Preparing for piglets and farrowing
If you are planning to breed your pigs then you will eventually having piglets born. Farrowing at our farm is always an exciting time! Sometimes we are able to be with the sow for delivery and sometimes we arrive to find a full litter already born and nursing. 90% of the time the sows deliver with ZERO complications. But there is a 10% chance you will need to assist your sow in farrowing. It’s always best to be prepared for the worst case scenario. Gather your items for a farrowing kit and store them in an airtight box near your farrowing location. I follow the guidelines from Corva Bella Farm. I could list the items here, but I would be repeating what Christiana says on her website, so I’ll just post the link below for you! She has a wealth of knowledge and experience!
https://corvabella.com/corva-bella-farm-farrowing-kit/
We learned (the hard way) to put a corner rail up in the farrowing stalls. Kunekune piglets cannot regulate their body temperature until they are around 3 weeks of age. To keep warm, piglets may crawl under the mom and the result is suffocation. We placed a 2x6 mounted in the corner of our stall, just high enough for the piglets to go under it to reach the mom for nursing. We mount a Premier 1 safety heat lamp above the corner. The piglets return to the heated corner to sleep, safe and sound. We have had 100% success rate with the corner rail. Many people run creep rails around the entire stall, but our stalls are multi-purpose and we would have to remove them for goats or sheep.