I feel that it is needed to note the difference in behaviors I have noticed since the new nesting was put into use. So far 6 females have laid eggs in the new nesting set ups and their behavior has been identical to eachother but vastly different from previous seasons. These differences have seemed to improve the post lay health as well. So here are some things I have noted. Might even do a real wright up on the subject after another season of using this method.



The first observation was that the time between prelay shed and egg laying has been cut in half from previous years. Only one female went 10 days. The rest have been about 5 days and one female laid 12 hours after prelay shed.



Second observation is there is no frantic pacing back a forth by the female the night before she lays. I noticed with the old method, the females would constantly trace the cage almost looking like they were "trying" to find proper nesting. I was told that this is normal behavior for hogs when I first started breeding them. I could not wrap my head around why they would behave that way in a wild situation. I would think that behavior like that would be a detriment. It would not be very productive to expose yourself to predators while you are full of eggs. Anyway, my thoughts are that this is not normal behavior based on what I have seen from this years nesting compared to previous years. This year all females were calm and placid and never showed signs of them being "ready to lay eggs". They just did it without any hyper activity or restless behavior that they always displayed when I was using the other nesting technique previously.



Believe it or not, I have even seen a difference in post lay condition. Female seem to have visually lost less weight this year and the females ate minutes after completion of their laying and nest buiding. All female who have laid so far have eaten numerous times and the first ones who laid are already back up to pre gravid conditions. They have also all been paired up again...



Just figured I would throw that out there. I have about 7 more females who are going to be laying eggs very soon so I will be taking more notes.

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