They're off and out

 Last Wednesday, exactly 3 weeks from the day they were born, Precious' latest litter - the Haggi - were out and about.
"They've even been up visiting with Mangal & Ginger" Linda reported the next day.
Precious had been preparing for the event for quite some time. Her pen is one of the most recent to have been constructed and the foundations round the fence line were really quite solid. Then she got to work. Rootle, rootle, rootle and next thing you know there are channels all over the show - mostly leading directly under the fence. Just what the little ones needed to aid their explorations.
They didn't mean to leave Mum just "Whooops"
and suddenly there they are on the other side.
Since then they have extended the length and duration of their little excursions and we are not

 surprised to see them anywhere and everywhere. The Bestest Gundog is, of course, back on duty. Here he is explaining to the Chief of the Haggi that on this side of the fence he (Gunner) calls the shots. There was a bit of a standoff for a few moments but wise piglet soon backed down and ran back to his mates. Whenever I'm doing anything about the yard, and most particularly at feed times, Gunner places himself in a strategic position where he can monitor the activities of the squiglets. If they get too far away or too far in the wrong direction he quickly rounds them up again and brings them back close to Precious. I don't think she gives a damn, but he clearly feels she should!

 

Within just a couple of days of being out in the Big Wide World the piglets realise that there is more to life than mothers milk. For a little while Precious is content to let them share her bowl but, once they've got the hang of it (within another day or two) she thinks nothing of tossing them out of the way to find their own provisions. At that stage we give them their own bowl - which, naturally, Precious tries to empty too - and then we gradually start feeding them outside the pen. The next step is to move the feed station further and further away from Mum so that by the time it comes to weaning they are happily eating wherever we want them to be. Mum, equally, gets used to her little ones being away for increasing periods of time so when the piglets are eventually weaned it is far less stressful for her. So much so that with the last two or three litters we have weaned I'll bet the sows didn't realise for a good 24 hours that the kiddiwinks weren't ever coming home again.And by then they'd had a good night's sleep on their own with no little demanding mouths to feed. "Hey Presto" they probably think - or the pig equivalent of that - "What a relief to be shot of that lot at last".
Two or three days later they're back to the boar and piglets are but a distant memory.......
.... till the next lot!