Monday, July 19, 2010

Pig Wrangling

Apparently kune kune pigs are easy to train if you start them young enough. I can see that I am going to have to take a very strict line with Lily and Rusty. Dylan. the guy we bought them from, advised us to keep them well away from where the food is stored because they will not be turned from it. I should have listened to him. Today as we passed the shed Rusty found the feed bag, dunted it over and started to scoff. He was soon joined by Lily. I ended up having to shove them both out of the shed with a yard brush and it wasn't easy. They're only little now but if they were any bigger I'd not be able to push them out with a tractor. Dylan told us that Custard, his 10-month old sow, smelled out that he was keeping the food in the polytunnel and when she wasn't able to access the door she punched her way through the polythene. And as Dylan said, "Once she got in, the troops all followed."

We might have made a mistake giving our two strawberries. They go into a frenzy when they see them. It isn't that hard to have them sit before they get their juicy treat but then Rusty started to stand on his two hind legs and that looked very cute. But I shall have to put a stop to that. Imagine him doing it when he's full-grown - then losing his balance and falling on me. The wee brute has already bit my hand when the red-strawberry-mist was on him. More discipline, less strawberries from now on I think.

2 comments:

Hails said...

Oh Nelly, I am so enjoying your blog at the moment! It goes from heartfelt emotion to funny stories to grumpy rants to tales of pigs and bees... I love it, and I've just realised that I'm terrible at commenting on blogs in general, so here I am showing my appreciation for yours.

I think the reason this particular post prompted me to comment was the line "The wee brute has already bit my hand when the red-strawberry-mist was on him.". It made me laugh out loud, although not in a gleeful way at you getting bitten of course. You've a great turn of phrase! :)

Good luck with the pig training!

Nelly said...

Thanks Hails - that means a lot to me. And I'll need all the luck I can get with this pig training.