The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: Farmer Giles on January 16, 2008, 08:49:41 pm
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Well Hi Guys n Girls
I really need some advice/help please.
Yesterday was the day of reckoning here at home for our three castrated boars, Danny the street (La Rue), Liberace & Quentin, they left the pigpen on Monday and came over to the 'tour a cochon' where they were to spend their last evening prior to 'the deed' being done, all was well with our lovely sow Mrs. DeVere (our very large white) who didn't appear to be to bothered at 'her boys' departure and she didn't seem to be upset. In essence it would mean more grub for her!! yesterday afternoon at some point between midday and 5-30 she vanished and despite extensive searching we have not been able to locate her. We have been unable to find any footprints as the ground is so so wet and her prints would be filled with water as she moved, is she searching for 'her boys' if so will she return?? how far can she wander?? is there any hope that we will ever see her again?? I have called the local Gendarme (police), visited our Mairie (town hall) and called in to local farms and asked if they see her to call, as yet nothing and it has been twenty four plus hours.
Any advice or ideas very welcome as we really want a happy outcome and not the things we have heard from the doom monger's who we have spoken too already.
Cheers
Andy
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In my very humble opinion - She has probably come into season and gone off to find another male. (We had a female sanglier in our boar pen on Sunday). If possible leave some food in her pen, she may well come back. Hilary who in her youth was a great wanderer always turned up, normally in places we would have preferred her not to have been found!!!
HM
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Hi
Any news yet?
Carole
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Not a word nor a single sighting, which we think is very odd as she is a big girl at 260/270 kilos so is not hard to miss.
We are really really upset at this loss as she was our first and only sow who we hoped to have bred from in the not to distant future, it is just like losing a family member as we can't stop thinking of some dreadful fate that might of occured.
Thanks for your responses thus far and fingers crossed that it will have a happy ending.
All the best
Andy
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Where are you located Andy, will ask around if you are near to me
Good Luck
Carole
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hope you find her soon! she is proberably munching her way through a load of food somewhere!
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ANDY I am so sorry!
Have you checked the hedgerows? Daft question I know, but foot prints do fill in in this weather but if she has taken to the road she may nose out the sides of the roads for buried chestnuts or acorns. Also in the fields around you, look amongst the mole hills - the nosed up terrain could easily be mistaken as mole hills from a distance.
We had an escapie last week - a young male Tamworth squeezed behind my legs as I was going in with new bedding. He dissapeared for 24 hours - the tale tale signs were as above, but still no pig. We alerted the authorities as you have, but he just strolled in as if nothing had happened, nosed his gate to get in and hung around for food.
I hope she returns soon - I am sure she knows where home is. As HM says, she could have got the scent of a boar - a wild boar perhaps. Fingers crossed and good luck and please keep us posted.
Kate
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Just a thought Andy - put out a posting on Angloinfo - it might just help.
Kate
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Hi, Andy
Hope she turns up, safe and sound. Hopefully, she's having the time of her life - maybe with a wild boar!! The challenge might be getting her to settle down to routine domesticity once she's experienced the highways and byways.
Rosemary
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Thanks so much all for your kind words, thought and sound advice. A great comfort, my wife is beside herself as are our two boys, and if I am totally honest so am I, it just doesn't seem the same without seeing her head sticking up in her pen and her snorting away waiting for her food before loloping off and doing some daft thing or other.
Carole, we are in a village called Obterre in dept 36 so maybe we are close?? I went out yesterday on the tractor with the theory that it would be higher up and I would be able to see if she had fallen into a fosse or ditch but do you know there is absolutely nothing, no signs of rooting, no dung, footprints or anything not a bloomin sign. It is if she has just spirited away.
I called into our bar last evening and the owner kindly insisted that I put up a notice which I have done and also if she isn't back by tomorrow then he is going to organise a hunt with a load of the local's, really very very kind of him. The chaps in the bar think it is bizarre that she hasn't been seen as we have a lot of open ground bordered by hedgerows and some small woods. she must be somewhere?? all we hope is that she hasn't been 'pignapped' and some b*****d isn't rubbing their hands with glee at this apparent gift from the gods!!
Kate, A good idea about Angloinfo, will do that today after our searching.
Cheers all and will keep you posted.
Andy
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Andy
Very sorry but I am in dept 56 so quite a way from you. I know this must be a difficult time for you. Once all my first 3 pigs I ever had, went walkabouts and we searched all day but found them all together luckily, it was a very harrowing time. Are there any other pig keepers by you, she may have gone for company or picked up the scent from them.
