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Sheep / Re: Rant!! WHY??????
« Last post by SallyintNorth on April 28, 2025, 12:52:52 pm »Glad you had a good final straight and have had your faith restored (somewhat at least) 
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Sheep / Re: Advice on weaning
« Last post by Libertyhiberty on April 28, 2025, 12:17:37 pm »Thanks for all the advice. I think it might be better leave weaning for a while longer. Is it alright to take them down to 2 feeds in the coming week?
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Sheep / Re: Rant!! WHY??????
« Last post by PipKelpy on April 28, 2025, 12:04:14 pm »Lambing OVER and done with!
The 2 hoggs PERFECT mums not like Petunia!
Hope had twin ewes but whether it was because Hollow bashed her, couldn't lamb them so me and mum did a lot of pulling. Stunning lambs, but they'll go.
Black Beauty, scanned with 1, Big, fat, fluffy, Beachball guts, we were concerned!
Imogen slithered out! Wasn't planning on keeping crosses, but she's lovely. However I pointed out to mum, ewe size doesn't match lamb size! Twin tup arrived a few minutes later.
Another reason Imogen staying, ewe lying down washing her, lamb lying down thought otherwise, crawled on its belly to tit! If that's not a keeper, what is?
This year's lambing highs and lows, but finished on a high. Am I continuing next year?. Message to scanner, see him next year!
The 2 hoggs PERFECT mums not like Petunia!
Hope had twin ewes but whether it was because Hollow bashed her, couldn't lamb them so me and mum did a lot of pulling. Stunning lambs, but they'll go.
Black Beauty, scanned with 1, Big, fat, fluffy, Beachball guts, we were concerned!
Imogen slithered out! Wasn't planning on keeping crosses, but she's lovely. However I pointed out to mum, ewe size doesn't match lamb size! Twin tup arrived a few minutes later.
Another reason Imogen staying, ewe lying down washing her, lamb lying down thought otherwise, crawled on its belly to tit! If that's not a keeper, what is?
This year's lambing highs and lows, but finished on a high. Am I continuing next year?. Message to scanner, see him next year!
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Sheep / Re: Advice on weaning
« Last post by PipKelpy on April 28, 2025, 11:56:40 am »In the past me (muggins) would keep them On the bottle for as long as necessary! (Timmy was 6 months if I recall, but that was 24 years ago and I had more sympathy then for cades, plus I cried at everything that went wrong. Sheep do like to die!)
Now, I've toughened up, that and milk price is more. However, my 3 cades, I have been brutal, I've pulled them off 4 times feeding, NOT because of cost, but because I'm flipping exhausted due to blasted sheep (interesting lambing this year!!) So my little darlings as of yesterday were kicked out of shed for nights and plonked on back field permanently with siblings and their mothers and are now on 3 times a day, 5am, 1pm, 9pm. Yesterday, they howled! This morning, never made a sound until they heard me creeping through the yard.
I have considered weaning (as bag says) which means 1 more week for the twins, 2 weeks for the single, then that's it, BUT the one is staying as a replacement and because I'm a mug...... I'll feed them for another month at least! Possibly 2, knowing mum she'll start whinging that they are babies and they need the milk......... Besides, Ivy needs to be a nice frame and I was always told get it On them when they're young. (Used to feed calves for longer than necessary on a bucket, turned into nice sized animals, no wonder I got no money!)
Now, I've toughened up, that and milk price is more. However, my 3 cades, I have been brutal, I've pulled them off 4 times feeding, NOT because of cost, but because I'm flipping exhausted due to blasted sheep (interesting lambing this year!!) So my little darlings as of yesterday were kicked out of shed for nights and plonked on back field permanently with siblings and their mothers and are now on 3 times a day, 5am, 1pm, 9pm. Yesterday, they howled! This morning, never made a sound until they heard me creeping through the yard.
I have considered weaning (as bag says) which means 1 more week for the twins, 2 weeks for the single, then that's it, BUT the one is staying as a replacement and because I'm a mug...... I'll feed them for another month at least! Possibly 2, knowing mum she'll start whinging that they are babies and they need the milk......... Besides, Ivy needs to be a nice frame and I was always told get it On them when they're young. (Used to feed calves for longer than necessary on a bucket, turned into nice sized animals, no wonder I got no money!)
