Busy Thursday

Thursdays can be super busy days on the farm in the pig barns.  We wean pigs every two weeks- when they are about four weeks old.  That's when they are eating "big pig food", grain, and are ready to be off their mom.  On Wednesday I got most of the bigger pigs moved around in the cold nursery and hot nursery, so all I had to finish up on Thursday before I could wean them was wash up the pens and disinfect.  The disinfecting part is super important, because that helps keep our pigs much healthier.  We start them on feed a week before they are weaned so that they can eat more grain and be more used to it before they are weaned and go into the hot nursery. 
Sometimes, weaning can be a very frustrating process.  The little pigs can be very tricky.  We catch them and put them into a big wagon sort of thing so that they can be moved from one room to the other.  But those pigs do everything they can not to be caught.  It's much easier if you have two people weaning, because you can work together to catch them.  But when they see you coming from the back, they immediately run to the front of the pen to get away from you.  So most of the time it takes a LOT of patience to get all of the pigs caught! 
After that, I had to wash up the farrowing room and disinfect, and then move the sows in that are going to have babies next week.  Most of the time the sows are pretty easy to move because they have been over there before.  It gets tricky when there is a gilt, or a female pig that has not had babies before, and you have to get her in.  Sometimes when they have to walk from one barn to the next in the aisle that we have built, they get scared because of the sunlight coming into the barn.  They can be very sensitive about that, and get apprehensive about moving.  The best thing to do when that happens is just stand behind them so they can't back up, but just let them get used to it.  If you are patient, they will eventually go where they are supposed to.  They just have to have some time to adjust.
I got two moved that are due to have babies towards the beginning of the week, so I have to finish up on Monday!