When’s the due date? “Oink”

Posted on August 12th, 2013

What no piglets?

Last Year Dotty out lovely Gloucester Old Spot pig gave birth to 12 beautiful piglets and proved to be an excellent mother to them all. It never crossed our mind that when Boyo the Boar came for his holiday this year the result might not be the same. Six weeks he frolicked around the field with our Dotty giving Farmer Nick the run around when it was time to leave. However as we watched the weeks go by we couldn’t help but notice Dotty failing to swell. June piglets have always been a feature at Coombe Mill but this year it was not to be.

Welcome Sally

Nick enjoys his bacon has a real soft spot for the pigs and I was missing piglets on the farm, so we kept an eye out for a pregnant pig and struck lucky with a local farm. Sally is a Saddleback variety and most definitely pregnant. She is only young herself, a little bit of a teenage pregnancy mistake apparently but we are hoping she will make a good Mum.

Nick has been hard at work these past few weeks building a new pig house down by the carp lake. The sloping land and old wooden shelter of their current home has seen better days and beginning to fall apart.

The new luxury quarters are nearly finished and truly five star with windproof and waterproof concrete for the house, a concrete feeding area and grassy field for exercise. I do have a few concerns that a heavily pregnant pig may need a few agility exercise classes to maneuver herself around the corridor of this super new home but Nick is confident all will be well! The race is now on to finish the house and move the pigs across before Sally’s piglets arrive.   

Guess the date and number of piglets

As Sally’s pregnancy was unplanned we have taken her on not knowing when she is due. I thought it would be a bit of Fun to run a weekly progress photo on Facebook and ask you to guess:

1. The date Sally will give birth

2. How many live piglets will be born?

The winner or closest guess will receive a delightful Phoenix Trading colour in Farm freeze. It comes in 6 individual picture panels which when joined together make the 6ft long freeze, a perfect craft for any young farm lover’s bedroom. 

To enter simply make your best guess in the comments below. To help you just a little, Farmer Nick feels the birth is imminent, I think it is a few weeks yet. Saddleback pigs typically have between 5 and 12 live births.

Disclaimer: The freeze has been kindly donated by Angela York, a regular guest of Coombe Mill and follower of our news on the blog. My thanks to Angela. This is not a sponsored post by Phoenix.

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