Boar pairs and sows

[Liane]

I'm currently looking into options for my lone boar, Nelson and obviously one is to pair him up with another boar. The problem is I have five girls - two live in the hutch below and three live about a metre away, and in summer they will be moving into a triple story hutch. We were very lucky in many respects when we paired Freddie and Nelson as neither showed any interest in girls and got along beautifully.

I am concerned that a new boar may not be like Nelson, and may see him as a threat to his (non-existent) chances with the ladies, or that it may somehow stir up problems in Nelson. I would be grateful if you could share your experiences of boar pairs living within close proximity of females.

 

[Knocknamuck]

Hi Liane,

I rescued 2 sows last year to live with Cuthbert who had recently lost his buddy. I was worried about the impact on my other pair of boars but so far they have been fine. Cuthbert died in September, so now I have my pair of sows and my pair of boars living in adjacent hutches, and all seems okay. I'm careful to handle the boars first when moving to runs etc. and to keep the runs far enough away so that they cannot see each other etc. etc. Now and then the boars will get a whiff of the sows and try to hump each other but they are an established, bonded pair so this is not a problem.

Maybe somebody from a rescue will be able to post as they would be able to tell you what, if any impact the sows might have on a newly bonded male pairing. Hopefully it's not an issue.