Penny graced our farm this weekend with a beautiful litter of Tamworth piglets. As Boris spends all winter with the herd I was not entirely clear when to expect her to farrow. Pigs are amazingly accurate at three months, three weeks, three days gestation but without knowing when exactly the deed was done the 3,3,3, means nothing. When I arrived home on Friday evening Trenton announced "Penny is nesting, she is carrying around wood." He tossed her some additional bedding and soon after the first two piglets arrived. As this is her third litter she tended to business and start to finish delivered 10 healthy piglets in about 3 hours time. After the challenge with Sparklers litter where we lost half of them the first night I was a little apprehensive Saturday morning when I went to check on them. Penny is a great sow and had 10 nursing piglets cuddled close to her big warm body.
We experienced the other end of the life cycle on the farm this weekend as well. We started our laying hen flock with a half dozen chicks 5 or 6 years ago. Our original laying hens were an eclectic mix including a Buff Orpington, Barred Rock, Silver Laced Wyandotte, Americanas. The boys did not officially name each chicken but the orpington and rock quickly became Buffy and Rocky. These hens welcome new pullets to the flock each summer and managed to avoid predators as they enjoy the free ranging life. Buffy and Rocky have sat next to each other on the roost in front of the window each night, the prime spot as the most mature members of the flock. Rocky has looked a little rough this winter but I figured if we had not culled chickens as they went into the first molt there was no reason to cull her now. Saturday morning when I went into the coop Rocky was standing on the floor with her head down and eyes closed. She stirred a little but quickly closed her eyes again. I figured she was dying so I brought water close to her incase she wanted a drink. I debated about what was the reasonable thing to do for a dying chicken. Should I let her be, move her off the floor into a nesting box, cull her? I decided to let her be for a while and went on with Easter prep. Saturday evening the boys did the chores so I did not see if she made it up onto the roost near Buffy or not. Sunday morning when doing chores I found that she had died. My uncertainty about how to treat the aged laying hen was answered by nature. She went quickly and in the coop she had returned to each evening. What more could one ask for?
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