[cambee]

So our first lambing and after an eventful fortnight and losing our first lamb we finally have healthy lambs from 2 of our 4 Ryeland ewes (the other 2 ewes still to go, all lambs so far born over 150 days).  Sounds really ignorant but when do we let them out? They are currently bonding with their mums in lambing pens inside and are 24 and 48 hours old. The weather is awful here, we are totally exposed on the side of a hill but I think I am thinking of them as babies and presumably they cope with that? Also do we have to put them in a separate field from our older lamb/nearly shearling and the ewe who lost her lamb or can they go together?

[Backinwellies]

 24 to 48hrs individually penned is usually sufficient.  They can then go out if weather and conditions are Ok. 

 Do not put out in wet and windy conditions ...   Yes they can survive this outside once they have acclimatised but they need a good day or two out in reasonable conditions first.
 It also depends on shelter in field .... good hedges/ walls or a couple of bales will give them somewhere to shelter

I will be taking down individual pens after a couple of days and giving them a communal pen indoors until conditions are better outside.

[SallyintNorth]

I find it useful, if possible, to first of all move the two families into a larger area indoors together.  This lets the mums and lambs learn to find each other when there are other ewes and lambs about.  The area does need to be reasonably large though; if it's too small then the ewes may become aggressive towards the lambs which aren't theirs.  So ideally an area say 15' x 15'.

Then I like to move them together as a group, all walking under their own steam.  At first it's bedlam, lambs running in all directions, ewes refusing to move but standing facing the wrong way with one or both lambs under her nose.   . The temptation to pick up lambs and carry them at ewe nose level with the mother following is very strong!  But a little patience at this time is repaid by not having lambs and mums becoming parted in the field later.  Gradually the two (or three or four) family groups get the hang of walking together in their 'housewife with two shopping bags' configuration, and by the time you have them where you want them, each family is ready to be left in a field and will usually not have further problems getting mothered up after any separation.  (Such as feeding time, if a person with a dog walk through the field, after the lambs have been playing, if the mothers move away grazing while the lambs sleep, etc etc.)

Don't worry about ewes running away with their lambs; at two or three days old with lambs that haven't been outside yet, movement in any one direction is plenty slow enough for you to keep everyone together!  (But try it with one family first if you're worried; all you have to do then is catch one lamb and mum will come back to it.  Then the other lamb will come back to her.)

[bj_cardiff]

Yes, around 48hrs penned up with their lambs is usually enough, just make sure their bonded. I always turn out into a larger communal pen then, which is always chaos for the first 10 mins as lambs have no idea that they need to stick with their mums, so they get pushed (or shoved) around a bit, but they get the idea pretty quickly.

So when to turn out. There are lots of variables, how old are the lambs, how much grass do you have, do they have shelter in their field and what is the forcast for the next few days?

Ideally I like my lambs to be at least a week old, I've had problems with foxes here taking young lambs. If the weather isn't good with you could you turn them out during the day and in at night? When I've been able to do that its been great, but sometimes you get a ewe that decided she doesn't want to come in. You need to avoid any prolonged wet spells, or wet and windy, cold is fine, although I'd be concerned about frosts?

[twizzel]

I turn my ewes and lambs out straight from their individual pens from 48hours on. My ewes seem to be so maternal that in a big nursery pen they just go for each others lambs. Out in the field there is plenty of space for everyone. As long as there’s a dry day and night forecast before any rain I turn out, albeit with lamb macs on. I turned out on a nice day last week with 2 dry days forecast before rain and we had heavy rain by midnight the first night    the lambs were fine though in their macs.

[shep53]

When ever you feel happy , the lambs will be ok but don't like heavy cold rain .   I would have no problem mixing with the 2 empty sheep  except that the ewes and lambs may require more feed than the 2 empty sheep

[Nelson International]

The people who’ve started lambing here seem to be bringing everyone back in this weekend, given the forecasted weather...

[Marches Farmer]

We spent much of Thursday and Friday mucking out and rebedding a section of the lambing shed to make a second nursery shed.  We're at the head of a valley and the last lot of snow, being fine, driven by ENE winds and turning into mini whirlwinds as it hit the buildings, was driven into and under all the shed roofs and the housed ewes were walking around with 10cm of snow on their backs.  We've had thunder, hail and snow overnight and worse forecast for all day tomorrow - I'm not putting the lambs out in that!