Sheep
Jura's pregnant! And their feet are fine!
Tuesday 10 February, 2009
Gillian came back at the weekend to scan Jura - and she's in lamb with a single. Mind you, she's going to lamb about the end of May. She must have been caught the day we brought them home, just about. I'm really pleased - I didn't want her to feel left out, with no lamb. Now all I have to do is get them safely through the lambing. Oh, the responsibility! I'll have to get my lambing kit ready.
Gillian also had a look at their feet and they're fine. No scald, no footrot and my trimming is OK.
Sheeps' feet
Wednesday 4 February, 2009
My sheeps' feet do stress me. I'm not very confident trimming them. So I've asked Gillian, who scanned the girls, to give me a lesson on Sunday. Jinx has had a problem with a back foot before and she's a wee bit lame again. I trimmed them at the weekend, but it's so wet and muddy that the antiseptic spray just washed off. We've made a pen on the patio and we'll clean her feet and spray them tomorrow and leave them shut in for a wee while. I hate to see her in pain, but hopefully Gillian will be able to put us on a firm footing (deliberate pun!) on Sunday.
Lambs and weather forecasts
Monday 19 January, 2009
We had our three sheep scanned today. We were lucky to get Gillian - most scanners wouldn't come for such a small flock. Dan held the sheep (one at a time!), I held the equipment and Gillian did her stuff.
Jinx is carrying a single, Juno (who was a single lamb and is a bit "chunky" so I thought might not be in lamb) is carrying twins and Jura, who's the nice slim one, isn't pregnant. At least Gillian didn't think she was but it's only two weeks since we bought them out from the tup and they have to be 30 days pregnant for the lamb to show on the scanner. So she COULD be. Gillian said she woudl try and swing by and have another look in three weeks or so. If she's not pregnant, she can be "Auntie", keep on with the lawnmowing and try again next year.
Are they or aren't they?
Friday 9 January, 2009
I don't like surprises very much, so I was quite keen to get our sheep scanned to see if they are pregnant. However, I didn't hold out much hope of getting someone to come for three sheep. My luck was intoday - the Scottish Farmer had an advert for sheep scanning and it was a local address.
So Monday 19th January is the big day. If they aren't pregnant, that's OK - I'll be terribly disappointed but they can be lawnmowers this year. If they are, then I'll know how many lambs are likely (not counting before they are born, of course) and I can feed and plan accordingly.
Welcome home, girls
Monday 5 January, 2009
We welcomed our sheep home yesterday. They have been back at their breeder for 8 weeks, running with one of her tups. Hopefully, all three are now pregnant.
They weren't all that keen to get in the trailer. When we let the ramp down, the tup got straight on and stood looking at us - I take it he's used to being moved around! While our three recognised us (and the feed bucket), to Jane's sheep, we were strangers and they didn't want to play ball at all. Once Jane appeared, they followed her into the corner of the field while we caught ours and put them in the trailer.
Baloo, the great lover!
Saturday 1 November, 2008
Because we only have three sheep, it's not worth keeping a tup, so today our girls went back to the holding where they were born to run with an unrelated tup for a few weeks. We loaded them up and took them the six miles or so back to Sheriffyards. When we left, they were moving tentatively towards the other five ewes, while the tup made his way over to the fence. He'll be out there now - I do hope he's gentle with them!
We picked up another Ryeland tup from Sheriffyards to take to our chum, Carol's. She's using the Ryeland on her Shetland ewes, as she did last year. The tup's called Baloo, short for Hullabaloo. Jane, his owner, was just finishing trimming his feet when we arrived. After we turned out our girls, we loaded Baloo. I lead him on to the trailer using a dog collar and lead - I couldn't believe how tame he was! I wish my horse loaded that easily. We repeated the exercise at the other end, and turned him out with the ewes. He was certainly in the mood for love - but they were playing a bit hard to get. Still, he's such a nice tup, I'm sure he'll wear them down before long!
Sheep worm count
Monday 20 October, 2008
I'm trying to use a few chemicals as possible with all animals. We don't have a huge amount of land so clean grazing is difficult. I started off using Verm- X herbal wormer for the sheep, then decided to have a regular worm egg count done instead.
The first one I had done in July showed no eggs at all. When I sent one off last week, I was a bit concerned as the sheep from next door come round and they look a bit wormy - at least they have really dirty bums, which I think is a sign of worms. However, I'm glad to say that the count has come back with no eggs visible.
Wool
Thursday 16 October, 2008
We got our wool back from Diane yesterday. It really is lovely; it's so soft and not at all scratchy. I'm really looking forward to getting it knitted up. I think there will be enough for a jumper for Dan and a gilet for me.
I think I'm going to try making a rug with the other two fleeces using a peg loom. There's no market for the fleece, and while I've just treated shearing as a welfare issue rather than "for profit" (break even would be nice), it would be good to do something useful with the fleeces, especially as they are such lovely colours. And it will keep me busy throught the long dark nights!
Sheepish spending spree!
Friday 5 September, 2008
A colleague at work was telling me recently about how much she loves shopping for shoes. I didn't feel able to share with her my excitement when my wee box arrived through the post from Mole Valley Farmers.
In it was my ram harness and crayons. Now, you might think this is a bit of overkill since I've only got three sheep, but I'm not around to supervise and I want to be sure that there is at least "activity", when the time comes. The time to find out the boy has spent the winter eating his head off is not April!
Jinx's sore foot
Friday 5 September, 2008
We noticed this week that Jinx was a bit lame on her near hind leg. We sprayed the foot with a "kill everything" footspray and waited. By Wednesday, she was a bit better but not fully recovered so I got the vet out. I wanted to be sure I was trimming their feet properly anyway. The vet said it wasn't anything specific - like footrot - but her foot had an infection brought on by the wet weather. He trimmed off the damaged bit, gave her an antibiotic injection and sprayed on the same "kill everything" stuff that we had. That was Wednesday; Thursday morning I trimmed a bit more off her foot, washed it with antiseptic disinfectant and sprayed on the spray. Today, we did the same and I think she's a bit better. The foot certainly was less hot today. We'll keep this up for a few more days and see how she gets on.
