[Elissian]

Hi everyone! My 2 OSB sows are due to farrow on Monday. They are from Cynthia and Mary bloodlines and the sire is an Alexander. I have already had reserves for 3 meat boys and 2 registered girls but as i expect at least 20 piglets there should be plenty more to reserve.
If you are thinking of taking up pig keeping for the first time can i just plug the breed by saying they are wonderful easy going pigs and if our experience is anything to go by very natural mothers.
 We've had delicious pork and bacon off them and made good wiltshire cure and prosciutto style ham.
They will be weaned and ready to go at the end of april. We are situated On the A36 between Salisbury and Southampton on the Wilts Hants border.
I will update you when the piglets are born as to the sex and how many will be registered for breeding.
Thanks for reading, Helen Hobday hg@muckspreading.wanadoo.co.uk.

[Elissian]

our cynthia who we call Autumn had 7 boys and 3 girls, early this morning. Mother and babes doing well. One of the girls looks as though she will be registerable as she has 14 teats, we will have to wait a while before we can check to see if the rest of her comes up to scratch! So probably 9 meat weaners from this litter.
Our Mary who we call Amber will probably wait till it's dark to farrow as seems to be her way. It always amazes me that the lady who owns the boar we use is always spot on with her dates she must watch them all day!

[Rosemary]

Congratulations - good litter size. I'm surprised that only 1 in 10 is registerable - is that usual?

[Elissian]

They like them to have 14 teats and most only have 12. I haven't checked the boys but only one of the 3 girls has 14. She had 12 piglets but i found 2 dead , one looked a bit"special" and the other was probably rolled on. i have my doubts about one of the live ones it looks a bit stiff in its limbs and therefor slower than the rest.
I've just checked on Amber and she's breathing quite heavily but no sign of anything starting yet.

[bethjames]

one of the hazards of OSB's unfortunately, they're very picky about breed standards...... We found that out to our detriment
Bethan James
www.cilwg.co.uk

[tedjohn09]

Congaratulation. Thanks for raising your voice.

[BillyBerridge]

Congratulations - good litter size. I'm surprised that only 1 in 10 is registerable - is that usual?

Unfortunately it is a problem with OSB's - however by being very selective with what is registered and used as breeding stock the breed is slowly becoming much more uniform - meaning more and more sows are throwing litters with higher numbers of registerable weaners.

Gilts should ideally have 14 teats but 12 is fine so long as they are straight, Boars should always have 14 6 of which are in front of the sheath.

In my expiernece OSB's have ways of shocking you, a piglet which may look the best in the litter at birth often goes the other way and ends up not quite up to scratch - it's normally the one that you borderline about registering which ends up the nicest pig.

From our last litter 9 in all 2 gilts and 7 boars - neither of the 2 gilts were any good and 3 of the boars looked nice, the best looking one developed a large white blotch on his side at around 8 weeks old, the next best one ended up with a white bloch on his hind at around the same age and the one we were boarderline with has ended up the best looking pig we have ever bred and now it staying with us as a breeding boar!


OSB's are easy to keep but a pain in the butt to breed!

[Elissian]

Well Amber finally farrowed tonight. She had 17 live ones and 1 dead, i may have been to blame for that as i went inside for a cup of tea as i was freezing after 3 1/2 hours outside, sitting very still. I might have been able to bring it round but on the other hand it may have been stillborn, no point beating myself up.
I will be amazed if she doesn't roll on some tonight. Only 3 are girls so we seem to have a very high number of boys from both sows this time around.
Billy I'm glad you say only 12 teats nesesarry for the gilts . My sows have 14 but it seems to me that the back 2 dont seem very productive. Obviously it will be a while before we can decide which ones to register but as i was told it had to be 14 i was dismissing most before we'd started!
I'm looking forward to some sleep now!
helen

[Elissian]

Thought you would like to see some piccys of the babies. 




Autumn. 


Amber. 

[jameslindsay]

Nature at it's very best.

[BillyBerridge]

They look like good strong piglets! I would be interested to see how the one in the second picture at the top right turns out. Looks a nice pig at a glance.

[Daisys Mum]

These are gorgeous I wish that I was not so far away, I would have liked some.