We brought home 4 Kunekunes! What is a Kunekune, and how do you pronounce it? KuneKune are a type of heritage pig. When I first heard of the breed we called them coon coons but I have recently learned the pronunciation is cooney cooney. We went with Kunekune for a variety of reasons. When researching pigs I knew we wanted ones we could play with and enjoy, not just feed until they were big enough to turn into bacon. Unlike the big pink commercial pigs(American Landrace), Kunekune mature slower, don’t typically tear up the ground(root), enjoy the companionship of people, and can survive solely on grass. While ours get more than just grass, I love that we don’t NEED to give them feed. Actually, I have yet to give ours any feed. They either eat grass and weeds or kitchen scraps so far. Since we live in MN we will be providing feed and hay in the winter months but for now they are completely happy to forage.
Thursday, April 13th was the day. A friend along with her 3yo and 7yo hit the road with the twins and me at 7:30am. We left Annabelle(7), Hayden(4), and my friends oldest(10) with Connor. His job was to build a pen for the pigs while we were gone. I was grateful not only for the company on my 3 hour one way drive but also to be able to pick her brain as we drove. She grew up on a farm. I did not. She has had pigs before. I have not. She was a wealth of information as we drove and it was nice to talk to someone other than my toddlers as I drove. Finding mommy friends and being able to just chat is so under-hyped these days. It helps keep me sane.
After a quick stop at Costco, which actually took 2 hours, we arrived at the pig farm. The farm was right out of my dreams. They had it all! Horses, cows, donkeys, chickens, ducks, guineas, and even more. They had free ranging goats that were hanging around the yard like cats. That was Arias favorite part. Sarah(the Kunekune breeder) and her daughters showed us how to catch the pigs, give them shots and get them loaded into the van. She gave us an amazing deal. Buy 3 girls and get a boar we could breed them with for “free”.
Surprisingly, at several points on the way home, we forgot we had a van full of pigs. I expected the 3 hours to feel even longer due to the stench of pig poop that was sure would fill the van, but there was no smell. Apparently Kunekune poop is different. Instead of a pile of manure they poop more like dogs. The lack of smell is due to their diet being primarily grass. We pulled into the driveway around 5:30 and got the Costco goods and pigs unloaded. We had them in dog kennels in the back of the van. The girls went out pretty easily but the boy wasn’t interested in leaving his comfy kennel. I picked him up to haul him out and instantly regretted it. That jerk peed on me. I am very glad we thought to put tarps down before putting the kennels in the back.
Connor and the kids spent the day making an awesome pig tractor. A pen on wheels that we could pull around the property. Not only does this allow them fresh grass daily but it also easily spreads their manure about the property. We quickly realized we had a problem. While the girls were old enough to get pregnant they were too small. We put the girls into the pen and decided to see how the boy would do free ranging.
By Saturday we had fixed the pen 3 or 4 times. It turned out the boy pig didn’t love being left “alone”. The dogs, cats, and poultry didn’t fill his love tank apparently. I reached out to Sarah about him being lonely and she apparently wasn’t surprised. Pigs need pigs and getting love through a fence wasn’t enough for him. She let me know she had a barrow(castrated male) available that we could have for a good deal. So we got back on the road, loaded up the new piggy, and headed home. The boys spent the night cuddling in the hay in our broken barn.
Over the next week we moved the girls daily and set to teaching the boys to stay away from the road. The latter often came down to Annabelle to deal with. She could run across the property faster than I was able to and for some reason the pigs responded really well to her. One evening after the kids were in bed I had to run out to bring them back from the edge of the road. I got behind them and started clapping like I do when I was the chickens to go back in their coop. That wasn’t the right move since the human to pig translation seemed to be, “hey you big lugs come cuddle in the road with me.”. The next day I asked Annabelle how she was getting the pigs back into the yard so easily. I couldn’t help but laugh when her response was, “I just get behind and kick them in the butt. They’re too much bigger than me for me to push.”. After a week of being taught the pigs stopped heading for the road.
We now rotate the pigs every two weeks or so. If the boys are free ranging the girls are in the pen, if the girls are free ranging the boys are. Everyone has finally been named too. Our three girls are Princess Pancetta, Piggy Stardust, and Petunia. The boys are Weenie and Frank. Weenie was easiest to name. He looks like a burnt cocktail weenie with his tiny little legs.
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