Definitely not the easiest way to get lamb in your freezer as I have found out over the past 2 years! Last year I raised 6- 1 had an eye problem, 1 wouldn't drink for about a week, 1 got pneumonia. All 6 lived though. They are hard work at the beginning, 4 hourly feeds and they will soon start to drink you out of house and home. They are escape artists when let out in the field, ours ended up here there and everywhere on the farm. Ours were all killed beginning of Oct (got them in March) and I have to say the meat was fantastic... enough to make us have another go this year.
This year we've got 12 (so far...
). The first 3 we got were spot on although 1 was very thin. A few days later we got 4 more- all good apart from a little black one who for some reason just isn't thriving as well as the others- but he's still doing well, and a ewe lamb that refused to drink after being put on 2 different ewes. Then it went a bit wrong when we bought 5 more in a couple of weeks ago, all from the same farm, but this small batch of lambs 3 went down with orf- big problem! They are hard work- OH's sister and mum have lost 1 this year, they lost 2 last year. Touch wood my orf lambs are getting better and doing well, and the first 7 that we got are nearly ready to wean. We will heptavac and worm them in due course which is again more expense. Our young orf lambs are on a shepherdess, which reduces the amount of times I have to go down to the shed, and they can have milk ad lib day and night which is important when they are young. They'll come off it when they are 5 weeks old and go onto 2 bottles a day then be weaned at 6-7 weeks (a week or so later than I would normally wean but they were set back slightly with the orf).
Once they are weaned it's normally plain sailing, we creep them for the first couple of months out in the field then leave them to it as they are on good grass. Obviously bring in to worm etc.
I enjoy raising them though, it's a challenge and keeps me busy during the late winter/early spring months when I don't have much work (self employed event photographer). They are useful to graze the fields as unlike the horses and cows they graze evenly. Plus we get a freezer full of fantastic meat that we wouldn't normally be able to afford due to it being so expensive.
Edited to say: agree with below... we thought if you're rearing 5, you might as well rear a few more if you have the grass and money to buy milk powder!