Runaway Pigs

We had our first pig escape today. 

I was walking through the lamb pasture, checking on all the moms and babies.  The two sows were in the next paddock over, where they have been doing a fine job of rooting up all the old hay that had accumulated there over the winter.

But when the piggies saw me out in the pasture, they got very excited and thought perhaps I was coming to feed them.  Some excited squealing, a little pushing and shoving, and suddenly---ZIP!---the bigger sow scooted right under the one weak place in the fence.

Suddenly loose in the nice green lamb pasture, she forgot all about me and pranced off excitedly to explore!

With a bowl of food (and Ken to man the gates for me), I managed to sweet-talk her ("Here Pigpigpig!  C'mere piggypiggypigpig!") out of the lamb pasture and into the back yard.  At that point, we figured it would be easier to get her into the pasture where the boar is than try to put her back into her own paddock where she'd likely just escape again instantly.

It's a couple of weeks earlier than we'd intended to put her in with the boar, but she's gotten pretty big now, so she'll be fine even if she isn't the full 10 months old  yet.  I don't think she's due to go back into heat for a while yet, so even though she's in with the boar a bit early, she may not actually get bred any sooner than she would have if we'd waited.

Of course, while we were dealing with Cerridwen, Circe got all worked up and eventually scooted under the weak place in the fence too.  So we had to go and lure her back into a different paddock until we can fix the place where they got through.

Now both the sows are quite put out that their routines have been changed.  Circe's all by herself, and Cerridwen is in a much larger pasture with lots of green stuff to eat, but it's all new and different and her roommate is a BOY!  For all of the foolish way she was pining along the fence line towards him when she was in heat, she sure wants nothing to do with him now, and isn't afraid to tell him so!