# Breeding Blue Butt Sow & Hampshire Boar



## PatchofHeaven (Mar 5, 2008)

We have a female Blue Butt and Hampshire male both approximately 6 months old. We are wanting to breed them, but do not know much about breeding pigs. I've been reading through several posts and searching the archives and I haven't found all of the answers that I'm looking for:

At what age is it okay to breed?
What would a Blue Butt Sow and a Hampshire Boar piglets look like?
How do we know if the sow is pregnant?
When should we separate the boar from the sow?

Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated...
Thank you,
Dana


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## PatchofHeaven (Mar 5, 2008)

The pigs are in the same pen together, it is a 40' x 50' pen. This morning I noticed that the male has been showing signs of maturity (cork screw action) that we haven't see until today.

Is 6 1/2 months old too young to allow them to breed?


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## tyusclan (Jan 1, 2005)

Size is more important than age. You want your gilt to be about 250 lbs. before you let her breed. She should be at or about at that weight by 6 1/2 months.

Blue Butts are a Hampshire cross, so if the boar is a purebred Hampshire, the pigs stand a good chance of looking Hampshire.

If the sow is bred, she won't come back into season, and you'll start to notice her middle thickening, and the teats starting to form and grow.

Some boars are fine with the pigs, and never do any harm to them. Others have been known to kill them. It just depends on the temperament of the boar as to whether you need to seperate them at all. If you don't want to take a chance, just seperate them a little while before she farrows.


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## PatchofHeaven (Mar 5, 2008)

Over the weekend we were talking about something else: Whenever we bought these 2 pigs they were about the same size and the guy that sold them to us said they were each around 3 months old. I only remember seeing one sow, a blue butt. There were 2 boars, one blue butt and one hampshire. We didn't think about breeding them at the time we purchased them so we didn't ask many questions. 

What if they are actually brother and sister - Does inbreeding matter with pigs? Could we still breed them? 

I've heard that in some animals, inbreeding is done to keep the bloodline strong - is this also true with pigs?


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## tyusclan (Jan 1, 2005)

Inbreeding done by an experienced and knowledgeable breeder can improve a line. Inbreeding done by a novice could be a diaster.

It would be worth a call to the person you got them from to find out if the are, or could be, brother/sister. If they are, I would not breed them.


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