This video is a fun one, but it doesn’t even show half of the hilarious antics that our piglets engage in!
Both litters of piglets sped most of their day squeezing out of their pen (although a few are getting to fat to make it through) and exploring the world. They started close to their mother’s pen but have since started going all around the yard, fearlessly visiting ducks, Gandalf and the teenage pigs, and even exploring the blackberry bushes.
They usually run when we approach, and the sight of 7 little pig butts high-tailing it really is one of the best sights you can see out here.
Here is a video (although it is a bit shaky since I am chasing them) that shows you what I mean…
Everyone’s heard of farm to fork, the local food movement that brought farmers and consumers closer together, but we want to go one step further.
Farm to Your School!
Kuska Winasun Homestead is now offering a way for students, teachers, and parents to interact with a young pair of farmers and their livestock.
What exactly does a farm to school visit entail?
The Pig Package
Students will get to pet and scratch a friendly pot-bellied pig. These cute pigs are much smaller than standard pigs, and are sometimes kept as pets.
Pot Belly Piglets
$60 per hour (2 hour minimum)
The Poultry Package
This add-on gives students a chance to feed some friendly ducks and enjoy seeing how distinct the different varieties can be. They also get to compare the difference between a rooster and a hen, and hear the cockle-doodle-doo firsthand.
Some of our ducks, lining up to be fed
A flock of roosters!
+$25 per hour
What do you need to provide?
Nothing really, just an outside area somewhat out of the way where the event can take place. And of course, the children.
We recommend a minimum of 15-20 minutes per class, and in order to keep the animals calm, we like to limit the number of kids taking part to 20 at a time. You can schedule the visits however you like, but please keep these limits in mind.
What do we provide?
We will provide the animals and everything they need for comfort (cages, water, food etc.). We will also have some hand sanitizer available to keep all the animals healthy.
We will answer questions, tell stories, and direct the entire event.
Parents and teachers will also have the chance to purchase some of our farm products at a discounted price after the visit.
If you would like to schedule a visit, or have any questions, feel free to email us at ourochreway@gmail.com.
May 11, 2015 / Emma / Comments Off on 8 Babies: A Pig Birth Story!
It has been a little over a week since our pot belly pig, Louise, had her litter of babies. Since then, her sister Thelma has also had her babies and both mothers are doing great and raising cute, healthy babies!
This is the account of the birth of Louise’s babies (the little bit that I experienced of it):
Early on the morning of May 1, I went out in the predawn to feed Louise and found that she had annihilated the patch of blackberries that was in her pen. She hadn’t eaten them, though, simply sniped them off at the ground and piled them high in the corner of the pen. She had also gathered any grasses that were growing in the pen and even thought a bit of the hanging tarp above her would be good for her nest.
Through my research, I learned that a pig that is about to give birth obsessively makes a nest for her and her babies about 12 hours before she goes into labor. I love the parallel with human mammals… How women often feel that nesting urge a few days before giving birth. I think it is fantastic that our mammal bodies know what is coming, even if our conscious brains do not.
So when I went out to feed her and saw that her nest was complete and she was laying on it, I knew her time was near! I was concerned that the blackberries vines would be too scratchy, so Jason added wooden wool to the pen and she quickly grabbed it with her mouth and started redesigning her nest.
I spent all day at work hoping that I wouldn’t miss the births, but when I got home I saw that I had missed them! There were 7 healthy babies, all dried off and nursing! I was able to go in the pen and sit right next to Louise since she was still in labor (having not yet delivered the placenta). Normally she would NOT allow this, but I sat down quietly and gently and didn’t try to touch her babies so she calmed down. I was able to pat her and talk to her and that was nice. I was hoping that she would deliver more babies but since the others were all so clean and dry, I thought that she was likely done delivering.
Piglets!
Cute!
I left to bring her some more hay for bedding and when I returned I saw that she had in fact delivered another baby, but when I got closer I could see that the bay was a stillborn. It was a little black piglet, unmoving and not breathing. I picked him up and rubbed his chest to see if he might breathe with some help and tried to blow some air into his lungs, but he didn’t move. I think he had probably died a little while before in the womb, and therefore it was harder for her to deliver him, so he was born last.
We buried him next to our blackberry bush in the garden. With 7 healthy and chubby babies, Louise and Jason and I have a lot of life to be thankful for!
About an hour later she delivered the placenta and I “kidnapped” it to have a closer look at this amazing organ! Much to my surprise, Louise delivered another placenta later, as if she was a human mother bearing twins! Her sister, Thelma, also delivered 8 babies but only one placenta.
The placenta!
What a magnificent organ!
