The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: pgkevet on June 02, 2014, 08:51:28 am
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I have 4 cade lambs. Youngest born here and abandoned is 6 weeks, then 2 runty rescues about 8 weeks and a rescued crow pecked (one eye, part ear and partial loss of tongue) about 12-14 weeks old (dudlea).
At what age do you think they'd be OK in a field overnight without adult sheep? At the moment they have a pen in the barn overnight but dudlea can hop out of that section and plays around in all the stuff stored there.
Predators are the obvious concern. The field is safe from the viewpoint of lamb escape. They go there daytime at the moment.
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All of my lambs are orphans, they go out at about 10-12 weeks old on their own, weaned off milk at 6 weeks then a few weeks in the shed on creep and gradual turnout from about 8 weeks until they go out at 10-12 weeks still creep fed. We have a lot of fox/badger sets on the farm though especially in the fields they go in so I am slightly more careful. They also normally go out with a group of heifers/weaned calves which gives a little extra security although are also fine out on their own.