Building a Nest in Human-Built Spaces

This article seeks to understand how Finnish sows experienced human-built spaces in the first decades of the 1900s, during which commercial and modern swine production methods slowly began to transform their lives and living conditions. I approach the question of sows’ experiences by focusing on a particular behavior of sows (nest building) and how they performed it in modern piggeries. First, I outline the different features of farrowing pens, which were specifically designed for sows and their piglets and which were, consequently, the most common spaces sows experienced during nest building. Second, I analyze sows’ nest-building behavior in pens and how different spatial features and husbandry practices shaped its execution. I suggest that nest-building behavior can be seen as an example of sows’ own place-making processes and how they create meaningful places of their own in given circumstances. At the same time, these processes convey sows’ experiences and their own role in the production of those circumstances. Broadly, this article suggests that the analysis of animal behaviors at the intersection of spaces, materials, and practices creates possibilities to interpret animal experiences and how they have navigated their lives in specific historical circumstances.