Author Topic: Is anybody else up and about? (Read 2099 times)

Womble · « **on:** April 04, 2021, 05:38:13 am »

Hi folks,

I just thought it might be fun to have a thread for incoherent sleep deprived lambing / calving ramblings.

I last checked the sheep at 3am and they were all quietly cudding. However, when I went out just now (5.15), there's a gimmer with two lambs. This is the third night in a row this has happened.

How's everybody else getting on?

cans · « **Reply #1 on:** April 04, 2021, 06:38:10 am »

Morning
No lambing or calving here.
I’ve been delivering Easter eggs to the neighbours before the doggie walkers spot me

Hope all is going well for all you incoherent sleep deprived lambers and calvers

Rosemary · « **Reply #2 on:** April 04, 2021, 07:02:45 am »

We don't start until 16th April.

Backinwellies · « **Reply #3 on:** April 04, 2021, 07:21:24 am »

you started this thread a bit late for me (not late in the day) ....... last ewe lambed before 6am this morning .

.... been up at silly oclock for past 10 days.

Buttermilk · « **Reply #4 on:** April 04, 2021, 07:27:33 am »

My youngest lambs are two weeks old. The oldest was born 2nd of Feb. I did not intend having a protracted lambing but the sheep thought otherwise. I invested in some Hik cameras a few years ago and they are a god send in the wee hours of a February morn. I get to watch sheep tv from the comfort of my bed.

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #5 on:** April 04, 2021, 07:47:58 am »

Don't grumble, Womble - those are the best lambings! No help needed

. (But it's worrying in case they might have needed some help, I know.)

Due to start April 14th here, just 6 to lamb. Just one gimmer this time. I shall put my caravan in the lambing field and live in it for the duration, as I did last year.

Anke · « **Reply #6 on:** April 04, 2021, 07:57:30 am »

And you forgot kiddings.... which here finished about a month ago. Lambing doesn't start for another two/three weeks - I lamb outside and no point doing so before mid-April. (We have snow showers forecast for overnight tonight).

harmony · « **Reply #7 on:** April 04, 2021, 09:09:54 am »

Started on the 16th of March. Lambing outside (Hebs) and first time lambing away from home. Last check just before dark and up for first check at first light. Only go back through night if I think something might lamb and the weather was really bad. Brought in the odd ewe last weekend in the torrential rain that looked close to lambing and got up to lambs in the morning. Nearly half way my 30. No assisted lambings yet.

Just started helping a neighbour in their lamb shed for a an hour or so in the morning sorting pens. Last week they had 160 sets of twins. No number on singles. 15 calves. Oh and they have a small baby just sleeping through.

No sign of the Easter Bunny this morning! I hope they aren't too busy with baby bunnies to drop off my egg!

Womble · « **Reply #8 on:** April 04, 2021, 09:25:37 am »

Well, Happy Easter, and it's lovely to hear from everybody.

Anyway, if anyone needs a space to write incoherent nonsense at 3am.... here it is!

doganjo · « **Reply #9 on:** April 04, 2021, 10:53:40 am »

I'm not daft enough to have sheep or cows or goats, I just need the loo at 3 am, then I go back to bed. If I looked on here at that time I'd be up all night

Fleecewife · « **Reply #10 on:** April 04, 2021, 01:12:21 pm »

I used to love getting up through the night to check the sheep, when we had Jacobs which were hopeless. Beautiful starry crisp nights, with not a sound to be heard or a light to see round about. I used to get up every two hours, then Mr F would take over first thing.
Now we have Hebs, I check them last thing before bed, then Mr F does the mornings, and usually he catches the newborns. I stopped checking them idividually in the night because it would disturb and unsettle them, I would just go out and watch from a distance. The lovely dark nights are no longer as just about everyone seems to have security lights on all night, lighting up the sky with light pollution

This year we're not lambing at all because of the uncertainties during the pandemic and I miss my nightly prowls

Good Luck everyone who has further lambs to arrive, and enjoy Easter

Womble · « **Reply #11 on:** April 05, 2021, 01:40:30 am »

Well, I was loving it two nights ago, Fleecewife. Our owls were hooting away, and I checked them all without a torch, just because the moonlight allowed it. There was even a bonus hare hopping around amongst them, which confused me for a minute.

Tonight though? Not so much. It's snowing, and the wind chill is awful. Also, one of the ewes just gave birth and bit her lambs' tails off, for the second year running. Bloody marvellous

.

silkwoodzwartbles · « **Reply #12 on:** April 05, 2021, 07:47:56 am »

That ewe sounds like she really wants to see the inside of an abbatoir!! Hope today is better for you. I'm waiting on my final ewe to evict her triplets but since we invested in a lambing camera this year, all overnight checks have been on my phone from bed and I've only been down when needed (twice for 7 ewes - one lambed triplets at 1am and one had twins at 3am). Everyone else has been quite civilised and lambed between 7am and 10pm