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| James (left) and Julia (right) saying "hi" to Porter (far left). |
After seven years of raising feeder pigs -- and one disastrous attempt at farrowing with Tamworths -- we bought a pair of American Guinea hogs last fall. Both were eight months old, which is when a lot of people breed their pigs for the first time, and although Julia Child was coming into heat, James Beard was oblivious. They've been living together all this time, and we finally saw them mate a couple weeks ago, which would give Julia a July due date. I really hope that isn't right because I was hoping for spring piglets that could be finished on acorns and hickory nuts in the fall. And if they're born in July, they'll only be three months old when the nuts start to fall from the trees. But I keep rubbing Julia's belly, and her teats are definitely not filling with milk yet, so this is one of those situations where I will just have to patiently wait.
5 comments:
Good luck. :)
My dad was a feeder pig dealer for years while I was growing up. We generally had a sow or two in the barn. I remember one sow he named Sweet Lips and when she was giving birth he sat in the pen with her head in his lap :)
Julia and James...hee (wait for it) sterical.
Our first Red Wattle sows were Cagney and Lacey but then Cagney went nutso and started chewing on the vulva of our other pigs so her new name became Italian Sausage.
We liked her a lot better that way.
Oh, I hope you get piglets Deborah!
I've decided to sell my two American Guinea Hogs gilts. It's just too much with my arm and surgery... I sure will miss them though. They are SO friendly and funny!
We are in the process of fencing in some new areas around the barn to get some pigs. Guinea hogs sound nice. I like little. :-) I don't know if we will have the fencing ready this year or not.... It's much harder than we anticipated.
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