The vet comes to call.....

When the vet called on Thursday and The Boss told him that, out of the litter of 10, he had eight little porkers to castrate he pulled a bit of a wry face, rolled up his sleeves and began to prepare for a long session.

"Unusual to have such a high proportion of males" he remarked, in passing.

It was an unseasonably warm morning so it wasn't just the little piggies who were going to get hot and bothered!

Additionally, each weaner also had to have an injection and a pink identity tag put in its ear and to be sprayed with a blue (boys) or an orange blob (girls) to identify who'd been 'done' and who hadn't. It's a three person job - one (moi) to corral the piglets in a tight spot so the vet could more easily get hold of each in turn; a strong one (The Big Boss) to hold each piglet in a squiggle-free-proof position and The Vet to do all the technical bits.

The first and the fourth ones to be dealt with were the two girls so we were all surprised, on reaching 7 of ten, when "Well, you can't count" rang out from the mouth of a slightly perspiring Vet! But not as surprised as we were when reaching the last of the 10 and he joyfully proclaimed:

"Another female"

Well, it's no wonder we got it wrong. They are such a lively bunch and trying to count which was which when all 10 were dashing around all over each other and everywhere else was not easy. Anyway, they were wormed on Friday and by the end of next week will be outside again in the fresh air. Not that they seem to mind being indoors. We thought it was a bit difficult for them all to eat from the same feedbowl so we started giving them two bowls but all that happened was that, although one or two of them briefly snuffled in the second bowl, they quickly returned to the first bowl till it was empty and then all moved on to the second! It was as if they felt that if they were not all sharing the same bowl they might be missing out on something!

Whilst the vet was here, and injecting the rest of the herd as well, we got him to take a look at Delila's little recluse. During the latter part of the week, 5 of the six had, from time to time, been outside playing and eating in the sunshine, but the sixth one still preferred to stay within the confines of the ark (in this photo, he's the one tucked away in the back corner), although he often lay just inside the doorway. The vet got in the ark with him and quickly concluded that the little fellow is blind in his left eye! "But he's well grown and there doesn't appear to be anything else wrong" said the man.

And, believe it or not, a little while later the same little piglet was outside for the first time playing and eating with the others..... just as if he'd been waiting to get the Doctor's report before going out into the Big Wide World! Aaaaahhhhh

..And then it all happened....

Gunner and I got home from beating just in time on Friday afternoon: the last movement was in train' as we drove down the drive..... Nigella was on her way from the woods to her farrowing quarters up by the bridleway (until earlier that day, occupied by Precious and her gang).... She seemed content to move, treading carefully but purposefully in the wake of the apples which Linda was waving in front of her snout.....

And that was at 5.00 pm: prior to that, the 10 weanlings had been moved to the stalls --- that was easy peasy after all our deliberations: Precious was given some food in one of the pens and became singularly preoccupied with that whilst her little ones were distracted into the other pen and from thence into the trailer without (I was told) a hitch but with the help of several good men and true (two of whom had come to collect JD who has gone off to pastures new and will shortly be joined by Lotos and Bonnie---- Lucky pig!)! Apparently they didn't want to leave the trailer and at least one of them had to be manhandled out! But they are now safely esconced in the stalls and show no sign of missing Mum.

Who meanwhile was moved up to Samson, who, prior to her joining him had been moved from the woods to his new pen at the top of the Church Field. Which necessitated an unplanned move. Samson's new pen is next to where Clyde and Alfred (and - before he left - JD ) were. On Samson's arrival, Clyde became very boar-ish and started facing up to Samson (who is several times his size) through the fence. Samson started retaliating - and salivating and they both started pushing at each other through the fence.

"Uh Oh" said the Big Boss "We'd better put a bit of distance between them". So, Tweedledum and Tweedledee (who were of to the Great Butcher in the Sky today anyway) had to be moved ahead of schedule to the Temporary Holding Pen..... leaving a pen clear between Samson and Precious...

And then Ginger was moved away from Mangal and up to her farrowing quarters so - in her absence - Mangal spent a pleasant few hours chatting to Clyde and Alfred who are now in the pen alongside him. Doubtless he is passing on to them all the great Wisdoms from Way Back when Pigs Ruled the World.......

