This is Little Girl, named so because at 3 years old she is still smallish for a sow. She was the runt of the litter 3 years ago and we kept her because she wasn't quite ready to butcher and then when we got the boar we didn't have a place to put her away from him. Now we are glad of that. This is her second litter. Last year she surprised us by being a wonderful mom and raised 5 piglets. She out did herself this year by have 13!! The Berkshire breed normally has no more then 12 and an average of 8 so 13 was quite a surprise!! I found them yesterday morning and did a quick count before going to see Papa and counted 9 and thought.. Naw miss count. It was a miss count too, but not too many, too few! Papa and I were so shocked we counted several times each. 12, 12, 13, 13, 12.. YUP there is a LOT of them!!
She made a nice big nest in the bush, had her babies in it and promptly moved out of it?? I'm not sure why but she took them a bit farther into the bush and we have not seen her in the nest since.
Aren't they just the cutest things ever??
With the 7 from Big Momma we now have 20 piglets.. one less then last year from THREE sows :)
Good Job Little Girl!!
Now that Little Girl has had her piglets we are just waiting for one more to farrow. We had a gilt escape this spring and get in with the boar which we weren't too happy about but will farrow her out, raise them up and wean them and then butcher her. She is half Berkshire and half Hampton York and unless something happens to change our minds she will not breed again. She's a great pig but we'd like to keep our sows purebreds.
