Pig Farrowing Huts
This morning, the moment after I’ Press Publish’, I will leap up and gently turn the incubating eggs (one more day of ‘turning’ to go) then on with the hoodie, the extra pair of socks, farm overalls, the scarf, hattie, jacket, gloves then overgloves then I am off out the door – feed the two big pigs, feed the barn fowl, feed the peacocks and cats and dogs, feed the short fat kunes, feed the laying chickens (10 eggs a day now) and the cows and the sheep.
Then I will leap into the borrowed Matriarch jeep, with the little trailer already attached and off we will go to Indiana to pick up the two calf/pig huts. It is a three hour drive so we will be back in time for evening chores. Spring is coming you know! Soon the animals will begin their mini migration out of the barn and into the world of fields. They will, you know. Spring is coming! So this is the beginning of the outdoor sleeping arrangements. Plus one of these will be Poppy’s summer field farrowing hut. 
If these work out I will order more of these shelters for the goats and the kunes. Evidently they are very tough. Goats? I hear you say? GOATS! Well maybe, but not until the sheep have gone off to their new homes. I like to stay small and manageable. I am looking at these goats. Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats. They are small, funny, very good mothers and have great milk for cheese. Apparently we are going to need toys. So I will probably milk the mothers. It’s all about the cheese! Plus there is a breeder near by. 
Let’s hope Sheila likes them. But plenty of time – I am still at the research stage.
Speaking of cheese. Yesterday the Cadet and I spent her hour excavating the wee cow corridor – forking out all the old straw so that we could open the interior door. (The kunes had spread their living arrangements all over the show). This way the cows come in one door to be milked then exit another door. It will be part of their training to follow this routine every day from now on. These are older cows remember, they have never been milked by a person so I want to ease them into coming into the milking parlour, being clipped to the head board, (their collars have arrived) pausing for brushing and touching, having something tasty to eat, then reversing and exiting as the next one comes in. So when we have calves as well, they will still know their way and the tension will be mitigated. 
Think like a cow, remember. Cows love routine.
On Sunday the eggs are due to hatch. So from Thursday evening on there will be no more turning of the eggs. As well as the risk of damage to the chicks we also have to keep the incubator at high humidity so the shells are easy for the chicks to break. 
Also for your viewing pleasure. There is a transparent window. So I will hopefully capture images of chicks hatching for you. Isn’t that exciting! Though, as they say, one should not count ones chickens until they are hatched.
I need a video camera. I need to think about that. That might be fun.
However – we have Camera House. And with any luck one of the chicks will hatch in the light.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farm
celi
c
c
46 Comments on “Pig Farrowing Huts”
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thekitchensgarden 
How exciting – I had a feeling you were considering goats 😉
Hurray! A road trip to get the pig huts. We had those on the farm and used them for calves, goats, pigs, and sheep. Glad you are able to get them. Love the idea of goats because I grew up with them. Safe travels today.
I have something else for your consideration, Miss C. As well as improved pig accommodation, how about a much, much easier way to take honey off your supers? Take a look at this, which my permaculture-mad brother sent me from the UK:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/11429609/Beekeepers-in-Australia-invent-revolutionary-hive.html
I think I want one right now! K xx
So funny, I was reading about this yesterday, see comments from seasoned Beekeeper in US
http://www.honeybeesuite.com/should-you-go-with-the-flow/
http://www.honeybeesuite.com/out-of-a-job-maybe/
Laura
Thanks for this! I thought it sounded a little too perfect to be true. I shall ensure the brother gets to see it as well.
http://www.honeyflow.com
That bread looks good…do you have a recipe?
Goats …. raise/hide the washing line 🙂 Your bread looks delicious. Exciting few days ahead. Laura
Now should I be surprised that you are thinking of goats? No of course not, this is a Celi thing,….. what animal comes next? I have heard that Lamas make good woolly jumpers ( not them but their fur)…it will be lovely to see little goats running hither and tither. I wonder what Sheila will make of it all….Life is never so exciting as visiting your farm.
Goats are the perfect thing! I can’t wait!
Hey Miss C,
I had a dream last night that I came to work on the farm and you had goats!!!!! I love baby goats, they are hilarious cute and sweet little things. It was the type of dream that you stir from but the dream picks up again when you go back into sleep. I am tired this morning, after all I was working on the farmy all night. I am going on a school field trip today, we are snowshoeing in a conservation area learning about how animals and plants live through winter. Should be fun, hopefully not to cold.
Well you know I must say YAY for the goats and will wait anxiously until they are a real part of the farm, although rushing sheep away isn’t necessary on my account 🙂 That bread does look tasty, I am very partial to bread as well as goats…
You had it right: GOATS I said, Wow, there’s something new to look forward to. You’re having a busy time, and Spring will make it even busier. But it won’t take you so long to get muffled up for outside…
love,
ViV x
Yahoooo!!! I’m so excited you are getting goats Celi!!!! You will love them!!! Of course, as you know, I’m keen on Lamancha goats, but no doubt the Nigerian Dwarf goats will be wonderful too! Talk about antics and preciousness! You’ll have more of that coming your way with goats!!! We will be heading to West Plains, Mo to pick up our farrowing hut in the very near future. We have two litters of Gloucester Old Spots coming in May! Exciting!!! xo
Yay for goats! Safe travels to go get your pig huts. They are wonderful things.
Can’t wait to hear about how many eggs hatch! You often hear them inside the egg before you see them. I’ve read that talking or singing to them helps encourage them to break the shell. Sometimes they seem like they are stuck, but don’t worry. They are almost always able to get out on their own, and trying to help them could dislodge their umbilical cord.
Those little goats are adorable and comical and we would love them! But they are awfully “Tiggerish” for Sheila, I’m afraid.
