Breeding pigs is much harder than I had anticipated. After Tu-Tu’s first failed farrowing I had become convinced she was sterile. She was so sick after that farrowing and it’s been almost a year without a successful breeding.
So we bought some gilts to see if we could successfully breed them. They will be breeding age in March and I am excited to see how we do.
Then I started looking at Tu-Tu with some skeptical eyes. Is it just me or is she looking, well, pregnant?
I took some photographs, asked various pig people. Had other people out to look at her. The consensus was that she was not, in fact pregnant. Just really fat.
Still, I had a strange feeling about her so I put her into seclusion in the barn. She was there for a week without showing any changes to her body and I began to doubt myself. She must not be pregnant and I’m losing my mind, I thought.
Then one morning, after our first night in the negative temps, I went out to feed and…babies. Babies everywhere. 8, in fact. All frozen completely solid. Little blocks of ice.
I gathered them up and took them to the burn barrel to be cremated and cursed myself for not keeping a better eye on Tu-tu.
How can I be so bad at this?
Tu-tu is out and about with the other pigs after breaking a solid metal horse gate after a week. I had hoped to keep her confined until February so I can plan these farrowings better. Hadn’t expected that gate to be so easy to snap.