The rise and fall of pig coats

Molly is very uncomfortable. These last few days she does not lie down, standing or pacing about all day. At night she is sleeping but no nest making or sign of milk  yet. We go for a walk every day, it is too close to her confinement period to leave her outside but when we go for her walk she eats that emerging grass as fast as she can.

You can see that her hair is still falling out. This usually happens when it gets hot and is happening to Poppy as well. I have added more kelp to their diets but it is not uncommon for them to lose hair when they are pregnant.

They are both on a well designed vegetarian pig food (Sow and Pig by Purina) plus two boiled eggs a day and greens and kelp and dried molasses. We still have to be careful not to over feed though. Those babies will be growing fast now.

I am not sure what is going on with the hair. It is certainly not hot. Tima also loses patches of hair on occasion.  All the breeders I know say this happens sometimes and we are not sure why. I think it is from hormonal changes. The boars do not go patchy.

Even the cows lose the odd small patch of hair now and then.

People hair tells us a lot about our health and hormonal well being. Some women get more hair when they are pregnant, some women lose hair. Thick glossy hair is equated with health. When women of all ages encounter hormonal changes we often grow extra fly away baby hairs, which are very annoying actually.

Pig hair comes and goes through the seasons so I hope Molly does not get too cold over the next few days.

It always grows back.

Tane – not pictured here – did a funny thing yesterday. For his bad back, every morning,  I make up a collection of his supplements, two turmeric, two tablets of the bone and joint supplement and his baby aspirin this all goes into a little medicine cup . I said to Alex: I will show you how I give this to him so you can take over.

We walked out into the field to the kunekune pigs. Usually Tane just puts his head back and opens his cavernous mouth and I pour all the pills quickly into his mouth. He chews and swallows. No problem at all. However while I was showing Alex what is usually a deft swipe of the hand as I drop them into his mouth – avoiding the teeth and tusks –  the pig rose up slightly and grabbed the whole plastic cup and ate the lot. Cup, pills and all. We watched in horror as he cracked and chewed and smashed  his way through the plastic. He sat down and crackled and chewed some more. Nothing we could do. We looked at each other and raised questioning  eyebrows –  then we heard a small thwack. Tane had spat out the completely chewed and flattened plastic cup.  No sign of the pills, just the smashed little medicine cup slightly stained from the turmeric, left lying in the grass. The little boar hauled himself up and limped off.

Hmm, said Alex. A mini trash compactor.

There is a lot of rain forecast for tomorrow then the cold and snow so all the cows go back into the yards for the next few days to save the pastures from damage.

Yesterday Alex tidied and cleaned the glasshouse completely so we can fit more seed trays in there.

Today Alex and I will drive out for feed and supplies. Then back to work shoveling the winter out of the barns and sheds.

Good morning. I have had dough rising overnight – I have time to get it ready for the oven before we start chores. I do not pay my volunteers but I do like them to eat very well.  An army marches on it’s stomach you know.

I hope you have a lovely day.

celi