[Llandovery Lass]

the pen is full, the shepherdess at full capacity and me too. One is a bit poorly, about 3 weeks old  and been starved by mum I think, plus a touch of jointill.

[morri2]

Funny time of year this!  Lovely to have lambs around but there is so much work and there can be much heartache too.

We have bought in 3 cade ram lambs this year, from a good pedigree tup, so hoping to keep one and sell the other two.  Boy, do they take some feeding - and I've no Milk Maid to do it for me.  Just bottles and teats.  On top of that I have another ewe lamb whose mother only feeds her when she feels like it, so she's being topped up with bottles too.  There is also a gorgeous little ewe lamb who had hypothermia and had to be bottle fed for a day or so.  Luckily her mother accepted her back, although her problem was difficulty latching on, so I offer her a bottle a couple of times a day, although she's starting to refuse it now as she's feeding OK from Mum at last.  All I seem to be doing is washing bottles and making up lamb milk.

We lost one newborn lamb of a set of twins yesterday - having tried for two hours to revive it.  It was from my son's pet ewe and he was determined she was going to have lambs this year.  The first twin, a ewe, was fine, thankfully, although she did get stuck and it was hard to pull her out, but I think the other lamb had a lung problem as his mouth was constantly open and he didn't seem to be breathing very well.  Still - we did everything we could.

Just four more girls to lamb now - we are overrun with lambs - but they are lovely to have around.