[ScotsGirl]

I bought 3 black welsh in Lamb. They were tupped November so I wasn't expecting lambs until mid-April. Anyway as I walked the dogs along path by the field I spotted a lamb with one of the ewes. It looks fine and I saw it feeding. My worry is they are wild as the hills and running in 10 acres so I have no hope of catching it until Friday if I can rally some help.


This means the cord will not have been iodined and I don't know if this is a problem.  Presumably sheep lambing out on hills don't have their cords dipped?


Also, is this usual for this breed to be so early?

[sarahdean_66]

my soay didnot go to the ram til nov n lambed on sat so there is something in the air this year!

[SteveHants]

It'll be fine  - I'd worry if the weather were warm and wet, but it is far from that at the mo. If you are lambing outside, I reckon the las time you will catch a lamb is about day three, Usain Bolt excepted.




After that, you'd be best waiting until they can stand a gather, 1 month old maybe.

[ScotsGirl]

Hope to goodness the it's a girl. I couldn't see Any dangly bits so  !

[Foobar]

If she was tupped around the first of November then the date would be about right  .
My BWM are excellent mums and keep their babies very clean. Once they are a day old it takes me a fair bit of running around to catch them!
It might be worth your while getting them into a smaller enclosure now that you know that they have started lambing, just so you can grab them if necessary.

[SteveHants]

Hope to goodness the it's a girl. I couldn't see Any dangly bits so  !

I wouldnt bother castrating outdoor lambing - 'down' time outside can hinder mothering so I dont do it. Just get the lamb away before the winter. Wean onto separate fields, obviously.

[ScotsGirl]

Yes my plan was to bring them home at weekend so I could keep an eye on them. I've left The gate open into smaller pen in hope they go in tonight.  Just hope they don't decide to sleep over the badgers sett!

[ScotsGirl]

I struggle to find enough paddock space to split ewes and lambs, only reason I castrate. This breed also tend to finish later so probably wouldn't go until next year. Oh well my ram needs a mate as the current two are fast approaching freezer time! Damned things are huge and now forget that I was the source of their food and have started pushing me about.

[darkbrowneggs]

I kept BWM for years, ran the whole flock together all year round, never used iodine or castrated or took off tails.  Only thing I needed to do with them was watch for flystrike and shear once a year (and occasionally help a ewe - not that they were ignored you understand, just saying they were pretty stress free sheep to keep


I soon had mine bucket trained.  Are you giving them a bit of feed?  If so put it somewhere you can trap them.  They may be wary at first, but after a bit of feeding (and not hasseling)  they should go in happily then you can spring the trap 


I had a ram with mine all year round, which meant lambing occurred when it occurred -  earliest was about 2nd Jan, and of course lambing often went on for a couple of months, but in general they were easy lambers and always very good mums, and after the first 3 or 4 years of faffing around I let them get on with it, don't think this would work if they were crossed with a much larger or long legged breed like a Suffolk, but the pures were easy lambers


If I couldn't get the uncastrated boys away before tupping the main ram just kept himself between them and the ewes till everyone was served.


Try and arrange it so you can handle and feed the lambs otherwise the flighty ewes will teach their offspring and you will never get an easy to handle flock


They are real nice to keep, if I could I would get another flock.  And beautiful meat.

[ScotsGirl]

I bought for just that reason, however didn't expect them to be so flighty and fast! I have only managed to entice the ewe lambs I got first to feed and have a pen made which they go in but once I have caught them they won't go near for weeks!


The older ones are not interested in food and don't go looking but I  can push them in behind occasionally.   I am planning to bring lambs home at weaning so I can handle them and tame them before putting back with others.


Hope to get a ram in autumn and I will put a couple of my other mule x ewes to him that we're difficult to lamb. Idea being small lamb will work better with a tight pelvis. I didn't really want to run two flocks except for tupping but your way of just letting run together all year would be much easier.  How do you manage Heptavac then cos you wouldn't know when they were lambing?

[Foobar]

Some can be flighty and they really do inherit (or rather learn) it from their mums, so yes, get the ewe lambs as tame as you can with the magic bucket of food.  They will revert to flightly mode when they go back with their mums though, so I you will need to keep up the treats.  After a year or so they will be more manageable.