The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Llandovery Lass on April 10, 2011, 04:53:50 pm
-
the pen is full, the shepherdess at full capacity and me too. One is a bit poorly, about 3 weeks old and been starved by mum I think, plus a touch of jointill.
-
Funny time of year this! Lovely to have lambs around but there is so much work and there can be much heartache too.
We have bought in 3 cade ram lambs this year, from a good pedigree tup, so hoping to keep one and sell the other two. Boy, do they take some feeding - and I've no Milk Maid to do it for me. Just bottles and teats. On top of that I have another ewe lamb whose mother only feeds her when she feels like it, so she's being topped up with bottles too. There is also a gorgeous little ewe lamb who had hypothermia and had to be bottle fed for a day or so. Luckily her mother accepted her back, although her problem was difficulty latching on, so I offer her a bottle a couple of times a day, although she's starting to refuse it now as she's feeding OK from Mum at last. All I seem to be doing is washing bottles and making up lamb milk.
We lost one newborn lamb of a set of twins yesterday - having tried for two hours to revive it. It was from my son's pet ewe and he was determined she was going to have lambs this year. The first twin, a ewe, was fine, thankfully, although she did get stuck and it was hard to pull her out, but I think the other lamb had a lung problem as his mouth was constantly open and he didn't seem to be breathing very well. Still - we did everything we could.
Just four more girls to lamb now - we are overrun with lambs - but they are lovely to have around. :wave: