April 2012
What a change in the weather
Tuesday 3 April, 2012
Last week, the Met office was forecasting snow for this week. As we sat out in the sun in shirt sleeves, I thought "no way" - but the bods at the Met office were right.
Our first lamb is now 12 days old - hasn't seen rain. Well, he saw it last night. We house our pregnant ewes at night but once ewes have lambed and the lambs are well mothered, we leave them out. Yesterday, just in case the forecast was right, I asked Dan to put the livestock trailer in the nursery field to afford some shelter, if not in it, then around and under it.
The Stringys
Monday 16 April, 2012
We have a gimmer (Nellie) with twins and she doesn't seem to have much milk. She's got a lovely udder, no heat, nice placed teats and her lambs do suckle away. She loves her boys and tucks herself up so that they get latched on easily.
Nellie's lambs
They suckled quick so have definitely had whatever colostrum she had - and they are nice bright lambs (we've nicknamed them "the stringys" as they are quite bid framed but, well, stringy".
Well, that will be lambing over for another year
Monday 16 April, 2012
Well, that's lambing over at Dalmore for another year. The last two ewes and their lambs went out this morning, although Nellie's twins (the Stringys) are still getting a top up from a bottle.
The lambing box is cleaned out and out of date stuff discarded; flock register is completed; lambing pens are down, although the lambing shed has been left bedded just in case the weather turns and I want to bring the littlest lambs in.
Read more on Well, that will be lambing over for another year
Too close for comfort
Tuesday 17 April, 2012
On a small property like Dalmore, nowhere is very far from the house, but this year, the sheep nursery is in Home Field, which is directly in front of the house and our bedroom window. This morning at 3.30am, when I thought the broken nights were over, I wakened to the sound of Jura bleating like mad.
Since she was just turned out yesterday, I thought I'd better go and check that all was well - I suspected that she had just "lost" her lamb. And so it was that I was out in jammies and wellies, in the dark and the rain, with a flashlight, looking for the "lost" lamb. To be fair, it was pretty horrid - windy and sleety - but Jura was soon reunited with lamby.
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