Hi MissJeanBirdie
Yes, you are right. The males will usually feed up when they first return. The females normally return a bit later and then a fair amount of time is spent looking for females and the doing the courtship ‘dance’ – otherwise known as circling! That sometimes goes on for hours so uses up a lot of both male and female hogs’ time.
But as the year goes on, there is likely to be more natural food, as well as more people potentially beginning to put food out for the hogs. Then of course it is possible that some females have young now. I suspect they are likely not to travel so far for food at those times.
I think you are doing the right thing continuing to offer food and water.
