birthing unassisted; however, I really wanted to witness the miracle.  The biggest dangers with a mom and piglets is her inadvertently crushing her new babies by either stepping on or lying on them or the terrifying idea of her savaging her own young.  Some sow’s, especially first-time mama’s, will kill her own babies.  This terrified me to the point of nightmares.

As the due date got closer we still had some work to do.  All my research suggested that you should separate the mother’s from each other for the first couple of weeks, until the risk of crushing is less and so that the other sows don’t stress each other and cause savaging.  We decided to split the ladies’ house in half with a plywood barrier, and do the same to the large pen area.  I didn’t want to separate them until the time was close, as they are littermates and have spent their entire lives together.

The week that I had calculated the piglets to be due had arrived and I was watching my girls like a hawk.  “Do you have babies in your belly?” was no longer a question as their bellies were huge and hung down well below their backsides.  On Monday, while I was out sitting with the sows and rubbing their bellies, I felt the babies move!! You cannot imagine my delight! It was an amazing feeling!

We separated the girls on Wednesday, and I would go out and spend hours watching them, rubbing their bellies and talking with them.  The weather was unusually hot and humid that week and I felt for these poor, uncomfortable ladies.  I ran the hose out to the pen and made a pool of cold water for them to lie in.  They loved it! I would spray them with the hose and they would let the cold water wash over them and shake like a dog.  I couldn’t wait to meet their new babies, but I was as nervous as could be.  About how the birth would go.  Would I miss it while I was at work?  Would she need me to assist?  What if she savages her babies? What is she lies on them?  How will I handle losing these babies or the mama’s if something goes wrong?  I was fully invested in these pregnancies: financially, time-wise and emotionally.

When I left for work on Thursday I was pretty certain that Esmerelda was ready to go at any moment.  I worked on pins and needles all day and hurried home to find that she still hadn’t had the babies, but was nesting furiously.  It was the hottest day of the week, high 90’s with full humidity.  We did the usual evening chores and decided to go out and grab a quick dinner.

When we returned home at dark, we hurried out to the pig pen to check on Essie.  Before we reached the pig pen I could hear screaming!  My husband and I looked at each other and ran for the pig house.  Inside we found Essie standing in the corner, pushing and stomping at two spotted piglets.  My heart dropped.  Each time she would go at the babies, they would scream.  “Essie! Essie! No!” I cried.  But she didn’t pay any attention to me.  As far as we could see, the babies weren’t hurt, but she wasn’t being very motherly.

I dashed to the house and tried to call the two people who I had in my list of “pig” people for some advice.  Being 10pm, I was unable to reach either.  What do I do?  Do we take the babies from her if we feel she is going to hurt them?  Should I go in the pen and try to calm her? Will that upset her more? Or will she turn on me?  I started searching on the internet and read some mixed posts about removing the babies.  I then read that sometimes new mothers don’t know what is happening and need to be calmed.  In a pinch, give them beer.  Ok, beer I have!

I grab a 6 pack of expensive, local beer from the fridge-my heart pounding and legs shaking from adrenaline, when I hear my husband yelling to me from the pig pen.  “Get out here now!!”

Running as fast as I can, I make it to the pig pen to find that she has had another piglet and she is still forcing them into the corner and they are still screaming.  My husband explains that she went outside into the water pool and had a piglet.  Immediately, she got up and left it there in the water! My husband snuck in and rescued it from the water and put it into the house with the other two babies.

I told my husband about the beer idea and he cracks one open, puts it in a dish and carefully offers it to Essie.  She is not interested.  Shit.

Soon Essie delivers two more piglets from a standing position, letting them fall to the pig barn floor.

That’s it! I can no longer stand by idly.  I must go in-no matter what! At this point we have realized that she isn’t going to attack her babies.  She just hasn’t any idea what is going on and she is very stressed out.  I send my husband to the house to get supplies: a light, bucket of warm water, iodine and scissors to cut the long umbilical cords that the babies are dragging around.  And I go in.

“Hi Essie! You’re a good pig.  It’s ok.”  I coo as I approach her.  She lets me in and I gingerly start to stroke her head and talk to her.  Soon she lies down and lets me continue to pet her.  Almost immediately, her new babies squirm their way over and begin to look for a teat.  Completely unnerved by the whole experience, Essie jumps to her feet and refuses to nurse.  Pacing around the pig barn, making me cringe with fear as she nearly steps on tiny babies.

“Kevin!” I shout. “You’ve got to come in here and help!”  I start to talk to Essie and get her to lie down again.  I tell my husband to rub her head and talk to her and I take a position at her backside.  Immediately I have 5 piglets trying to suckle me! My boots, my hands, trying to get up my shirt!! Sorry babies, nothing for you here!

I notice that Essie appears to be having a contraction, and as I watch in wonder she starts to deliver a piglet.  Seeing my opportunity, I take a piglet from my lap and put it on one of her teats.  She is too distracted to care and allows it to latch on.  I follow swiftly with 4 more piglets.  She allows it and pushes out a beautiful brown and white baby girl.  All is well.

Essie delivered 12 piglets!!!!!!! Not too bad for a first time mama! 4 males and 8 females and all the colors of the rainbow.  Pink, black and white, brown and red, solid, spotted and striped.

Petunia delivered her piglets on Monday morning while I was away at an appointment.  I had been up with her all night-watching her frenzied labor.  She delivered 7 HUGE piglets.  5 females and 2 males.  A mix of pinks and blacks and 1 brown spotted.  Essie is a really laid-back mama and lets me and anyone who wants to visit see and touch her babies.  Petunia is a very nervous mama who chased me out of the house a few times in the first days after their birth.  She’s come around and is more relaxed now, but it is very intimidating to be chased by a huge mama pig!!

It was the most amazing experience I have ever had! I love these babies! And they love me!! As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time in the pig pen and they know me well.  They fight over who can sit in my lap and who gets their bellies rubbed first.  They are 11 weeks old now and getting big.  We lost only 1, at about 3 weeks old.  it looked as if a mama had sat on it in the muddy section of the pen and couldn’t get up in time.  Very sad.

My husband and a friend castrated the males at 3 weeks old.  Thank goodness there were only 6 and that I didn’t have to be present for that unpleasant job.  They all did fine and everyone healed nicely.

All 18 piglets have been sold.  it is hard to see the ones that are leaving go- but I know they went to good homes.  It might seem strange that I care, considering that we raise them for slaughter.  I feel the most important part about eating meat is doing it responsibly.  My pigs have THE best lives!!  They are loved and cared for.  They are social and active.  They are clean and healthy.  What more can I ask for?