Communal farrowing?

[Dino]

Hi all! First let me say I'm new here and I'm hoping this site is as good as it looks... lots of topics!

I' ve got three girls due to farrow between 2-17-13 and 3-1-13. I have three 8'x8' pens with a 4'x24' hallway that opens to their pasture (about 1acre). I have 3 gilts in another pasture that are soon to meet our boar. Do you think I should close them each in a pen or let them choose and have free roam? Last year they farrowed outside in the pasture area and everything was fine.

Btw... we didn't nip teeth, tails nor give any shots... they were all very healthy and quite tasty too. Lol!

 

[bonbean01]

I don't have pigs and don't have a clue...but wanted to say ....welcome to Backyard Herds!

 

[cuteincamo]

We put each of ours in their own pen, in the barn, especially during winter. We've got a guilt ready to farrow any day now and we just got a foot and a half of snow! You run a risk of the other guilts hurting the babies if you dont separate them. Plus they tend to be easier to handle if they are contained. Our pens are about 12 x 8 and we usually put a divider in so that the babies don't get laid on. Each breeder has their own way of doing it. Good luck!

 

[Cornish Heritage]

You can do communal farrowing IF there is enough space & if the litters are due within about 7 days of each other. By your dates it sounds like yours are spread out a little & this can cause a problem. Once piglets are bout 7 days old they start to wander, some even before that & will go drink from the sows that have not farrowed. You have to prevent this at all cost as they will strip all the colostrum. SO vigilance is the key.

When we had a sow that was due more than 7 days after another we had to move her WAY away from those younger piglets & let her farrow by herself.

If you have snow on the ground then I advise you encouraging the girls to farrow in the barn & they probably will anyways. One time we had our main section of barn divided into three sections with temporary electric fence - as each sow farrowed we put up the fence to give them some privacy from the other two sows for a few days. Once everyone had farrowed out, we took down the fences.

Hope this helps,

Liz