Over Thanksgiving

Several updates over the very busy Thanksgiving holiday period. 

Pigs
The piglets are literally growing before our eyes.  The initial plan was to wire off a garden section with electric fencing and raise the pigs in this area.  Realizing we may need this area before their manure has rotted sufficiently we are now pig-proofing part of the barn and paddock.  While still in their original temporary pen we decided on an impulse to let them out and explore one of the garden areas.  It is amazing how they can be running for their life squealing and then one nanosecond later can be happily rooting and eating - until spooked again.  This temporary freedom seemed like a good idea until we tried to get them back into their pen.  I always wondered where the expression "like trying to catch a greased pig" originated from.  Now I know why.  After numerous failed wrangling attempts human ingenuity prevailed - a line of corn chips caused them to eat their way back into their pen.

Eggs and Chickens (or is it Chickens and Eggs?)
Quite a few developments with the other half of the egg and bacon equation.  We have expanded our Buff Orpington flock over the last few weeks with groups of birds from several local farms that in turn originated from different hatcheries.  Our thinking is to have sufficient genetic diversity in our core flock.  When introducing new hens there is always the risk of contaminating the existing flock with a disease so the new birds are kept isolated for 2 weeks.

Alfred and Edward are now mature enough to be sexually active.  In fact, they have been going at it with the hens like the proverbial hammer and tongues.  We therefore took a chance and incubated 15 eggs that were set on Thanksgiving.  This batch also includes a couple of ISA hen /BO rooster (Harold) eggs from the other coop.  Not sure what type of throwback will result from that liaison but the offspring should be interesting.

We also brought home 16 Barred Rock day-old chicks from a local farm.  This is another large dual purpose heritage breed we want to try out.  This is not the easiest time of year to be dealing with chicks given the winter temperatures so we are making use of the house.  Right now it is becoming difficult to remember which rooms not to let the dogs into.  To be fair to the dogs, they do sort of resemble a dirty tennis ball.