Farrowing sisters together?

[farmerjan]

Enquiring minds want to know...Actually nosy people want the latest scoop!!!!Any pigs yet????

 

[Jayzandra]

No, no babies yet. And it's driving me nuts! I'm so stressing over it!

This is what we ended up with for the farrowing pens. They seem to be happy with it. They all lie next to each other against the fences. LOL.

 

[Jayzandra]

How long past her due date before I should start to become concerned?

 

[Mini Horses]

Good question! With most all animals I've bred, happens when it happens. That said, there is a time when you might want to be concerned.

So -- first, are the teats all filled and pointing down? Next, how long after you witnessed breeding was the boar still in there? I'm thinking, obviously, no conception at first breed OR maybe what you saw wasn't actual breeding...play or attempts. 21 days until another cycle. Those would be my thoughts.

I have sisters who are together and who are bred, approx. 1 wk apart. Yes, I know there was true breeding and none a month later. So, boars went to butcher. My pen does have two huts and ability to fence between them, which is what I plan to do as time is close to prevent "help" from a sister. At this time they do stay together but are not so "joined at the hip" as previously. Seems that once one farrows the other won't be far behind and once both have, the chance of going to wrong piglets seems less after a week.

Anyone raising them have a comment about their NOT bothering another nest of young? Should they be kept apart longer? My last experience with sows farrowing was over 40 yrs ago ---YIKES --- and they were full sized hogs. Mine are AGHs who are friendly and love scratches. To be watched, just the same!

 

[Jayzandra]

After the breeding that I witnessed, and I only witnessed one, she never went back into heat. The sister came into heat approximately a week after the first one. She also never went back into heat. So I just assumed they were both bred the first time. I'll try to get a picture of them before going to work this morning, but I won't be able to post it until I get home.
I have another question. Will they refuse food right before they go into labor? They both still are very enthusiastic about feeding time. They get fed twice a day. Breakfast and dinner, if you will.
The first one is looking so huge. She's even having a hard time getting up because she's so full of babies.

 

[farmerjan]

If the sows have grown up together, they usually want their own place to have their babies, and for safety's sake, should be separate. That said, NORMALLY, they won't go after another sow's pigs. A boar is more likely to bother or kill pigs. I have had several sows farrow in the same lot, in separate places/huts, and in a couple weeks when the pigs are getting very mobile, often have 2 or 3 lay down to nurse pigs with them scrambling back and forth to nurse whichever teat they can find. The biggest thing about keeping them separate at first is to make sure the sow doesn't lay on her pigs or they get crowded between 2 sows and get suffocated. I used to have some big round bales of hay that the sows would burrow into a side and make a nest and have their pigs and when the pigs started running around some, the sows would lay down anywhere and start their little grunts and there would be pigs coming from all directions to "the call". Then another sow would wind up laying down for pigs to nurse. For the first few days, my sows would go right back to their own pigs after eating and stay with them for most of the time. I also was very fortunate to have sows that were careful mothers. Some aren't, and will just flop down. Mine would almost look like slow motion as they sorta sat, then laid down slowly so that the little pigs weren' t smushed under them. Anyone that wasn't a careful mother never had a chance to have a second litter. Anyone that wanted to "get me" never had a second chance either. Protective and concerned is fine, mean is not.

 

[farmerjan]

After the breeding that I witnessed, and I only witnessed one, she never went back into heat. The sister came into heat approximately a week after the first one. She also never went back into heat. So I just assumed they were both bred the first time. I'll try to get a picture of them before going to work this morning, but I won't be able to post it until I get home.
I have another question. Will they refuse food right before they go into labor? They both still are very enthusiastic about feeding time. They get fed twice a day. Breakfast and dinner, if you will.
The first one is looking so huge. She's even having a hard time getting up because she's so full of babies.

Since you never either have a repeat heat I would assume they were bred to the first time. A few days past their due date is no big deal. I have had them go as much as 10 days over for whatever reason. Some won't want to eat, some eat and then go have pigs 2 hours later. If they are laying around and acting listless I would watch them close. A couple of hours like that and I would make sure they don't seem to be struggling to with labor type symptoms. Had a sow one time that laid around and nothing happened, a couple of hours later had only 2 pigs, then a couple more, then stopped with only 5 live and one dead. She never acted right so 2 days later, she refused her food, then just died. Turned out there was a big pig that blocked the other horn from delivering and it poisoned her system. No way to really know that and the vet said that he never would have suspected it as I couldn't feel any pigs when I went in to see if there was one presented wrong. Just an unfortunate situation, but it seldom happens. Usually when they start they just keep having them until done and doesn't take but a couple hours at most. Be careful they are not too fat and I would restrict their food a little being this close, especially if they are not getting alot of exercise. Mine had to walk a bit to get to the feed troughs, and then to the water in another area and I made sure they were getting up and around .

 

[NH homesteader]

Our friend has I think four sows, they all have their own space to farrow but the piglets very soon start running in with the other sows and everyone is like a big happy family lol!

 

[Jayzandra]

They each only get two scoops of food a day. One in the morning, one at night. Here the picture from this morning. I wish I could upload a video. Maybe I'll upload it to YouTube and post the link.

 

[Jayzandra]

Well, she went into labor. She had 3. Then stalled out. We tried oxytocin. We tried pulling the stuck one out. Nothing.