Finally - pigs!

We have finally reached the next step in our goal to provide the majority of our own farm-raised meat! Pigs! 

We had put in an order for 2 pigs from a local pig farmer (Snedaker Fine Swine - Thank you Teri and Don!) and Teri asked us if we were interested in bottle piglets incase they got any. We said yes, of course!

We got the call February 8th that one of their sows had a very large litter and to give all the piglets the best possible chance, they had 2 piglets available, if we were still interested we could pick them up the next day after they had been with their dam long enough to receive colostrum (the first milk of any mammal that imparts important immunities to the young). 

We didn't have any supplies, so we headed down below and got baby bottles, bedding, pig milk replacer and a bag of pig starter, and picked up the piglets on the way back home. ​

Piglets are cute - reaaaly cute! Soft and pink and so tiny. The sweet little things buried themselves in the blanket we brought and were calm and silent all the way home... until they got hungry! LOL 

​Just like with any young infant, piglets need frequent feeding for the 

first couple of weeks of their lives. Every 2 hours during the day and every 3 hours at night - I do not think I have been that tired since our daughter was a new baby LOL. The first week was still novel and fun, the second week the tiredness set in, and I started adjusting their schedule from 2/3 to 3/4 and by a month old we taught them to drink their milk from a pan instead of bottle feeding which made caring for them much easier. ​​

Pigs grow quickly! It wasn't long before they outgrew their small totes and we moved them out to the horse trailer while we built them a pen.
We are looking forward to adding pork to our growing list of farm-raised, home-grown food for our family.