Please let us all know what happens, we can offer support here but sadly can not help in the search for her
Good luck
Carole
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Just hoping for good news today for you and your family Andy.
Mrs DeVere is totally on all of our minds here. 'Is there any news?' was the first thing my daughter asked yesterday when she returned from school.
If the power of thought really does makes a difference I can only tell you that there is a heap of it coming in your direction today from all of us here as Les Rues.
Kate
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Hi Andy
I have been thinking about Mrs DeVere ever since you posted her missing.
My two escaped the other day when I was clearing out their ark.Even though they were just within my sight (terrorising the ewes!) I was so worked up at that they may just make it out under a gate or fall in to the stream. I spent an hour chasing them panicking and fearing the worse.
I do hope it turns out to be as everyone suggests, that she is having the time of her life and will be back amongst you and your family very soon. And when she DOES return make sure there is no way she can get out again. My two have had a brief taste of freedom and I am very aware of them trying to escape everytime I move the fencing to get in with them!
Do let us know when she is found/ ambles back :)
Pebbles
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hope you find her soon
linz
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I do hope that she either turns up soon or she is found safe and sound.
You are all in our thoughts.
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Hello hello
SHE'S BACK :) :) :) :) :) :)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A HUGE BIG THANK YOU TO EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU FOR YOUR EXTREME KINDNESS, THOUGHTS AND SUPPORT.
Yesterday as I was collecting Noah (our youngest) from school my wife called me on my mobile to say our Maire was at the house as Mrs. DeVere was busy digging up someones garden and he had been called as the person who discovered her was a bit nervous of this huge animal in her garden.
As luck would have it a friend is here from the UK and a guy and his wife were here helping us make sausages and had brought a Peitrain X and had his horse box so I rushed back to where I was told she was (would you believe less than a kilometer & the only place I hadn't looked or thought of looking) and low and behold absolutely oblivious to all of the fuss and concern she nonchalently looked up and wandered off into a wood, then the fun really started.
Imagine, she had been out of her paddock for three days, had been totally self sufficient and had had high jinx with living the good life digging up acorns and generally doing as she pleased and then six people turn up to 'persuade' her (I now know that she weighs 320 -330 kilos) that she would be better off back in the old paddock. She was having none of it!!! we chased and caught, she escaped, we cornered and tied a rope on, she escaped, we bribed her with food and got her nearly home by walking her, she escaped so brute force, a great deal of pushing, pulling and arm waving and two hours later Mrs. DeVere was safely in the back of the horse box and was back home.
I left her to sleep off the excitment and fed her in the horse box to let her rest and be calm and then later today we went over gently with the horse box on the back of the tractor and let her out back into her enclosure. Guess what?? after ten minutes of pacing around she was off through the electric fence and heading back towards where she had been before!!! So race after her and chase and chase and fall over and chase some more before having to tie a rope to her back leg and again 'mildly suggest' that it would be in her best interest to do as she was asked as I was looking at her back quarters and thinking what lovely hams they would make if she didn't play ball, bless her!!!!
Tonight she is tucked up in the horse box whilst we prepare an indoor area for her to reaclimatise to her life before she went walkabout on the equivalent of her 18-30's holiday. At least she is back where she belongs and we are soooo happy that she is in good health and in the same condition as when she went.
Again a whopping THANK YOU ALL for everything said and thought by all, it really is very much appreciated.
Kind regards and my very best wishes
Andy & Family
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This is the best news to start our day! We had the most terrible feeling that after all this time she was sausages for sure.
I find myself sitting here with the most enormous smile on my face! Absolutely the most fantastic news - and in true Mrs DeVere style she continues to be the centre of attention in her largeness!
Have the most wonderful day all together again!
Kate and family and friends and pigs and uncle Tom Cobley and all!
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After a rotten week for most of us with the weather etc. what fantastic and wonderful news to wake up to and to start the new week with. Thanks for letting us know. May I make a suggestion? It is a very good idea to find Mrs DeVere some company (may be a little Rebecca) who she will hate for at least a day, before becoming the best of friends with.
Also when you reaclimatise Mrs DeVere, if you can put tin sheets or any other barrier through which she can not see just behind the electric fence this will help to keep her in. You will only need it for about a week, so even if you need to greatly reduce the paddock it will be fine.
