pig now weaning

the mother has been removed from the pen and the piglets are now weaning.
they will be on solid food here in this pen for another few weeks until room becomes available in a bigger pen in a different part of the farm. the middle photo shows me pointing to my pig.

4 weeks old

the sow with the litter at 4 weeks

photos by lucy pope. taken today. day 6
my pig is the one with the dark triangle on the rear right rump where it was bitten by its mother

a pig is born

when i arrived, she had already delivered 2 further gilts. but i was present for the birth of two of the sow's piglets. one boar and one gilt (one male and one female)
she was in some discomfort as it was her first litter and she was unsure about the process she was undergoing. she delivered the placenta, so i waited a further hour but thought that may have been it: a relatively small litter of four. her sister gave birth to 17 a few days before. thinking it was over, i left.
i went to visit the sow and her new litter the next day and in the few hours after i left, she gave birth to a further seven piglets for a total of eleven. one of the piglets she had picked up in her mouth and flung across the pen, breaking its jaw, so unable to feed, that one is unlikely to make it. she also bit my one on the rump causing it to bleed and bruise. as she is a middle white pig, the piglets all look the same and so this damage to my piglet, ironically, will be an identifying feature. it is a boar and is the one you can see being delivered in my video above. because we were there for a few hours, my video camera ran out of batteries so it ended up being recorded on my phone. proper footage and photos to follow.

ARRIVED!

on saturday 15th of august my pig was born.

still no pig

...


in answer to the question below, i get somewhere between 24 hours and 24 minutes notice of an imminent birth.

missed one

oh dear.

a pig was born when i was away from home.
am going to have wait another few weeks until another sow farrows.

it's a strange (and brilliant) feeling to not be able to start a new record until a farm animal allows you to.

a project is born

my name is matthew herbert
and this is the blog of my pig.

in 2010 i will release a record entitled 'the pig'
it will be made up entirely of sounds made during the life cycle of a pig.
i will be there at its birth
during its life
present at its death
and during the butchery process.
its body will then be given to chefs new and old
there will be a feast
it will all be recorded

and then turned in to music


meanwhile i await a call from the farm in kent to let me know that my pig is on its way. i will rush there with a camera and a tape recorder.

you can follow our journey here.