Kunekune Piglets

I have long wanted to get some kunekune piglets to add to the animal team.   We had always had a pig or two at home when I was a kid.  My mother used to get quite fond of them, she would name them after friends and they would hang around with the horses and dogs, part of the family.  Some friends didn't like having pigs named after them.   She therefore wasn't that keen to use them for bacon.   Instead, she would load them onto the horse float and take them off to the local stock sale where she would sell them.  She would then take the money she got for the said pig off to the butcher to buy up some bacon.   

Anyway, back to my pigs.   The  Butcher had always been quite adamant that we didn't want pigs.  He had spent a lot of time as a teenager feeding and raising pigs as part of his chores on the farm.  There were a lot of pigs, and there are even the remnants of the old piggeries left on the farm.   I think the Butcher also sees quite enough of pigs at work.   Despite that, I pressed on, and when I discovered that the pigs would eat all the acorns which the horses and donkeys eat, I could argue that it was for a very good cause.  Acorns are poisonous to donkeys, horses and sheep but not to pigs.   Perfect! 

We had talked about it a number of times, and I could feel he was starting to waiver.   Just hours after our last conversation (when there was the slight detection of waivering), the local newsletter / advertising circular arrived and there was an advert for FREE kunekune piglets.   I arranged to get two but they were not going to be ready for a couple of days.   That worked out well as we had a bit of work to do to make the enclosure piglet proof.   Out with the hammer, nails and various things around the place, including trellis, shade cloth and netting.  We readied the old chook house and also the old dog enclosure as an alternative, and even fenced off the garden, although it was obvious our yards between the garden and the sheds were not going to be pig proof until they were quite a bit older.  

Over at work, I discovered our neighbour also had arranged to get two, so we went up together to get our piglets on the arranged day.  It was quite the adventure.   The neighbour (Jenny), Richard (brother in law) and our two french wwoofers and I all off in the farm truck.  The Butcher chose to go for a bike ride instead.  I had a box and the cat crate for my piggies, Jenny was using the sack transport option.  

There were four little piggies for us to choose from.  Three were ginger and one was a lovely chocolate brown.   I chose this one, she was the smaller of them all but so very cute!   Jenny had her pick of the redheads and I took the last one.  Pigs were captured, put into their various enclosures and into the truck and off to their new home. 

They seemed quite happy with their new enclosure, and enjoyed the scraps from the house that we had been saving for them.   The lycra clad Butcher arrived to suggest that they needed some bedding as they liked to "nest" so the old horse cover did the job well that night.   Both piggies curled up inside the cover and seemed quite happy.   

Others in the animal family reacted quite differently.  Cole snorted and performed for some time, avoiding the area completely.  The donkeys were intrigued, as were the dogs, and the cats watched from afar but were caught having a closer look later.  

Bella was also quite keen to see what they were eating, she had been known to break into the chook enclosure to steal their food but I thought my fences were better reinforced now.

I decided to call them Frenchie and Francie, both after the lovely wwoofers we had staying with us and also because it was our Year of France - we are heading there in August.   Francie was also short for Francoise (one of the wwoofers) and his beard was the same colour as the brown pig.  The other one was therefore called Frenchie.   The next morning it was more scraps for them for breakfast. I then went off to work for a few hours.  Coming back down the driveway I was greeted by two little piggies coming towards me, nibbling away at acorns as they went!  I stopped the car and attempted to drive them back down the drive.  

Some success for a while.  The dogs heard the commotion and came out to help.  Milly was very helpful, Bella not so.  We managed to catch one, but the other one headed off in the other direction.  Milly went with it and so I took the squealing pig back to the enclosure.  The door had been broken - Bella had squeezed through and broken the catch and the chain.  I fixed it as best I could, then put the squealing and squirming pig into the enclosure and went back down the driveway to find the other piglet.   Little did I know that there was in fact another hole that Bella had made right by the pig trough.  While it wasn't big enough for her to get in, it was big enough for a piglet to get out!     I went to track down the other piglet who had gone back up the driveway.  I got a call from the Butcher to say someone had just called into the factory to say that there was a piglet running down the road.  I suggested that I might need a hand and ran back to get the car and put the dogs away.  I took a quick check on the other piglet just in time to see her disappearing into the crop in the next door paddock!   I decided the pig on the road was the priority, but up and down the road and not a piggie in sight.   No sign of the Butcher coming to help either.

Back to the pig enclosure and no pigs.  Shit.  I decided it best if I fixed the pen as best I could so that I could at least contain any I caught.   It was then off down the road again to look, and this time I caught sight of Frenchie (the ginger one) in the neighbours.   She saw me and did a U turn back into the crops and wasn't seen again.   The dogs tracked her for a while into the crop but nothing.

I called into all the neighbours to alert them.  Back to the house where I attempted to fix the enclosure properly.  Part way through this, I heard some noises and looked up to see Milly herding the little brown pig, Francie, towards us.  Good Milly!   Good Francie!  We got her into the enclosure and stayed around a while to see if it held.   No problems.  By then the wwoofers turned up and we spent the rest of the afternoon looking for the ginger piglet.  No sign of her.  I hoped she would just come back like the other but nothing.  It started raining, and Francie was quite happy making nests in the chook house in the straw I had got for her.   

The Butcher finally turned up about 7pm so both he and Bella were in the dog box.   I know it was probably a bit harsh to be so shitty with the Butcher, but for someone that said they were coming to help to turn up at 7pm on a wet, dark night,  grrrrrr!   Bella knew she was in the poo as she kept bringing her toys to me and putting them on my lap.   As if that would change anything, greedy Bella.

Still no sign of Frenchie despite us walking around, driving around, visiting neighbours, walking through crops, calling, calling, calling.  

In the meantime, Francie seemed quite happy on her own, enjoyed all the attention and the food and got quite tame.    We had to go away for the weekend for work, but the wwoofers had strict instructions about what to do if she turned up.    When we got home on the Monday, still no sign of her.  Francie was doing well though.

Then Wednesday morning, I head out to feed Francie who has started to make some great noises as you walk down with her breakfast, when I hear some other piggy noises, turn around and see Frenchie walking out under the gate from the crop paddock!   Milly instantly leapt into action and herded her back.  We got her into the enclosure using the food as bait and she was soon tucking into our scraps.  Yahoo!   So relieved that after one week and two days, Frenchie decided she would come home.  What a clever pig.

Francie, on the other hand, was not exactly pleased to see her.   There was quite a bit of jostling over the food, to the point where I have to have separate piles for them!  

Im hoping that at some stage soon, when they grow a bit bigger and get a bit tamer, that they will be able to free range out in the paddocks, eating the acorns.  I really should teach them to lead as well since I am not a very accompished pig herder!  That could be fun!