The epilectic pig and the bully pig

The fitting pig is the middle one now sharing an enclosure with his brother and sister

The big bully (although he is a nice pig away from his fitting brother)

Saturday morning feeding time we found one the pigs from a group of five acting strangely. Confused and wandering around unstable on his legs. foaming at the mouth we new the tell tell signs we have experienced before. He had hit the electric fence and had a fit, which seems to make them more attracted to the electric fencing as they stumble around or worse fall into the wet mud. A lot easier to move around when small pigs do get very heavy and a kind of dead weight when having a seizure. He was overlooked by farmer J (his a bit stronger than me) as the others was fed.

Once the fitting had past then came the bullying as pigs seem to sense when one isn't quiet right and as in nature you get rid of the weakest. Our bully came in the size of the biggest male, chasing the black pig around the enclosure. The other three didn't seem to be bothered by their poorly brother.

So it meant not being able to leave them all together and to have a move around. Thankfully the bully came out of the enclosure first followed by the smallest pig of the siblings who is being bucket fed (too slow to eat enough when left to share from the troughs) he gets special treatment and an egg thrown in for breakfast and tea (which speeds up the eating process and stops him from getting bored with the cereal). Funny enough the big bully wont go anywhere near his bucket as although being the smallest he does give a nip if needed to the others.

The other three left in their enclosure are getting on fine and no more fits as yet. We are back to normal happy pigs, apart from the need for more feed buckets to be carried up the hill, another water container to be constantly filled, mud to be kicked away from the electric fence, post to banged in when they are up rooted and a pig sty to be mended due to pig destruction.

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Snap shot

A moment from the week at La Singlarie Another steer went off on Wednesday. After spending 3 years with them it doesn't get any easier when they leave.

Weeding

Potatoes A sad looking patch Hunting for carrots The weather has now gone from one extreme to the other from rain, rain and a bit more rain to hot, sunny and hotter. Time to access the veggie patch after I planted everything in one hit and then it got very damp and soggy. Well the potatoes are growing well, although they are going to be a lot later this year, kind of Earlie's for late ones and late ones maybe ready for Christmas dinner ( if they survive the bugs, rabbits and moles). The weeds have and still are growing really well, this morning was spent finding the carrots and parsnips, which I have with no help from Sorrel, who after a quick sniff lazed under the shade of the apple tree (which by the looks of it hasn't got hardly any apples on it?) The poor herb seeds sowed don't look to good or the french and runner beans, think a hungry mouse have nibbled on them so I will have to resow (once I have weeded -again)

A problematic Ewe

While Master C and Miss F were here over the weekend we took the opportunity for their help in moving the two ewes, Gorgon and Thumberlina to the field where the donkeys had been. What with all the rain we have had lately the grass grow super quick. The only problem was Miss Fatty did not want to move from her safe field (if only she knew she was moving to new lush grass). It took farmer J and Master C to try moving her after pushing from me and Master C had failed and she fell to the floor not moving an inch. There try also failed so they were both lead through the field in another direction. Of course once in the new field there was no looking back. Gorgon on the other hand was a breeze to move, as long as you have food he will follow, you just need to make sure you have enough food!

The English Paysanne

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