In the midst of all these movements, Delila's little piglets - now coming up to 4 weeks old - continue to behave extraordinarily: not in the least inquisitive about all that is going on around them, two of the 6 steadfastly remain inside the ark with the other 4 popping out occasionally to play or join Mum for dinner. They have the full complement of limbs so maybe they are deaf or blind and therefore don't want to go outdoors.. we shall have to explore a little further.....

Almost moving time

Precious's no-longer-so-little bunch of nuts will be 7 weeks old on Sunday. They are happy, bumptious, roly-poly piglets and quite capable of fending for themselves - at least according to Precious who, for the past 10 days or so, has steadfastly made plain to them that suckling is 'just for babies'!

How does she do that? Well, she just puts her teats where they can't get to them - either hidden underneath her or pushed up against the perimeter fence or arc wall! She clearly feels her job is done.

So, plans are in hand to wean them.

And that's giving The Big Boss a little bit of a headache. Can we corner them away from Precious (she might have given up suckling them but she's still very protective ... and strong.....) and carry them, one by one, to the stalls? Can we shut them in the ark without her and then pick them up one by one and carry them......? Should we load them all into the trailer, Precious included, and then unload just the piglets into the stalls - assuming we can stop her getting out with them....? Could we corner the piglets away from her and then just carry them to the trailer without her going berserk........?

Whichever... the deed will be done on Friday at tea time...... Watch this space.......
All will be revealed.........

Agoraphobic piglets?

Just when you think you know what piglets are like and how they are going to behave, along comes a bunch which proves you're wrong.....

Delila's litter - born on 30th September - are nearly three weeks old. They're nice piglets; perfectly healthy and strong and good looking; but two of them just don't want to leave their ark. Yesterday we had visitors and - naturally - they wanted to see all the piglets. Well - these two would not be tempted out. I had to get in the ark with them and lift them out into the Big Wide World. And then one of them squeaked so much that Delila forgot all about the titbits which had, thus far, distracted her and came over all in a tizzy to remonstrate with me..... And then she took them all back indoors to suckle them and restore their peace of mind..... or something.....

It's all the more odd because the other four piglets are now happily scampering out and about with Mum much of the day and squeezing under the fence to go visit with Auntie Mavis and Auntie Maud.... just like normal piglets really.

Perhaps the other two will join them in the next few days...... but the weather is not getting any warmer so the world will not be any more welcoming...... we'll just have to wait and see..... Agoraphobic Piglets? Who'd have thought it!!!

Only a bantam......

...Could sit on a nest of eggs for 21 days, hatch just one (or even none) of those eggs, nurture it for almost a week and then............................ lose it!

The stupididy is compounded by the fact that, actually, two bantams at the same time each sat on a nest of eggs for 21 days and - between them - hatched just one egg and - between them - nurtured that one egg together for almost a week and then.. between the two of them .... lost it! Where, how and exactly when remains a mystery.

You can just see the little chick sunbathing next to mum no. 1 in the first picture; moments later it had gone to sleep (picture 2) somewhere under either no. 1 or no. 2 mum. Each of the hens was equally protective of it - for almost a week - ushering it around between the pair of them the whole time, clucking as hens do whilst the little one "Cheep, cheep, cheep"-ed for all it was worth. For such a little thing it was very noisy... In fact, it was the noise - or, rather, the lack of noise, which alerted me that something was wrong this morning.

I let them out of their pen to go into their run as usual first thing this morning and the little one was fine..... three hours later when I was passing I missed the plaintive "Cheep, Cheep" so went to investigate. And there was no little chick.

I looked all around the pen, along the hedge, in the little hen house..... Nothing.

Completely and mysteriously disappeared.

Did it wander under the fence on to the Bridlepath the other side and get caught by a passing dog: did a Jackdaw swoop down and grab it? It might just as well have evaporated. There was no sign of it.

Were the stupid bantam hens concerned? After all their effort and mothering I'd have expected them to be running up and down, clucking and screeching and looking fraught. Instead, they seemed quite resigned - walked up and down a bit - like two dowager duchesses parading round the park for a while - but that was it. Stupid, stupid birds. How could they have lost the chick in broad daylight in the middle of the morning with people about?

Only a bantam could be that careless......................

Long day in the field

There are doubtless many people who think we are absolutely crazy - even more so to enjoy it (!!!) and probably millions of others who don't even know that we do it but would think we were barking mad if they did.

