Here on the Triple H we believe all animals should get a second chance before being removed, in one way or another, from the premises. This was the case with our big sow Paula. A couple of years ago we bought two young bred gilts, female pigs that have yet to have babies for those who may not know the term, also bringing home the young boar that had bred them. I like my brood animals to have names and be well socialized so it seemed natural to name the two girls Paula and Mary as the boar was already called Peter by his previous owner. I am sure you get it: “Peter, Paula & Mary”? Anyway, Paula had her first litter and although a pretty good mum she was not a careful mum.
We do not use the confining farrowing crates when our girls farrow but rather will have them in a stall in the little barn down in the farmyard or in an outside pen with shelter. Paula has farrowed in both locations but would still plop down willy nilly to let the babies nurse and in the process one would inevitably be squashed. Now losing one or maybe two babies in a litter of 11 of 12, although sad, can be forgiven in a young mum so Paula was bred back and did not too badly with her next litter. The following litter however she once again showed a tendency to not be as careful around her babies as I would have liked to see and subsequently lost a few of the little tykes although did raise the requisite minimum of eight piglets to weaning age. She was now on her last chance to prove herself which to make things worse she did not breed back on schedule, missing an entire month which I graciously put down to her being quite tall and our new young boar Casper being still a tad short legged!
However, she finally settled and was nicely expectant with her due date quickly approaching. Since she had not performed well with her babies in the inside
farrowing stall, nor the more spacious outside farrowing pen, I decided to see how she would fare just staying out in her home paddock, a 10 acre plot with an abundance of Juniper, pine and a few Fir trees as well as Mountain Mahogany shrubs and other well sheltered areas. The day I knew she was imminent to farrow I scanned the area she had been frequenting to find where she may have started nesting as I wanted to at least fill it with good clean straw. I fleetingly thought of staying home from the EMT class I was supposed to attend that night in town so as to keep an eye on her but just when I was leaving the house my pager went off so I dashed off to respond on an ambulance call. Since it was well after nine when I arrived home, dark as the Dickens, I felt I had little hope in finding where Paula might be farrowing so left Nature to take its course and I would check on her in the morning.
Paula had found a perfect spot under a Fir tree in which to make a dry, cozy nest in which to give birth. After calling her name repeatedly I eventually found her when she sat up and came trundling over to where I was. She led me back to her nest where I found nine squirmy little piglets and one that had not made it successfully out of its birth sack. After carrying over some straw, checking the babies over I left a contented Paula to tend to her brood. Over the following couple of days I kept a 
close eye on mum and babies and was delighted to see Paula did not squash a single one. The big concern was predators due to her being so far from the rest of the pigs and the barnyard. I knew she would defend her babies vigorously and we have never had any coyotes come close to where we have big pigs but just the act of trying to save a baby may result in the loss of others. However, when the babies were not even three days old, here is Paula making her way down to the water trough and the area where we normally feed her with nine little white piglets in tow behind her. Every once in a while she stops and makes her reassuring mummy grunting noises, the babies all chatter back to her then she advances a little farther with her brood dutifully trotting along.
So Paula has had her second chance and has spared herself from becoming sausage and bacon. She is raising her litter out in the open as Mother Nature intended, making a safe warm bed for them even through inclement weather. What is that old saying? “Give me 20 acres and I can turn this rig around”? Maybe Paula does not need a 10ft x 10ft farrowing stall in which to give birth, she just needs ten acres!
