dominance in sows

[lulu!]

i'd just like to know if anyone here who has a herd consisting of a boar and however many sows still gets a pecking order within the sows?
someone on another forum (i've mentioned them before, they fed their pig milk rolleyes) seems to think that adding a boar to a herd "instantly calms the sows hormones" and that there is never any dominant sow. which isn't what i've experienced, and i just wanted to see what others think.

they also seem to think that if you have a herd and a dominant pig dies, you have to split the herd in two :| as a general rule, apparently.

 

[lulu!]

anyone?

 

[Little Piggles]

I don't *think* that's the case, but I've only ever had experiance of lady-pigs

From reading various threads on here regarding adding a boar to a group of sows, it seems that it's the dominant girl who usually causes upset with the new boy and only when she's happy that 'he'll do' will the group settle down. I would imagine that the pecking order would still exist to a degree but the boar is usually somewhat of a calming influence and stops squabbling. Like I say, I have no experience of this though

I would imagine that splitting a group who is already at a loss would cause further upset... I, personally, would leave them to settle and sort out any dominance issues between themselves (assuming no fighting of course) before considering adding another pig if we thought best.

Just my opinion of course though

 

[Nicquita]

i went through a slight ordeal yesterday, and i've found that today, my sow is still dominant. my neutered boar seems to be dominant of the other two sows, but the previously dominant sow refuses to back down, and he seems to have accepted it.

 

[lulu!]

^ that's what i've experienced, too. maybe it depends on how dominant the boar is?
my sows still came into season, and this still caused dominant behaviour.

anyone else have any experiences with this?

 

[Wiebke]

A boar does NOT do away with the sow hierarchy, but he can smooth down some of the squabbling; especially the one caused by "season grumpiness" or "piggy PMS". My sows still have there hierarchy and are reinforcing/questioning it from time to time.

Where the boy himself fits in is down to his age/aspirations. My boar is the oldest of the tribe, a dominant personality himself and was there first, so he ranks high up, but other more laid back boars fit in somewhere lower. It is still the dominant sow(s) who run the herd; the boar binds them together by having to get on with all of them in order to mate.

I have a triumvirate of two top sows (Nia and Taffy) with Llewelyn at the top, with Nerys taking care that nobdoy gets in her way, but not directly involved in piggy politics. All the others are ranking below with Ffowlyn and Telyn at the bottom; the are the babies of the tribe.

 

[lulu!]

^ thank you

what i was trying to say to her was that you can't say, as a general rule, that in any herd with a boar there will be no hierachy. you can't set rules like that for animals who are all going to have different personalities!

it makes sense to me that there would always be a dominant sow. in pretty much every pack/herd species i've heard about, there has always been an alpha male and alpha female.

 

[Niki]

My 2 girls were introduced to Toddie (RIP) as babies, when i introduced 3 more & gave them a bigger hutch, Toddie started to lose weight, vet thought it was behavioural & every pig had a wound somewhere, thought to be the work of the dominant sow. It was suggested i split the group. I didn't & everything calmed down. Each knew it's place & tho' Toddie seemed to keep himself away from the girls most times he would wade in if there were any naughtiness going on. When he was ill Lyric (head sow) guarded him & when he passed she was the first one to say her goodbyes & stayed at his side whilst every other visited him.
The girls are on their own now, Lyric is still boss & she hates my other neutered boar. I rarely see any problems between them but have seen the odd bit of mounting going on, which thankfully leads nowhere

 

[Romily]

we have 10 ladies with a neutered boar and there has not been a squable amongst the girls since he arrived where as before there wer a few handbags at dawn moments!

 

[Wiebke]

I have had the very occasional handbags at dawn moment - but only two that were not connected with settling in new sows into the hierarchy and both have been between Ceri and Cariad. But even there Llewelyn went in between and tried his best to diffuse the spat.

Generally, things are more peaceful with a boar around, but the girl hierarchy is still there. The bigger the group, the easier new sows will settle in with some jostlling from the sows that are of a similar rank in the hierarchy.