Louise quickly recovered and luckily I was able to pick up a couple of her babies before she was up on her feet again (since she would not have allowed it if I had tried just 30 minutes later).
Out and about!
Hanging out with mom!
Like mother, like son!
Hey, wait for me!!!
She ate her second placenta (or so I assume since it disappeared), drank water, and did not eat other solid foods that day. Mother pigs don’t need food on the birth day, but do need extra food after that!
Now her babies are amazingly fatter and cuter and are started to look more piglet-like. Five are pink and two are black, one with white “stockings.” 4 are male and 3 are female, and the stillborn was also a male. She has let me touch a few of them gently both from outside the cage and from within. She always keeps an eye on me, though.
Her piglets are innately very socially conscious… They are born knowing to leave the nest to pee or poop and they spend a lot of time snuggling with each other and walking around, exercising their legs!
Overall, an extraordinary experience! I’m so happy to see many more pot belly pig births in my life!
May 4, 2015 / Emma / Comments Off on Maternal Magic: Pig Preparing to Give Birth
Today one of our sows is preparing to go into labor. She knows just when the time is right and she starts to make the bed on which she will labor and give birth. It is a ritual, really, a dance. Just like human women, when allowed to labor in natural, animal ways, her female body knows just what to do and when to do it.
She’s nesting, just like women often do before labor!
I find this video to be magical, since it is the first proof that birth is sure to begin soon… How exciting!
Check out our pot belly pig, Thelma, as she prepares her nest for her babies…
Notice that at the end of the video, she has her eye on the tarp, and starts to rip it to shreds. Her instincts are telling her that that blue flapping thing is a perfect addition to her babies’ nest!
We just received a ton of Non GMO livestock feed. Literally, 1 ton.
We got some high protein turkey starter for our Bourbon Red Heritage Turkeys, some 16% laying feed for the chickens, a bunch of 18% grower/broiler feed for the teenage chickens and ducks, some pig food, and a few bags of chick starter for our next batch of ducks that will be showing up soon.
40 Bags of high quality, freshly milled GMO Free feed
We are very excited to start feeding only GMO free feed to our livestock. For some of the reasons why GMO free is important us, check out this post.
It was very hard to find a source for Non GMO chicken and livestock feed in our area, but after months of searching for an affordable option, we are excited to finally be able to offer some of the highest quality feed available to other small producers and backyard growers in the Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Rockingham and Stokes County areas.
High quality feed means happy hens, and happy hens mean delicious eggs!
This feed is milled fresh (as in 3 days ago) from high quality, 100% GMO free grains and without any medications, hormones, or antibiotics.
Pricing
All feeds in 50 lb. bags
Layer – 22.50
Broiler/Grower – 24
Chick Starter – 25
Turkey Starter – 26
Pig – 21
Sheep/Goat – 24
Cracked Corn – 17
Soy free feeds are available for an additional fee.
In the future we hope to offer some of the other supplements we use on our homestead (for both plants and animals) like kelp, rock dust, diatomaceous earth, and other types of mineral and protein supplements.
If you would like more information, send us an email at ourochreway@gmail.com or shoot us a message on Facebook.
Emma feeds, waters, and lets the chickens out (both the laying flock and the teenage cockerels), while Jason feeds, waters and checks on the ducklings and the pot belly pigs.
The geese are okay until the afternoon, when they get some food, fresh water, and maybe a paddock shift.
Our morning routine is going to change somewhat when our batch of heritage turkey poults arrive, and also when our ducks graduate form the brooder to their new shelter.
I wanted to spend the time to let you know a few things that we’ve learned over the past while, perhaps including some facts that you might not have known…
Pot bellies are very smart animals, arguably as intelligent as dogs and sometimes as personable. That is why it has become more common in the U.S. for people to keep them as pets.
Although they are considered pets by many people today, they were originally domesticated 6,000 years ago as homestead pigs for meat in Vietnam and other Asian countries.
When kept in confinement (like a 16 foot x 16 foot pen like we have) they tend to poop in certain areas that they have determined are the farthest away from their food, water, and sleep area. We have seen our pigs leaving their shelter to walk over to the corner where their “bathroom” is. We also noticed that during transport, when we first got all of them, each one of them held their pee until they got out of the trailer/truck/car. They realized that peeing where they were sitting would be wet for them, so they decided to hold it!
Pigs! They’ve decided that their bathroom area is over by the aluminum-walled corner.See the poop?!
They sure can bite! I already knew that adult pigs could eat an entire person if they desired (especially the larger, standard-sized pigs), but I didn’t think that piglets would choose to bite as a defense mechanism! When we were catching them to bring them home, one of the piglets that I was holding chomped down on my upper arm, leaving a major scratch and bruise. Luckily I had on 2 layers of clothes or he definitely would have broken the skin!
