Not so “Lucky” and the joys of pig keeping

The is “Lucky” our senior Berkshire boar. What a couple of weeks he has had.

A week ago we noticed that he was off his food and generally unsteady on his feet. This is where you watch them closely and decided whether the vet is called or decide that it is just a touch of “man flu” and he will get over it.  Well with Lucky this was not the case and he went downhill very quickly – the vet prescribed an injection that would bring down his temperature. It did but over the following days we had to coax him out of his arc and tempt him with anything (apples; bananas; yoghurt) to get him to eat again, he decided that he would eat dock leaves and thistles, that is all he wanted. Some friends came round and gave him some peaches and tomatoes and …just as things were starting to rally – he caught his growing tusks on the electric fence and in panic wrapped himself in live wire – wasn’t his day.  Final straw this morning he tumbled out of his arc as though he had been out ‘clubbing’ the night before  - head to one side, clearly he had trouble with his balance. Another dash to the vet and we came back with 2 antibiotic injections for him which he took in his stride. Not easy injecting  a 200 kilo boar who is in pain and anyone who has injected a pig will know the difficulties that could be incurred, but Lucky is not well and more or less offered to inject himself. You could see his ear thumping with pain. “Lucks” come on – get well soon we have a couple of  girls waiting for you.

Naming a Pig

Oxford Sandy & Black gilt

I love naming our pigs and one of the first things I ask the clients who buy our weaners “are you going to name them?” Most of them do even if it is A & B. They have a name and that is a good thing.

On Monday this week a family from the  Limousin Region came to collect their breeding trio of Berkshires – I couldn’t wait to hear what they were going to call them. They said they  were mulling over some Shakespeare names – I wonder what they will  agree on. They have a great blog called www.bloginfrance.com  so watch out for the adventures with their Berkshire pigs and what they decided to call them.

Some names come instantly – you can look at something and say “yes you look like a Bob or Reg “…. but we have had trouble deciding names for our Oxford Sandy & Blacks (OSBs). We thought we nailed it –  but when you are out in the field calling them – the chosen names of the day didn’t feel quite right.

Our OSB boar name  is spot on we call him Jim – “Gentleman Jim”. He has style – my father nicknamed my son the same name.

Where is this blog going – well our Boar “Gentleman Jim joined his lovely lady this morning” and our son this weekend will be marrying his lovely lady too … Olivia. Now that has got me thinking as our Oxford lady is alas without a name… would my future daughter-in-law like to lend her name to our pig? She comes from Oxford. I hope so as they are both very special.

Bryan and Olivia – looking forward to your wedding this weekend x

Olivia with a Berkshire piglet

 Bryan and Berkshire piglet

Berkshires to Burgundy

Last weekend we welcomed the Lavenders from Burgundy to our ” Le Logis Pig Experience” .

Sarita and Andrew Lavender  contacted us back in February about one of our pig experience weekends and we offered to put together a special package for them and their family, daughters Amelia, Ruby and Annie.

They arrived on Saturday and could not wait to get out to see the rare breed pigs. They were enthralled and loved being able to get up close and personal with them. Having helped with the pig feeding, it was time for dinner. A slow roasted shoulder of Berkshire Pork. They all had seconds – in fact some had thirds !

Despite a long day on Saturday with their trip from Burgundy and lots of information to take in, they were still up early on Sunday morning to spend more time with the pigs and help us with the feeding. Breakfast was – you guessed it – Berkshire bacon and scrambled eggs from our free range Wellsummer hens.

Later on Sunday morning, David worked with them to butcher half a pig and the family talked about what they were going to cook with the pork and who they would invite the eat it with them.

On Sunday afternoon they left with the car packed with 3 Berkshire piglets and the half a pig they had butchered. The Lavenders plan to breed organic  Berkshires in Burgundy.  Look our for their family blog.

Annie with the Berkshires - choosing the piglets

Please choose me Annie

Yes - I am taking you to Burgundy

Amelia feeds Wilma's 4 week old Berkshire piglets

Lavender family work on the Old Spot loin - plenty of bacon here

Ruby Lavender 'apprentice butcher'

Pork to plate - roast leg of pork

Harry meets Hannah

With temperatures going down to -11 later this week we were on the look out for something to cover the pig arcs to protect them from the chill. Well for those that live in France a discount shop called NOZ provided the answer –  Hannah Montana carpets – we bought most of the stock.  As you can see it certainly warmed Harry up!

Oxford Sandy and Blacks at Le Logis

A busy week at Le Logis as Jerry, Margot and Barbara our new pedigree Oxford, Sandy and Blacks (OS &B) settle in to their new “Goodlife”.

The OS & B is one of the older rare breed pigs and was on the brink of extinction with numbers going down to 100. Today in the UK there are about 520 registered Sows. We expect to breed from them  next year and would be happy to hear from anyone who has other  OS & B bloodlines here in France.

Ruby and her little gems

Ruby  farrowed last week and produced 10 piglets – 1 stillborn. This is a really good litter size for a gilt. What was so special about this farrowing  is that she was outside in the ark and this was a first for us as we always bring our sows and gilts into the barn to keep an eye on them. Ruby was not going to budge – we managed to separate her from Harry  but only a couple of metres away into a 8 x 8 pig ark.  She had done a brilliant job with her piglets.

Proud mum

First days out

 

It's a long way down

Piglet gets a snuffling lesson from Mum

Meet the wife

Hi

My name is Harry  and I would like you to meet my girl Ruby.  We are expecting our first piglets sometime in early September. I like Ruby. She shares most things with me like courgettes; tomatoes; apples and pears.   Yup … life if good.