First piece of footage shows the three boars sorting out their pecking order, the black boar is top, the grey boar (Boris) is second boar and black and white is at the bottom of the pecking order.
On day 30 of Lockdown Janice went out to Geraldine for some supplies and returned home with a box of codys. I came into lockdown with only 8 cans of codys so I was very happy to see these. The world is once again a great place.
Feeding the Sows and young ones is done every evening and this has giving me a great chance to learn more about how these animals think.
The sows live in the block above the dog kennels so during the day they could be anywhere in a 30 acre block. In the afternoon they make their way down to the gate. Because the dogs are off all day Tig loves to keep an eye on them and he all ways let’s me know when the pigs have arrived. When he barks at the pigs on the other side of the gate Rastus and Fog will also go up and bark. The dogs know that they are not allowed to get in with these pigs so no one gets hurt and I don’t need to worry about the dogs harming a piglet.
When I open the gate to go and feed these pigs I do not have to close the gate as the pigs see this as a mental barrier and the dogs know that if I call them they would be allowed with me other wise they stay at the point the gate would have closed to. When feeding the pigs they get feed in a concrete trough and the piglets get to eat beside me in a wee create that I will be using to catch them in when they are ready to be weaned. When the piglets feed out of this create the older pigs know they are not allowed to eat food on the piglets side of the line. Normally a sow will push their young out of the way for food so I have trained the Sows a boundary. When the Sows have finished eating they will talk to their young and they all come running as she lays down to feed them.