[Womble]

Buttocks.

Edit: No, that worked! 

[Richmond]

Well I still haven't banded them. Got hold of one last night and he kept sucking up his balls and I couldn't get the band on quickly enough. Gave up in the end. Have had Covid all week - feeling pretty cr*p and not fully functioning - and the lamb obviously knew it!

[SallyintNorth]

Oh Sally no, are you confusing Hebs with Soay? 

No, I am not, lol.  Sorry but I can only speak as I find, and all Bertie the Beast-of-a-Heb's lambs had teeny tiny b*****ks in very woolly sacs, the wool making it much harder to cut the band off when it went wrong.  Never again!

ps I didn't put the asterixes in b*****ks - is that a bad word?

      

Same just happened to me, I am too!   

[Fleecewife]

Oh Sally no, are you confusing Hebs with Soay? 

No, I am not, lol.  Sorry but I can only speak as I find, and all Bertie the Beast-of-a-Heb's lambs had teeny tiny b*****ks in very woolly sacs, the wool making it much harder to cut the band off when it went wrong.  Never again!

ps I didn't put the asterixes in b*****ks - is that a bad word?

     

Same just happened to me, I am too!   

Oh well of course then we are all just going to have to say b*****ks just as often as we want to 

The woolly sacs are unbelievably cute. But there is a knack to getting the band on - quick as a flash before they know you've even picked them up.  I once got a big one back with a sheepskin and I was sorely tempted to make a purse from it  Very special.

[Buttermilk]

It's worth confessing to the mistake we made last year, in case that saves others.

We usually band all of our boys save for maybe a couple who might be good enough for breeding. However, last year there was only one tup lamb who looked as though he might be good enough to breed from. However, he ended up being really aggressive to both other sheep and to us, and even though he was great in every other way, we sent him for meat.


I can't be sure of cause and effect, but I suspect this was because he grew up as the only entire male on in the flock. Nobody ever put him in his place, so there he was - the alpha male. (Either that or he was just a jerk of course - it's hard to tell which!  ).

Last year I kept all my ram lambs entire.  I had one earmarked for keeping as a ram.  Guess which bleeder tried to deck me when he was only 16 weeks old.  He was in the freezer before he made 17 weeks.  He is the only Zwartbles ram lamb that I have raised that has had "attitude".

[SallyintNorth]

Oh well of course then we are all just going to have to say b*****ks just as often as we want to 

b*****ks b*****ks b*****ks.  Makes me wonder what else gets ... :devil:

(A short trial I only found 2 other words that get bleeped ... )

The woolly sacs are unbelievably cute. But there is a knack to getting the band on - quick as a flash before they know you've even picked them up. 

First make a hole in the end of the egg...   

You *have* been at it longer than me, FW, but I must have banded nigh on 500 lambs in my 15 years, although probably only around 40 of them Shetland and other primitives and crosses thereof.  So I would say I have the technique pretty much off pat; I am certainly pretty fast!   Nonetheless, we all get a one goes wrong every now and again (or we wouldn't need to check after removing the device, would we ), so then out comes the sharp penknife or tiny shears to quickly cut the band off.  (I train people to do it too, so occasionally one of those isn't quite right on checking and needs to come off.)

Shetlands, Castlemilks and Manxes have tiny b*****ks too, but not the same issue cutting the band off if needed, as the sac isn't so woolly. 

The Hebby ones are like tiny little black sporrans!   

[Fleecewife]

Sporrans    Love it 


Yes, the best thing for getting the ring back off is the scissors on a Swiss Army knife - have them ready before you catch the lamb 

[Womble]

I did have an idea for replacing the tassels on my sporran with banded scrota once the lambs have finished with them.

They're surprisingly difficult to come by though - and I can't understand why that is!!

[Richmond]

We only had two boys to band last year and I found both purses in the grass at some point later on, given away by the bright orange of the bands. Oddly didnt find any tails though. I'm wondering if they were picked up by crows?

We finally managed to band the last two boys tonight. Glad that's over for another year!

[Womble]

......... wheras we're just starting. Had a boy born this morning with the smallest scrotum ever. Like, the size of your finger nail small. Don't quite know what we're going to do with him!

Edit - here is a photo of the scrotum*. A friend suggested I band him leaving the balls inside, "like they do in Australia". I'd never heard of that though. In effect it's deliberately producing a rig. She said it doesn't check the growth rate (same testosterone production), but the higher temperature inside the body makes them infertile**. Any comments, folks?

*One more for the list of things you never thought you'd ever say. Still, that kind of thing seems to be popular with the young people these days. I shall post an unsolicited duck pic later, in the poultry section  .
** or maybe not very fertile!?

[Richmond]

That is super tiny! 
Good luck with that one

[SallyintNorth]

A friend suggested I band him leaving the balls inside, "like they do in Australia". I'd never heard of that though. In effect it's deliberately producing a rig. She said it doesn't check the growth rate (same testosterone production), but the higher temperature inside the body makes them infertile**. Any comments, folks?

Oh goody, I get to tell one of my favourite stories again

May 11th, 2011.  Farms across the far north of England reported unexpected lambs being born.

Work it back 147 days, what happened on Dec 15th 2010?  Coldest day for decades, is what, temps below -15C across the whole region.

Many farms reporting unexpected lambs used home-made rigs...  

(And others, like ours, realised we must have had an accidentally rigged boy in amongst the last lambs to go off the previous year...)

I suspect they don't get that problem in sheep country in Oz too often.  But where you are, you definitely would! 

[SallyintNorth]

So, if his balls never drop or are always too small to band, then personally I would wean him at 12-14 weeks and put him in with the tups, just to be on the safe side.

[Womble]

Oh, great story! I've said it before, but in smallholding, context is everything. What works for me won't necessarily work for you, and vice-versa.

I have six days to decide. If I leave any others un-banded, I'll leave him too. Just don't want to repeat the mistake already described above, of having only one entire male on the farm.

[DartmoorLiz]

Like, the size of your finger nail small.

Awww cute - you could call him Tufty.


Thanks all for this thread, as a direct result I was out with the banders "doing" my bottle lambs yesterday - One said owch (he had plenty to work with) and the other said never mind that, where's the bottle (he didn't have a lot to work with).  They both walked like they had sand in their knickers for a bit but business as usual this morning.