Even Hilary submits to that. I am so, so delighted for you. Wonderful, wonderful news. HM
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Wooohooo fantastic news!!!
Glad you got her back, safe and sound.. :)
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:) Hi Andy & Co
Thank you so much for showing us around your place, it's truly lovely & inspiring! and it was very nice to meet you & Tarnia. The pig arcs you are selling are fab - just what I was looking for & can't wait for it to arrive!
So glad that you got Mrs DeVere back - Fabulous News!
Will def be over for some chooks once I've got the hen house sorted.
Thanks Again, Donna
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Hi, Andy and family
So glad Mrs DeVere has come home! I hoped she was just out and about, having a fun time and she sure was!
Rosemary
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so pleased for you. i was keeping my fingers crossed for good news and have been eagerly logging on for the next installment.
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Hello all
Thank you, thank you and thanks again for all of the postings and the messages sent via e-mail. I, sorry, we are touched. Really.
Mrs. DeVere (or Bubbles) is settling back into the routine and is true to form being a clown. Today we gave her some toys to play with, as she is now inside, one of these is an old tyre and when I went to check on her this evening she was parading around with the thing around her neck as if it were the latest from 'Maison Gaultier' and to boot had a carrot hanging from her mouth as if she were smoking a Gaulloises and, please excuse the comparison, looked as if she should have been promenading along the Bois De Bologne in Paris!!! What would we do without her???
Well maybe I will write a book as if anyone had told me five years ago that I would go soppy over 320 kilos of pig my answer would be unprintable!! There must be some marketable value in a story 'Me & Mrs DeVere' (well the song Me and Mrs. Mrs. Brown did OK!!)
Thank you all and I am happy to be part of the wonderful family that is Accidental Smallholder.
Best Wishes
Andy
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If anyone had told me 3 years ago that we would be jumping in and out of a website several times a day to get the update on a missing pig I would have thought them to be mad!
Mrs DeVere has been such a large part of so many peoples life recently that she has become part of the family! The Accidental Smallholder family. I think she should have her own page or maybe a diary, and keep us all up to date on her latest antics -Romance - social life - fashion - spontaneous holidays! The life and times of Mrs DeVere - has a nice ring to it to!
Hope we get to see a pic of the lovely lady soon.
Kate
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:D
So very happy for you. I can go to bed happy!
Pebbles
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andy, i think it was" me and mrs jones". I agree that the tale of one man and his adventurous, intelligent pig would be a real treat, especially for the kids. ( i can see the illutration in my mind of mrs d wearing a tyre and smoking a carrot). glad she settled back in.
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As Hilary has just walked in the door (power is off) I reckon we should all write a book telling our piggie stories. Move over JK Rawling, the pigs are coming.
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Hi Andy,
Well the good news first, She has not gone looking for a boar, A boar can smell a female hogging for up to two miles away, Anyone who knows about pigs will also know that a female hogging doesnt move, she stands and waits for the boar to come to her, once she is aware of her offspring going and believe me she would have noticed something different happening this would have sent her off looking for a new friend,
Rule number one with pigs, never keep one on it's own, Pigs are the most sociable animal you will ever come across, (more than dogs ) she has gone looking for a new soulmate.
as and when and if she returns ensure she has a companion, even if it's a little pig far smaller than herself, this would be the better option as they will have already sorted out the pecking order and thus will not fight too much.
good luck, and keep rattling a bucket of food, you may have to walk several miles, look for signs of woodland/the area being flattened, where she has sept, also pay special attention around trees, deer knibble the bark about 1 metre up. pigs nibble the bottom.
Tony.k
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???
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Tony,
I think you will find she is back- luckily
Cheers
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Excellent news glad she is back - been through the same as you will see on our blog www.lemoulindefavieres.net
Will try and post a picture of ours tomorrow as she is huge and people are actually frightened of her (even though she is a real softie)
could we not have a section/album of pig piccies or have we already (sorry am new)
;D
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Will try and post a picture of ours tomorrow as she is huge and people are actually frightened of her (even though she is a real softie)
could we not have a section/album of pig piccies or have we already (sorry am new)
You can attach images to any post, the problem at the moment is a lack of space on the server TAS runs on. We've got another server with buckets of space though, so we just need to work out how to have the images stored there but visible here.
Once that's done I'll add a members' photos forum.
Dan
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you can alway sign up to a page like flickr or pisac where you can use as an online storage for your picture then link em to here.