After a week of turning down play dates and dinner invitations because “I’m on piglet watch,” Betty Wilma had her litter either Saturday night or Sunday morning.  When I checked on her Sunday morning, I found six nursing piglets and outside of the house was a dead and very cold piglet.  Six out of seven is not bad for us.  Not bad at all.  I tried not to disturb them too much their first day, but when I checked in later Sunday afternoon, another piglet was dead – likely rolled on.  Okay, five out of seven is still pretty okay.

The good news is this morning all five were still alive and this afternoon, I got to watch them all from the other side of the pig hut.  When I first walked up, all five of them were cuddling in a neat little piglet row in the sunny spot near the front door.  By the time I got back with the camera, the cute party was over, but I was still able to snap a couple of good shots.

There’s definitely a runt, but he has his siblings looking out for him.

Meanwhile, the other three were nursing.

And then they all got in on the action.

Nice work, Betty Wilma.

Next up is Wilma Betty.  Last weekend, my dad was a rock star farm hand despite having made the schlep down from Jersey to play with his grandson.  He put up a divider in the pig house, and all last week Betty slept on one side while Wilma slept on the other.  Perfection!  And then Betty Wilma gave birth.  This morning, I found Wilma Betty sleeping outside in the frost.  She cannot give birth outside and have any piglets survive.  That being said, she still looks like she could have as much as a week to go, so let’s hope that nesting instinct lures her back to her side of the house and its nice, warm hay.

And just for a sense of scale, here are some pictures of Wilma’s piglets that were born in August.

I’d say they’re about 150 lbs these days.  They could be ready for the abattoir as soon as late March.  Sorry, guys!