New Guinea Hog

I haven't been posting much here lately, because not much has be going on except the heat.   Hot, Hotter, HOTTEST!  Temperatures this weekend are supposed to be 106, with a heat index of 122!  No rain in sight, and the pastures are withered to dust. 

With weather this brutal, there's not much we can do but hunker down and try to wait it out.  It doesn't make for very interesting blog posts!

However, I do have a bit of news today.  Because we've gotten such a lot of inquiries from people interested in buying Guinea hog piglets, we decided to invest in a second boar now instead of waiting until next year.  This way, we can breed each of our sows to a different boar, and be able to offer buyers unrelated pairs (or groups) of piglets for sale.

Our sow Cerridwen is already pregnant by Magick.  Our younger sow Circe has just turned old enough to breed, and today we just brought home a new 5-month old boar to be her boyfriend.  His name is Jack.  He's still young and quite a bit smaller than her, so it may be another month or two before they successfully mate.  But at least Circe has company now.

I think she's feeling smug about finally not being the youngest, smallest pig on the farm.  She ignored her new beau for quite a while, then launched into the "Let's just get one thing straight right up front" and "While you're living in MY pen, you're going to live by MY rules" routines.  She chased him around a bit, not in a vicious way, just letting him know who's boss.  He's smart enough to keep out of her way, but he's not actually scared of her.

Young Jack also met Cerridwen and Magick through the fence.  Magick is so mellow (and Jack is so much smaller) that he didn't even really bother to posture and get all masculine and territorial toward the newcomer.  Which is nice.  That means that I don't have to worry about them sharing a fenceline for now.