And then there were 20...

Numbers appear to have increased again. Ed is fast becoming a porcine kleptomaniac. Several weeks ago, whilst looking for some Dexter cattle for a friend, Ed managed to stumble across a two year old female Oxford Sandy and Black free to good home. Bertha had been living on her own since she was weaned and, following her owner having a serious accident, had ended up on a farm near Leominster. They loved her, but had run out of space, so had to rehome her - this is where we stepped in. Ed collected her a few weeks ago and she seems to have settled in well, though she is (somewhat understandably) convinced she is a human not a pig and has been a little miffed at our attempts to a) keep her in a pen and b) introduce her to the boar!!



We have borrowed an Oxford Sandy and Black boar from a local farmer, nicknamed Bert who seems quite keen on Bertha. She is somewhat less keen on him. We're keeping our fingers crossed though. Neither of them are registered with the OSB Society so we will sell/keep their piglets as weaners for pork rather than keeping them for breeding.



Next up, Ed discovered the livestock equivalent of ebay and managed to procure two 13 month old Tamworth gilts for the princely sum of £11.54. Bargain. There's the small matter of feeding them, but we'll gloss over that for now... They are really friendly and lovely looking. Flynn is much more interested in them, and less afraid of them, than Bertha - I think it's because they're ginger like him! They have settled in really well (we've split the pen at our yard in two) and are very interested in Bert, so we're now looking for a Tamworth boar. Though I am keen to stagger the arrival of piglets a bit or I think we might be a little overwhelmed.



Finally, we went to look at a potential husband for Barley last week. He's a lovely, two year old, yellow labrador. So now we're just waiting for her to come in to season. It is so exciting, though not quite sure how we're going to cope with all the babies - still, it'll probably put us off having our own for a while!!