You may remember that not long ago the big little pig relocation took place when we rehoused the guinea-pigs. Well, yesterday it was time for the big big pig relocation. We moved our Berkshire boar Oberon into his own field. The girls, Rosamunde and Portia, are nearly mature and Oberon had been showing increasing signs of interest. So – separation time.

Oberon has moved into our back garden. The lawned area we created was always much too big and it was really a waste of petrol to keep cutting it all. We don’t need it. So we’ve sectioned about half off for Oberon.

Not a bad spot for a pig

Although he’s always been very bossy with the sows, Oberon is actually quite timid and he was reluctant to venture out of the gate of his old field. He’s no fool – he’s learnt the hard way about the electric fence! He was very wary of crossing what used to be the danger zone. But greed is a wonderful thing and it didn’t take too long for Caiti to tempt him out with a bucket of wheat. He trotted happily along with his snout in the bucket until the last few yards, when it suddenly looked like he might run back for the safety of his previous home, but some judicious pig boarding by Chris and Benj got him through the entrance and I closed the ‘gate’ behind him.

Humph. I'm not impressed, grumbles Oberon

He was very interested to start with, snuffling around everything and taking some experimental bites out of the smart pig house Chris made for him from insulation boards. But he soon got grumpy as the afternoon’s stress caught up with him and the prospect of solitary bachelorhood (at least for a while) sunk in. His water bucket went flying repeatedly, he tore large chunks out of his house and then he went into a deep sulk. We petted and patted him, poured water over him, tickled his chin and ears and I even fed him a whole cucumber slice by slice until at last he abandoned the amateur dramatics, got up and started chomping again.

You don't get many pigs with parasols!

He’s still a little out  of sorts but seems to be starting to settle in now. And the girls show no signs of missing him at all! Poor Obie.