And so the planning continues. You always amaze me with your planning. Have you had any interest in the sheep? i know you wanted to shear them before they left. I so hope you have goats by June. Wheee! Have a good, safe trip. Can’t wait to see the new fixtures.
I would just love the heel/shell piece of that crusty fresh bread, I can smell it all the way over here. Smell it? I can taste it with home made raspberry jam. I am not greedy, I’ll leave the butter and cheese for everyone else! 😉 New chicks and soon new goats they look adorable and I bet Boo would love mothering and laying with them.
Goats, you say. My nephew and his wife, who just relocated to my community (we now have family living here; yeah) are considering the purchase of goats. I am trying to connect them with friends who run Goat Dispatch, goats they rent out to eat the invasive Buckthorn tree.
A co-worker of mine and her in-laws raise goats. Not sure what breed, but they just love them. They are being raised for meat as we have a very large Hispanic and African population here in N. Central Texas that love cabrita! I do know the breed they are raising have a tendency to have multiples quite often. She said their herd – each spring will be about 60% twins with a few triplets. No quads yet. But – Nannie goats raise multiples well unlike a cow.
That’s exactly what I did: “GOATS?” Then I said, “HOORAY!” I love goats and will probably have dozens of them in that next life of mine. The one I came across is a fainting goat. Got to get me one of those. 😀 Yay, so excited for the farmy.
My grandmother had goats. They’re fun. Does your mobile phone have a video camera mode? Most phones do nowadays. xx
Yes. Do you use a smartphone? It would have a video camera and I bet The Cadet would be smart resource to help with it.
I like routine also!
Linda ♪♫❤
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
https://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/sherlock-boomer
I think it is a great idea to have goats because their milk makes great cheeses and even better goat butter . When I was a kid in my village our neigbor had goats and I would exchange a pound of regular butter for a pound of goat butter. It had a very strong flavor . I also remember that the goats stunk.
Good timing – 2015 is Chinese year of the goat 🙂 My thought associations went goat + fresh bread = chevre! But the comment about cabrita also resonated as we enjoy goat meat, and often comment it’s underappreciated in many cultures. I follow another good food-practices farm blog, White Flint Farm and they have an abundance of goats… it’s kidding season.
oo.. white flint farm, i will go and find them.. thank you! c
Excellent, I follow the FB page and Bill’s Practicing Resurrection blog but Cherie has a blog too. They live and farm sustainable.
Well, as you may know, I have Nigerians and they are wonderful as just about anything one would want them for! Mine, of course are just pasture ornaments (pets), as I only have 2 now but you will love them! The cheese is outstanding but must be eaten very fresh, otherwise it develops that peculiar “goaty” scent. Yuk!
They are super smart to and quite escape artists so secure enclosures are a must. They will find their way into your house if you’re not careful! 🙂
Can’t wait to see the new baby chicks hatching….always something new and fun going on at the Farmy!
Wel;l we are not short of escape artists around here so they will fit right in! morning Chris!.. c
2015–a year of change at the Farmy. I’m hanging on to my hat!
I AM trying to think like a cow but am almost totally lost on a big sea after all those announcements! KISS: Love that bread, can’t wait for the chicks, my beloved goat cheeses so far seem to have come from Southern France so am v much looking forwards to what you will produce . . . perchance I’ll just lie down like Ton and ‘go with the flow’ 🙂 !
Cow thinking is lovely, just think bovine bliss, very much like lying next to Ton and going with the flow.. c
[warm but huge laughter!] Shall absolutely try ’cause would love to lie next to Ton but absolutely be next in comments to a fave guy to me and you: Hello!
Goats, huh? Fantastic. Cheese made with goat milk is the best! You have to try your hand making feta with it. Yum! Of course, it you any extra laying around or your freezers too full for goat meat, I guess I could take some off your hands. 🙂
I hope you got home before the snow hit. No need to be driving in that mess if you can avoid it. We’re supposed to get a few inches overnight and more tomorrow. Looks like I’ll be using the snowblower tomorrow. Now that’s something to look forward to.
Yes we got home in time.. though so far it is pretty light. Feta is a MUST! Oh my mouth is watering at the thought.. though it will be a while I bet we have all our recipes in order before I get any goats! have a lovely evening . c
As you know my Otis is a nigerian dwarf, I’ve also had two other wethers and not one of them offered to climb or escape. Even if the gate to the yard was inadvertently left open they’d come out a few steps and freeze. Their pen is made of 52″ high combination panels – cattle panels only with smaller openings at the bottom – and it’s kept them very well. Her majesty Fanny is a mini silky fainter and they’re non-climbers. Otis is somewhere around 6 or 7 years old now and a real sweetie, very affectionate and gentle. We got Otis and his buddy Amos when they were just weaned. At the time my step daughter was going through some grim health issues and we desperately needed some comic relief and those two filled the bill beatifully!
I remember about Otis, though it was Fanny that changed my mind. She looks like such fun and I am sure Tima would not mind carrying a goat around on her back. c
Hey Celi .. You are always so busy. I hope all goes well with those chicks 😊 exciting ..
I think I missed something. What made you decide to change from sheep to goats?
I can milk goats and my sheep cannot be bred by me due to their history of prolapses.. Though I am still THINKING.. not 1005 sure yet!
I love goats – although they can be very destructive! When we had chickies in Spain I used to watch them hatch out…it’s such an incredible process.
Look at that beautiful bread — and you didn’t even mention it…
You will love goats. I raise Nubians and absolutely love them. They all have very distinct personalities, love attention, can be playful and naughty, and just bring a great deal of fun to farm. The babies are the most fun around. I’m getting almost a gallon a day from each of my ladies so get ready for more milk. You’re going to love them.
How exciting, new life on the farmy! Baby chicks and goats, that should keep you busy. Ha 😉