Ouch! Dammit, piglet!
Male pot bellies have tusks, just like other pigs and wild boars, unless you get them removed when they are piglets (sounds painful to me!).
Gandalf’s glamour shot. If you look closely, you can see his tusks!
They reach sexual maturity at very young ages… Much younger than you’d expect! For example, our piglets are nearing sexual maturity! Males generally go through puberty at 3 months old and females at 3 or 4 months old. Often, breeding does not result in any litters at this young age, since even though their bodies are mature, they’re still not always fully functioning. And yes, they will breed with their fathers, mothers, or siblings unless you separate them! They definitely don’t have the same concept of “the incest taboo” that we do in the human world.
Pigs can be weaned anytime from 1 month old to 2 months old!
Pigs can eat almost anything, and since they are good at foraging and rooting for food, we’ve put their pen over a nasty patch of poison oak. They should dig up the roots and eat them before spring begins. Then we can plant corn there!!!
February 24, 2015 / jason / Comments Off on “On The Anatomy of Thrift”: An Inspirational Video Series from the Farmstead Meatsmith
I want to share some amazing videos that Emma and I watched the other night. It’s a mini web series from the Farmstead Meatsmith, an artisanal butcher shop that focuses on the long lost traditions of home butchery, charcuterie and real food.
On the Anatomy of Thrift is a collection of 3 informational yet inspirational videos on pork butchery. It covers (and shows in detail) every part of a hog harvest, from killing to cooking. Brandon Sheard, the farmstead meatsmith, takes the viewer on a mesmerizing trip with stops at evisceration, cooking offal (the perishable organs like hearts, livers, lungs and kidneys), identifying and parting out specific cuts, making old fashioned delicacies (pate, blood sausage, and rilletes), and preserving pork flesh by curing hams and making bacon.
If you, like me, have carnivorous tendencies (and aren’t too squeamish) than I highly suggest you check out these videos. They really are stunning. The production is great, and Brandon’s passion is extremely contagious. Emma and I immediately started day dreaming about making bacon, prosciutto, lard and pate from our future pig production.
I can assure you that we will take Brandon’s techniques and philosophies to heart, and utilize every part of every pig we butcher. To do anything else would be a disservice to the animal, a waste.
One adult male who is about 3 years old. His name is Gandalf and he is our breeding male. He still has his tusks, which makes him more dangerous than the other adults. Even though he is generally friendly (his old owner told us that Gandalf thinks he is a dog), he can still push up against you or rub up against you affectionately with his face and hurt you. We have to be sure that when we are near him, we wear thick pants and gloves.
Two adult females who are about 2 1/2 years old. They are sisters and we haven’t named them yet. They look very similar but one has yellow at the end of her tail and the other does not. We’re just calling them The Sisters for now. They are less interested in human contact than Gandalf is but are not unfriendly. They just have not been socialized as much as Gandalf, but I have noticed that they have become more interested in us when we come over to their pen.
Four piglets. Three of them are from one litter and are 2 1/2 months old and the fourth one is from another litter and is 1 1/2 months old. Half are males and half are females.
Our long-term plans for the pigs are to keep the breeding trio as just that, and to allow each mother to have 2 litters per year. Their litters will be humanely harvested as meat once they have grown up.
We just ordered our turkeys the other day: 50 Bourbon Red Heritage Turkeys and 20 Heritage Turkeys that will be a mix-and-match of 6 heritage breeds. We plan to keep a couple breeding groups so we can hatch our own eggs in subsequent years. We also plan to eat many of them ourselves! Yum!
A baby turkey (called a poult).
Ducks
Around the time that we get our baby turkeys in April, we will also be getting some ducks to start a laying operation. We haven’t ordered these guys yet, but it looks like we’re going to be getting Cayuga ducks which are a beautiful black/green color, lay gray or even black eggs, and are very personable. We’ll also be getting another breed as well, to be determined.
A beautiful cayuga duck! We can’t wait for those gray eggs!
Chickens
Since the winter weather has shut down a lot of our outside chores except for feeding and watering the animals, some of our ideas and projects have shut down too. For example, the chicken tractor that we began building a few weeks ago is covered in snow right now and still incomplete. Since our chickens have gotten even larger since we began the chicken tractor, we realized that we can simply add them to the adult flock in a few days once the weather gets a bit warmer. The bantams will leave their bantam tractor and live with the standards for a while, and the younger female chickens will leave their basement home and join the others. The tractor can then house the younger male chickens until we butcher them (leaving one barred rock and one hybrid male for breeding).
