Today before I even made it out to the barn Emily texted me and said we had piglets being born. I was still making breakfast for my clan so I finished up and headed over. When I arrived the last of the piglets was being born and momma was tuckered out from all the effort.
There are six piglets in this picture. You can just barely make out the other pink piglet’s head between the left most piglet’s rear legs. Most of the piglets were already nursing and were very active however a couple were having trouble getting going and seemed like they might lay down and give up. Fortunately Spork was on the scene.
He made sure each piglet was able to nurse and get some colostrum in them. He then held the heat lamp on the pigs that were having the most trouble to try and get them warmed up a bit. I know he got each of them to nurse. It was great Spork was there because for one thing, he’ll never forget it. Also Miguel and I were trying to reposition our radiant heaters to give the pigs some heat. We couldn’t take care of the pigs and work on the heaters at the same time.
We had a couple of tours today, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I made sure to take both families into the barn to see the new piglets. It’s not every day you get to see piglets that are only hours old. I also took them to see the baby chicks we have in the chick barn.
And of course we checked in on our newest calf, who is a week old today.
It’s not often you get to have so much cuteness during the winter, and despite the horribly cold weather we have coming tonight and the next few days, with all the babies running around I feel like spring is just around the corner.
After all my running around today, I brought SWMBO over to the barn to see the piglets. I had to check her pockets before she left the barn to get the piglets out she was trying to steal.
After getting all my piglets out of her pockets and sending her to the house, I checked one last time on mom and the piglets.
Mom was piglets were snoozing dreamily. They seemed quite content under a heat lamp and two radiant heaters. I was able to scratch mom on the head and neck and she barely moved. The babies were toasty warm when I checked their temperature. With all the cold coming tonight, I’m glad everyone is snuggled in. Tomorrow we may have another batch of piglets. We have another mom who was bred at the same time so she should be imminent as well. Tomorrow could be another day of cuteness!