Our new additions - 2 beautiful British Saddleback gilts are settling in well. They arrived on Friday, and now seem to be enjoying their new home.
Jo, Ben, Kate and I went to see Jamie, from Morris Free Range Meats and Horticulture in Coedypaen on Friday afternoon, to choose them. We chose 2 nice noisy girls, and got organised with some feed and straw. Half an hour later Jamie was backing the trailer into our yard, and I broke the news to him that we couldn't get the trailer within 10 yards of the gate to the pig enclosure. He took the news in his stride - he was already getting used to me by this point I think (we arrived late, I made him hold a 25kg bag of pig feed for about 10 minutes while I struggled to read the weighing scale, made bad jokes and was slow generally), and we had a cup of tea while we worked out a plan. When I say 'we' I mean 'Jamie' and when I say 'plan' I mean he carried the little one (loud!) and with a combination of feed and a board we managed to field the big one safely through the gate.
Anna had arrived by this point, and stayed for an appropriate tea of sausage, mash & leeks (just think - this could be entirely home grown by the end of the year!). Just before pudding we had the first escape! Two happy pigs happily exploring the yard! Luckily we had had the foresight to shut the gate to the yard! So, out came the food and the board, and luckily, with a combination of greed and chasing they soon went back into the enclosure. By this time Jo and Anna were helpfully outside taking photos - just what I needed! 10 more minutes careful observation revealed the weak point in the fence - 2 strands of wire that were about 2" further apart than they should have been! In revealing the escape route of course both pigs escaped again, so we then repeated the feeding / chasing procedure, then grabbed the barbed wire, staples, fence pliers, hammer and wire strainer and put another strand in to close the gap. The light was fading by this time, so, tired, bruised and muddy I returned to the house, drank some home made elderberry, blackberry and blackcurrant wine (subject of another post!), and went, relieved and exhausted to bed.
With 2 little children we go to bed early (9:30 is a pretty late night for us), and I was fast asleep when Jo prodded me. "What's going on outside?", she said. I could hear fairly loud grunting and hoped the pigs were just having a nice, loud time inside their safe, secure enclosure. I closed my eyes and sank back into bed. Another whack from Jo, "You should go and have a look". It was only 10:30. I slowly managed to get out of bed, peeped out of the curtains. I could see the small pig in the yard again, outside the enclosure! On went the boots, coat, hat, out to the white container, grabbed the feed, board, grabbed the barbed wire, hammer, fence pliers, strainer (sound familiar?). Managed to get the pig back in, then tried to work out how it had escaped. The big pig clearly hadn't been able to get through the gap so after quite a lot of head scratching and, frankly, guessing, I decided to add another strand at a weak looking point. It sounds quite easy, but in the dark, rain, mud, cold, trying to tension and staple wire while holding a torch is REALLY difficult! At 11:30 I came back inside, threw my clothes onto the floor, collapsed into bed, and prayed that we would have no more escapes!
Touch wood, we're now 5 days in and we haven't had any more.
They were 33kgs and 49kgs in weight each on Friday, and have eaten 25kgs of feed between them in the last 5 days!
According to http://www.thepigsite.com/stockstds/18/daily-feed-intake the small one (they haven't got names - "pets have names" as Jamie said to us - he then added "but even pets get eaten in my house sometimes!") should be gaining around 700g per day and the big one should be gaining around 775g per day! Just re-reading it though I think I have probably been over-feeding them > we'll start the diet tomorrow!
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