[Marches Farmer]

We have a rolling rota so that someone checks at 10 p.m., then someone else at 1 a.m. and a different person at 4 a.m. and someone gets up at 6.30 a.m. anyway.  That way we spot those about to lamb and can pen them in a clean pen to minimise the risk of disease and make the ewe much easier to handle if she needs help.  It also means that someone gets a full night's sleep every third night.  We all rain down praise on the inventor of the electric blanket!

[Hellybee]

We lamb on yard under spot lights, I hated lambing on fields.  The twins have they're own digs already with some lean singles, getting all the gubbins and the singles with some licks and haylage, the singles come down in two weeks.   


We had a set of twins yesterday, marked as an early(one of each, beautiful lambs) and an early single due anytime.


Each night we have at least ten pens set up, limed, shavings with straw on top.  We let them mother up and then put them away.  if they lamb during the day, we let them mooch about in the sun, they still get penned for a few nights after that.  Then put into a small social group with a few other ewes and lambs, and then get sent up.  Everyone has orojet as routine at navel spraying.  This year I will make note of each time when doing lambing list.

[Hellybee]

Ps there's two of us.

[clydesdaleclopper]

We have a rolling rota so that someone checks at 10 p.m., then someone else at 1 a.m. and a different person at 4 a.m. and someone gets up at 6.30 a.m. anyway.  That way we spot those about to lamb and can pen them in a clean pen to minimise the risk of disease and make the ewe much easier to handle if she needs help.  It also means that someone gets a full night's sleep every third night.  We all rain down praise on the inventor of the electric blanket!

I am so jealous - it's just me doing all the night time checks so I end up totally exhausted. Was up most of the night with a goat kidding and am struggling to keep my eyes open now

[Hellybee]

lambing is like being on a different planet  for a few weeks     Mind you i am a space cadet anyway 

[Fleecewife]

Interesting that [member=11699]Red[/member]  and [member=4333]Fleecewife[/member]  and myself all have Hebrideans and yes definately that 5am -6am ish period is when over 90% pop out its in the dark but light then comes in an hour or 2 so could quite well be a primative predatory response the breed has retained. i.e when you are lying on your side you are at the greatest risk from predators so you lamb in the dark but you want to then see protect and nurture them so just before daybreak is perfect. Pretty much we do a last check  late at night then first thing and if lambed the lambs are still very wet. You get the very odd one during the day but not many!

Isn't it interesting the apparent differences between the lambing of Primitive sheep and highly domesticated ones?  Looks like a very interesting topic for research, with relevance to the sheep industry.
I wonder how many generations it takes for Primitive characteristics to fade away?
David Kinsman, who wrote 'The Black Sheep of Windermere' postulates that Soay tend to lamb in May rather than April or earlier and that this may be because their recent origins are from further north.  I wonder if this is so, and if so, whether Boreray, Icelandic and other northern sheep also tend to lamb later, if left to their own devices.  How long would it take for them to lose this tendency?  Hebs are most happy lambing in April and it's 130 years since they headed south to the Lakes, so about 100 generations since they left home, and they have changed their way. I suppose the basic question is 'how long does it take for an animal to acquire behaviour modified by their environment'?

You've posted a very interesting question Buffy 

[mowhaugh]

I think sheep adapt very quickly to different conditions, until about 4 or 5 years ago we lambed outdoors and there was always very much a dawn rush of lambs. We moved indoors out of necessity a few years ago (person high snowdrifts) and immediately the lambing spread out over the day. We found it worked better for us indoors, so we've just stuck with it.

[Red]

[member=4333]Fleecewife[/member] This would be a very interesting PhD study for someone ... We lamb outside as we are really keen for the girls to feel that they in an environment that they are comfortable in. Having said that, our outdoor pen is 2/3 field 1\3 wood with 2 dedicated pens away from all the elements which we encourage the girls to go into for a rest with their lambs, works a treat