Early morning chores with no kids makes it much easier to take pictures!  |
| One of these things is not like the others...
Note: To encourage the chickens to graze we feed grain only once per day, this also helps them
to grow at a healthy rate- not too fast. Needless to say, the birds get pretty excited at grain time
and aren't great about turn taking.
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| Young Mulefoot gilt. (gilt= young, un-bred girl pig) |
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| Young breeding group on field/forest. We keep breeding groups small, and with similarly sized pigs. |
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| This section of fence was last used about six months ago- with rest the vegetation comes back quite well. At this time last year the hillside these pigs are standing on was covered in six foot tall, super-invasive multi-flora rose bushes. Yay pigs! |
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| Colby spends more time with the pigs, so he typically chooses who will be kept for breeding. The pigs we keep to breed are selected based on many factors. Here are some of the things we think about when we choose who will become breeding stock: how well they forage how well they respect the fence whether or not they are pushy with people or other pigs whether or not they are loud and squealy the quality of meat (tested when their siblings go to slaughter) body conformation general health whether their mothers were good mothers |
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| This fence is about an acre in size, roughly half field/half woods. Five breeders will stay in this space for around a week or two depending upon the condition of the ground and forage. |
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| Powerful nose. |
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| Meat chickens resting in a shelter made from a (very clean!) used septic tank. |
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| Sheep: curious about the grain bucket I was carrying. |
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| Sheep: so curious about the grain bucket I was carrying that one got a bucket stuck on her head. |
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