American Guinea Hogs

Friday I drove from Virginia to Alabama to pick up our new GH boar piglet. We named him Basil. We got our 2 gilts (girls for those that don't know) a few weeks ago in Maryland. We called the girls Rosemary and Thyme. We thought a trio would be good for us.

American Guinea Hogs are listed as an endangered breed of pig by the Rare Breed Livestock Conservancy which means there are less than 200 of them. They are much smaller than other pigs, about the size of pot bellied pigs. They are normally docile and friendly and tasty so I hear. We have named them so I am sure we won't eat them but they make great little rototillers and in this horrid, rocky, spent soil I need all the help I can get.

These guys have been such fun. They are all about 3 months old. The boar is 2 weeks younger than the gilts and since he got here 2 weeks later than the girls he's low man on the totem pole for the time being. I had read they may be territorial initially with him and not let him eat near them or sleep with them but he wasn't having any part of that. He is a bit intimidated by the girls but not so much that he was going to sleep alone or miss a meal. Soon he'll be bigger than they are and smell, to the girls at least, like a boar and the hierachy will change.