But those of us who are fortunate enough

to be able to turn up from late September to end January and 'bush beat' or 'pick-up' on Shoots are privy to one of the finest ways of enjoying the countryside. The fact that the activity takes place in the Autumn and Winter adds to, rather than detracts from, its attraction. Clad in wind, weather and waterproof gear we happily traipse over any terrain and through any obstacle to ensure that the 'Guns' enjoy their sport to the maximum.

Of course, we are all just a little bit crazy so there's no shortage of humour to ease the slightly less exhilarating moments - like waiting seeming hours for the Guns to get to their pegs (or being severely and blasphemously berated by The Keeper for being in the wrong place at the wrong time doing absolutely the most wrong thing) -and since we are accompanied by some of the finest and keenest canine comrades there is much for even the most jaded soul to wonder at.

Now, it may just be me and The Dog who feel this way, but the evidence suggests otherwise!

So it was yesterday: the third of the Season so far and a 'Let' day - i.e. Visitors who have bought a day's shooting. The weather was about perfect - dry, slight wind, cool and mostly cloudy. The Dog and I turned up at our usual time and found the rest of the gang loaded and ready to go - another few minutes and we'd have missed them........ Two things about let days: Keeper wants them to enjoy themselves and get their money's worth and, secondly, it's their day so they do it their way. And yesterday that was "Slowly". The most heard phrase of the day was - "Haven't those guns got to their pegs yet" (or less polite variations of the same sentiment). Which meant we spent quite a bit of time hanging around waiting...

The Dog is most patient and really, really good at sitting still for a long time - so I couldn't really blame him for cheekily having a bit of his own sport with a suddenly upspringing hare when we finally got going...... but I did (one of my beater colleages later remarked that he'd never seen me "have words" with my dog before) because today's cheek could so easily turn into tomorrow's misbehaviour .... With all animals, but probably dogs more than most, consistency is everything..... 'wrong' is therefore always 'wrong'... and he was the epitome of best behaved dog for the remainder of the day.......

And a jolly long day it was - especially at lunch time: so someone said "

Who's for a game?" and off a load of them went to fling coins at a target and in the air and yell "heads" and "tails" and there were serious faces -the ones that weren't winning - and smiley faces - those that were......(there were some rules I believe!). And before we knew it nearly two hours had passed and the guns were ready to go again!

And we had our work cut out for the next two hours or more to help them make up for lost time....... One of Gunner's strengths (aside from retrieving) is finding and flushing birds from the heaviest cover - which at this stage of the season is Kale - and there was plenty of that during the afternoon.

So The Bestest Gundog in the World and I arrived home later, tireder and achier than expected ---- and in no time at all he was curled up on the sofa fast asleep and I was curled up next to him with a glass of very quaffable wine..... What more could one ask after a hard day's fun??

Split Personalities

You just never know with piglets!

Precious had her lot out and about in the pen within 3 days of entering the world. Delila, at the other extreme, is not at all in a hurry to have her brood out and exploring..... Until yesterday, 5 days from being born, none had ventured out of their cosy house. We were getting a little concerned until we reminded ourselves that that was the status quo with the first couple of litters to be born here! Clearly our expectations have increased in the intervening period!

Nonetheless, it was a great relief to see three of them happily trotting about and exploring everything and everyone yesterday afternoon...... Mavis and Maud were most inquisitive and the little ones were happy enough to snuffle them through the fence... until Delila, some distance away, gruntled protectively and called her young ones back....... Meanwhile, the other three seemed perfectly contented to be tucked up in the corner of their cosy house and not in the least interested in coming out to play when the other three came back in to entice them out!

Still, why should I expect all of them to do the same thing? It'll be interesting to see if they maintain such different desires as they grow......

Delila Delivers!

"No sign of Delila" said The Boss yesterday as I was getting the horses in from the field at tea time. "Perhaps she's had her piglets" I called back, jokingly - after all, we'd had the discussion only yesterday that it could be up to a week away judging from the look of her!

So, when the horses were in their stables I went back to look and, sure enough, there was a little piglet wriggling around in the entrance to the ark! By the time I'd clambered over the fence to get a closer look, all 6 - 2 red and 4 blonde - were attached to Delila and suckling for all they were worth....... one or two of them had their eyes firmly closed and didn't look as though they'd been out in the world for very long........ aaaahhhhhh. This photo was taken at breakfast this morning, which makes the little ones less than a day old........

It's all very worrying though...... The Boss accurately predicted the farrowing date for Precious and had also entered in the diary that Delila was due on the 29th, which was pretty darned close. It's almost as if he knows what's going on......