Good to be Back on the Farm - Getting my Pigs in a Row

Being back on the farm has been eventful to say the least.

I had everything planned out and there was a great deal of work to be done, and I was eager to get started as soon as possible. Sadly my health set me back for over a week, and just as I was about to dig back into the workload, I had a disagreement with some boiling water, and lost - ended up with some pretty bad burns along the side of my body.

But not all farm work can wait until you feel better, and sometimes you just need to push through.

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Last night an old friend of mine showed up unannounced, he had found two baby bush-pigs on his farm. He did the right thing, kept a distance and monitored their state and kept an eye out for any sign of the mothers return; after the whole day and entire night of the mother not returning to feed them, he decided to save them from starvation and bring them to me.

You see he doesn't really have the know how or the time to try and get these little ones back to health - but he knew me well enough to know that I would try.

When the piglets got here they were in a really bad way, skinny, dehydrated and cold - we fed them some lukewarm milk mixed with bran, and made them comfortable for the night in a section of the aviary that we made available for the purpose, made sure that they had enough water and greens close by and arranged an empty crate for them to sleep in and give them a sense of security.

The little beast are not much bigger than my hands, its almost hard to believe that they will grow into huge bush-pigs in time. You can already see their teeth and tusks - well developed though small. And this might host its own challenges as time goes by, but I guess that is a bridge I will cross when I get to it. As for now, they are just tiny little babies in need of some love and care.

I am still not to sure what I will do with them once they grow up, we can either try to integrate them with our domestic pigs, or set them free in the bush. The problem with the latter is that piglets can become very tame in no time, meaning that they will become used to human interaction, and this will make them very easy prey for illegal hunting and snaring...

And as you can see, these two little ones are already content with having me in their space.

I guess the logistics behind it is a worry for another day, I am sure that I will figure something out as time goes by - for now I will just appreciate the fact that they are fed, safe and warm...