Lambs / Bees / Zephyr
Posted: Monday 22 April, 2019
Monday 15th April
Short but heavy rain shower overnight; cold, cloudy and windy during the day. Feels like rain but it’s stayed dry. Bought a big bale haynet for the ponies.
Tuesday 16th April
Weather’s continuing cool and grey. Had a smallholders lie-in today – did the chores then went back to bed for a couple of hours.
No2 is close to lambing – so not the 6th May as I thought. So that’s just her and the mad Shetlands to go.
Wednesday 17th April
Well, surprise at the 2am bottle feed! Rosie had calved! I could hear something going on in the cattle shed when I went out to feed the lambs; fed them and went for a look, and here’s this wee calf slithering about on the rubber mats, with Ace “supervising.
Phoned Dan, tied up Ace, Blizz and Annie. Dan arrived and I tied up Rosie – carefully, as she can be a bit feisty when newly calved – then Dan put the calf out on to the track, where she instantly found her feet. Put Rosie out and they settled own right away. The rubber mats were lethally slippy with birth fluids, so Dan and I mucked the shed out at 4am.
Rosie and her new calf.
Later in the morning, when the sun had come up, we put Annie out with Rosie, for company. They are in Near Ditch. There’s no grass but we’ve put a hay rack out for them. Blizz is hopping lame in her off fore; it’s not broken and I’ve washed and sprayed her foot, but I think it’s a knock or strain from the night’s shenanigans.
Dosed the ewe hoggs, No 10 (the empty ewe), Urquhart and Teddy, reunited them with the rest of the flock and moved them all to a fresh paddock.
Diesel had two ticks – both now removed. Yuck.
Thursday 18th April
Beautiful morning! The calf is doing well – she’s Rosie’s fourth calf and she’s a great mum.
No2 lambed a black ewe at 9.30am and a white tup just before 10am. All well but the ewe lamb has mild entropion. Hoping it will correct without the vet.
Last Ryeland to lamb.
I went for a riding lesson and had a canter! Sore legs now though.
Friday 19th April
Lovely day again, but still that cool wind. Blizzard is much better, so I think it was a knock or pull.
Dan got into the bees and finished cleaning up the bee stuff; he’s now got frames to make.
Busy bees.
I finally got into the garden and planted out sweetpeas and sowed peas after picking up our first dozen emat chicks in Perth. Feels like Easter with lambs and chicks!
Saturday 20th April
Another surprise this morning – Kit, the Katmoget Shetland, has had a tiny ewe lamb. The lamb’s absolutely gorgeous. She wasn’t lambing at 2am and when I went out at 6am, the lamb was up and sucked.
Cute Shetland lamb.
Another lovely day –very warm. Let Ace and Blizzard out but put Ace in the field shelter. He’s not very happy.
Sunday 21st April
Another very warm day. Dosed and trimmed No2 and dosed Kit and Bambi and turned them out. The maternity ward is now empty. The folk we bought Kit and Bambi fro have told me that they don’t raddle or scan and they took the tup out in January – so Bambi may be some way off lambing yet, IF she’s in lamb at all. She’s no trace of an udder. I can’t keep her in on her own and No2 and Kit need to be out now.
So that’s all our 19 scanned lambs safely delivered and out in the field; one prolapse and vet assisted delivery; two lambs that needed entropion corrected by the vet. Pleased with that – now to get them to weaning!
Lambs. Just because.
Rosie’s calf is called Rosedean Zephyr. Brought the cows in this morning so they can access hay and get a bucket. Dan spent ages cleaning the milking machine and I’m planning to start tomorrow.
Rosedean Zephyr.
Dan made more bee frames. He and Andy are developing a plan to build a workshop inside the barn.
I baked and spent the afternoon raking up hay and tidying up around the barn. Put the cows and the calf out at 5pm and let Ace out as well. Happy families.
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