Musical pigs

When the wind blows hard in the Wolds it can blow very seriously indeed. It can, 'they' say, do strange things to people. As it did to the Big Boss on Friday last. On a day when most of us had our work cut out just trying to stand upright, he declared 'Pig Moving Day'.

This is serious stuff and requires a good deal of planning and preparation - which work had all been done earlier in the week; moves have to fit in with each other, as well as with those which are going to happen in the near future - some of which may well be critical. Therefore, there was no chance of putting events off until the weather became a little more obliging.

Gale or no Gale, pigs must move.

First up, Bonnie and Clyde had to be weaned away from Precious. They shared a last morsel with mum and then, one by one, were picked up and walked down to their new pen next to the 3 Little Chefs in the field, leaving Precious behind to load calmly into the trailer to be taken to her new 'home' in the woods with Samson.

That was the script.

The reality was that it took the best part of 30 minutes to 'grab' the piglets from under Precious's increasingly agitated snout and move them: made all the worse because Clyde was easily caught and moved and, catching on, Precious refused to let us near Bonnie. Left alone for the first time in his life poor Clyde started squealing for all he was worth and that just fuelled Precious's resolve .... and our frustration.

Finally Linda made an heroic lunge for, and caught, Bonnie... passed her quickly to the Boss who, fast as he could, made off to the pen where Clyde was in danger of squealing himself to death.

And then Precious got really annoyed! For another half hour she led us a dance around her pen, snorting and grunting for all she was worth.

In exasperation, we called in reinforcements. Con has a way with pigs. After a further few minutes of pig-headedness, Precious capitulated and walked calmly and obligingly out of the gate, along the path and up the ramp into the trailer.

"Just as if she had to make her point and prove herself the aggrieved mother" said the Boss "before she was willing to get on with what we had in mind".

That's pigs for you.

All this was watched over by the latest arrival at Rectory Reserve: a day old chick venturing out into the world for the first time. Witnessing such drama so early in its life almost guarantees that it will grow up to be the most neurotic of chickens ---- which will take some doing!

After a short journey, Precious was quite happy to walk out of the trailer and into Samson's quarters in the woods - until he did what boars do and made it quite plain that he was the boss and quite put the wind up her sails! There followed another half hour or so of grunting and snorting and head butting and chasing and barging and squealing -just to make the point that she was not going to give in too easily - and then all of a sudden it was peaceful and quiet and they were cozing up to each other like any young lovers while Delila watched on from next door until tea arrived -- which was far more important than anything Samson and Precious could possibly be doing......

And what of the two weanlings meanwhile? Did they miss their mum?

Not a bit of it.

They very quickly introduced themselves to Auntie Ginger and Uncle Mangel and then spent a pleasant afternoon catching up on all the gossip with the Little Chefs ...........