Well, this past week I could not help but notice that Miss Piggy was being a bear with Angelo and she was being sweet with me or Dh, but yesterday I was really unhappy to see that he had a small bite on him, and she would not let him touch her, very strange considering they had been such great buddies..
Anyway, there was a minor breakout, as in got out of their pen but still inside our pastures and on our farm, and I got to spend some time following her around while the spot got fixed and boy was I in for a surprise, I know that a first time girl can fool you and hold that belly in nice and trim on the first litter but I would swear that she is expecting, while I don’t have due date, as she was free ranging with her boyfriend, I now know what one of big weekend projects will be, we will splitting them up and moving her to own nice big nursery pen. I am planning on doing the rabbit trick when she is in labour, we will see if its needed or useful, personally it seems dumb to me but they swear it will help with first time momma’s.
She dug herself a big old bed in a new spot in the barn and settled, no amount of chop, grain and or sweet feed was getting her to leave her spot, finally had to crack out the banana bribes ( I know that other folks would have gone with force, but that is not just not how I have trained her and I will not break that trust). While I would not trust Angelo to take banana bites out of my hand, Miss Piggy is still such a lady at this point, I hope that stays when the little ones come..
I wish I had an idea of how many she has in there but she is such a good size girl and I saw how little those piglets where, she could easily have six to ten in there, only time will tell..
Just another Day on the Farm 
Guessing she’s “being a bear with Angelo” ’cause now she’s past her heat and he just wasn’t getting the point – LOL!
Good luck that she’s well and truly caught, with just the right size of litter.
BTW, what is the “rabbit trick” and what’s the “normal” litter size for a Large Black?
That’s my thinking as well,
The average size litter for a girl her age an size should be around ten, but I have seen alot of large blacks with smaller litters on the net, having said that, her mom and grandmother, where all 12 to 14 girls..
the rabbit trick is to wait till she starts labour and then put a rabbit in the pen to hop around and jump this way and that, they say its so that she won’t hurt the piglets when they are born when they move in the way jerky ways, but honestly, its just a strange one to me, I am very tempted to just do with my gut, which is make it calm, make it quiet, make sure she has tons of bedding to be in and just let her do her own thing, I think if she has lots of room, she will be able to get up and down with ease, if she feels safe, I see no reason that she should be a piglet killer, be it eating them and or laying on them..