Newest addition to the homestead

Kevin enjoying a milky

Last month (December 2011) we got out first little piglet. He goes by the name of Kevin Bacon, or just Kevin..lol.

We got him at four weeks of age, so he still needed some milk, and we had to do this by hand with a bottle. Poor thing was the last one of his litter to survive after his mom had laid on the rest. He comes from our friends, Pierre and Carmen Nykamp who live in De Hoop in the Bo Kouga.

Yum... I get little sleepy..

Such a small guy. We got him some salve for his wounds, and pretty much got him settled in quite quickly. He does love his food though, and his favourites are fruit like apricots and peaches, apple and basically any kind of waste from the kitchen, so he gets a nice variety of stuff. He has also not at  about 7/8 weeks started to grovel with his snout for titbits in his pen. He is just such a cutie, and has grown nicely already, his wounds are all healed, and he has a very nice skin now.

ooohhh... what are these ??

So this being our first little chapter in the Animal Husbandry of the homestead, we wanted to introduce Kevin to everybody. :) Our plan is to get a sow soon, and to let them have piglets twice over the next two years after which we will slaughter Kevin. He is a Landrace (the pink ones) and will just grow to an unmanageable size if we keep him. So when his two years are up, he will literally become bacon. :) But we have made peace with the fact that although we will get animals here, they have to work, and serve a purpose, otherwise there is no point really..

Rene the farm animal whisperer!

The kids know this too. Rene our eldest has been a good example to his peers this holiday. He has taken not only Kevin under his wing, but has really helped with the lone roosters too. Feeding, giving water, socializing.. We are very proud of him. :)