Our summer this year here in northeast Ohio has been dry and now HOT. All of us critters are searching for shade. We do our work in the early morning or cool of evening whenever possible. The greenhead flies bite the horses relentlessly making fly nets part of the harness routine.
One of my sows farrowed on pasture as usual, but chose a big brush pile to keep her little ones near. There is morning sun, afternoon shade and a safe place for them to hide when the hawk flies overhead.
It must be that the hog huts are too warm or perhaps she just knows what she needs better than me? In any case she is raising eight youngsters and teaching them many things at this early age.
You have to look close. There are four babies sound asleep in the shade. The other four are hidden in the brush sleeping two by two. The babies make farming fun...it simply never gets old.