FARM FEST FIASCO

Recently we had an interesting experience with the pigs. We were going to try and bring the pigs to a festival in our town called Farm Fest. We got everything ready and we went to get the pigs. We put some whey in their trough and both of them ran up to drink it. We then picked Pip up by her back legs, then before we popped her into the box we measured her to find out what she weighed.  Both pigs weighed about 30 pounds. We then popped Pip in the box and went to pick up Hamlet. We were able to pick Hamlet up and measure him. But, then when we were lowering Hamlet into the box, that’s when disaster struck! Several things happened at once.  First Pip poked here head out of the box, then Hamlet freaked out about his sister’s head suddenly appearing out of nowhere. Then our Dad lost grip on Hamlet's legs and Hamlet tumbled onto his sister’s head. After that there were several seconds of grabbing pig legs, losing grip on the pig legs, and absolute and total confusion. Then our Dad flipped one pig over his shoulder into the pen, our Mom handed him the other pig and he did the same with that one. Here ends our account of trying to bring the pigs to Farm Fest. Lesson learned from this experience:  pigs do not like to travel.

We did bring a nice display about our pigs and their breeds to Farm Fest, (shown above).  They are Old Spot and Tamworth.  On the display we also put how much they weighed and how old they are. (They are now 8 weeks old.) We did all the research about the breeds ourselves.           

Oink to ya later,

Caleb and Anika
The Bloggin' Hog Farmers
Blackberry Hill (Hog) Farm

GETTING OUR SHOATS

DEFINITIONS:

Shoat – a newly weened piglet

Weened – animal taken from its mother and taught to eat food instead of just their mother’s milk

On Saturday, May 12^th, we finally got our pigs from Brotherly Farm Organic in Brookfield, VT. 

When we peeked into the trailer that they were in; they were in the corner snuggling and snorting.  They were so cute!  

Here is Pip and Hamlet’s Mom, Mellow.  As you can see, she is huge!

At right, Hamlet and Pip are in the box that we transferred them home in. It was very funny when we carried them over from the trailer.  They looked so funny hanging from their back feet!  

We carried them from their back feet because if you carry them like a puppy, or how they do it in they movies, they will squirm and squeal their way out of your arms. Doesn’t this seem pretty barbaric? It kind of is, but you do not want small fast piglets running around! And we know this from experience.  More about this later.

Once we got them in the box we drove home.  We had to fix up the fence first and then we carried them over the same way we did at the farm.  Then we fed them but they did not eat because they were too frightened. We sat in their pen and watched them.

After a while they got up and ate some food, rooted, and drank some water. We thought everything they did was funny. We noticed that they looked so cute but in their eyes they had that little devilish gleam that says they can do mischief.

And sure enough they got spooked and ran through the holes in the fence, even though it was an electric fence and it was on!  It was made for sheep though, so the shoats were too small to be held in by the fence.  We tried to corner them ourselves, but that did not work.  Eventually, our neighbor, Joe, who is a farmer, helped us try to catch them. We finally did. And our neighbor ran back to his farm and got some hog panels, while we held the shoats.  These fence panels have proven that they can hold them in and not let them escape, again. Pip and Hamlet seem pretty happy and are more comfortable around us. They sure are cute but they can be mischivious.  Sometimes when they are in the corner sleeping, or they just want us to leave them alone, it is not so fun to watch them.  But, we love to watch them eat; they make the cutest slurping sounds.  

Oink to ya later,

Caleb and Anika
The Bloggin' Hog Farmers
Blackberry Hill (Hog) Farm