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Sheep / Re: Advice on weaning
« Last post by SallyintNorth on April 28, 2025, 09:34:49 am »You'll get mixed responses here too.
My input is that the rumen isn't developed sufficiently to process a wholly non-milk diet for optimum nutrition until 6 weeks minimum, and is not fully developed until 8 weeks.
So personally, I certainly wouldn't wean at 5 weeks.
We will report differing experiences here of later weaning and the incidence of bloat. As a result of which, some folks wean at 6 weeks.
Whenever you wean, they need to be eating 1/2lb hard feed a day each in order to be able to replace the nutrition they're not getting from milk. (That's per commercial type lamb, it's obviously less for a wee primitive.)
Personally I like to keep a bottle going for the 7th week and half a bottle for the 8th, but I take some care in terms of when they're getting the milk, the grass and the hard feed, to minimise risk of bloat.
I did have one batch had to be weaned abruptly at 6 weeks, but that batch had been partially reared by other people, so I do wonder whether there was something about how and what they'd been fed and how they'd been kept earlier which made them more prone to bloating.
My input is that the rumen isn't developed sufficiently to process a wholly non-milk diet for optimum nutrition until 6 weeks minimum, and is not fully developed until 8 weeks.
So personally, I certainly wouldn't wean at 5 weeks.
We will report differing experiences here of later weaning and the incidence of bloat. As a result of which, some folks wean at 6 weeks.
Whenever you wean, they need to be eating 1/2lb hard feed a day each in order to be able to replace the nutrition they're not getting from milk. (That's per commercial type lamb, it's obviously less for a wee primitive.)
Personally I like to keep a bottle going for the 7th week and half a bottle for the 8th, but I take some care in terms of when they're getting the milk, the grass and the hard feed, to minimise risk of bloat.
I did have one batch had to be weaned abruptly at 6 weeks, but that batch had been partially reared by other people, so I do wonder whether there was something about how and what they'd been fed and how they'd been kept earlier which made them more prone to bloating.
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Sheep / Advice on weaning
« Last post by Libertyhiberty on April 27, 2025, 03:17:38 pm »Hi I have three bottle fed pet lambs. They are 3 and a bit weeks. They are all drinking milk really well and 2 have been nibbling on grass and the other is eating well. They have access to creep food and the bigger one and another one are both eating some creep food. I want to transition them down from 3 feeds to 2 feeds in just under a week to prepare them for fully weaning at 35 days. Is this a good idea? I’ve seen mixed things online about how old they would have to be to lower the number of feeds.
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Crafts / Re: Lendrum Saxony Spinning Wheel potentially available
« Last post by Fleecewife on April 24, 2025, 11:39:05 pm »I have a Lendrum Saxony wheel and can confirm they are excellent machines and superb to spin 
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Equipment / Re: Pallet forks for MF 135
« Last post by stufe35 on April 24, 2025, 04:39:39 pm »yes just google 3 point hitch pallet forks
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Equipment / Re: Towing a regular flatbed trailer behind a baler
« Last post by stufe35 on April 24, 2025, 04:22:38 pm »Anyone tried this? I mean a trailer with a regular ball joint, so you can hitch up to a truck and drive it away...
Cheers
Joe
Yes it works no problem. Similar to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVDmQ5JLTpI
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Crafts / Lendrum Saxony Spinning Wheel potentially available
« Last post by SallyintNorth on April 24, 2025, 10:50:12 am »Rarer than hens' teeth and not being made any more, if you don't have a gorgeous saxony style spinning wheel and do have a bit of dosh, this could be an opportunity for you.
It's not actually advertised yet but could well get sold "behind the scenes" off the back of this post(*) on Ravelry.
(*) Health warning, if you are a migraine sufferer or epileptic and don't already use Ravelry, you might want to ask an unafflicted friend to get to the post for you (and set all the "don't move and don't give me migraine" settings first, before you look...
It's not actually advertised yet but could well get sold "behind the scenes" off the back of this post(*) on Ravelry.
(*) Health warning, if you are a migraine sufferer or epileptic and don't already use Ravelry, you might want to ask an unafflicted friend to get to the post for you (and set all the "don't move and don't give me migraine" settings first, before you look...