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Author Topic: When do you start your night checks? How early have yours Lambed?  (Read 7392 times)

Crossways

  • Joined Jan 2015
As the title says really,

I was just wondering how close to lambing you start your late night checks?

I'm two weeks today till due date and the ewes are bagging up by the day, I normally start a week before but I'm now worried. My earliest was 6 days but just wanted to be prepared as we have a lot of triplets due and surely they are more likely to lamb early?

Any  input greatly appreciated :)

Ladygrey

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • Basingstoke
Re: When do you start your night checks? How early have yours Lambed?
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2015, 07:08:39 pm »
are you lambing inside or out?

outside I generally check before I go to bed and then when I wake up in the morning, they usually settle down to sleep under a hedge somewhere at night and checking them just disturbs them and does more harm than good, they are all easy lambing types though and generally sneeze and a lamb pops out

Indoors I suppose it may be different as its an unnatural environment for a ewe to be in  :thinking:

also depends on breed and selection I suppose

ewesaidit

  • Joined Aug 2011
Re: When do you start your night checks? How early have yours Lambed?
« Reply #2 on: February 16, 2015, 07:19:52 pm »
 :wave:  Mine are sponged so I have a tupping date and therefore a due to lamb date.  The earliest I've had one lamb is five days earlier than expected but that was a one off and they are typically round the 145 day mark give or take a couple of days.  Only been lambing a small amount for a few years so not that experienced but have now got a much better idea from their udder/backend/behaviour of whether or not I am likely to be safe enough to go to bed after the 10pm check.  If there's one that looks iffy then I would go back over at midnight for a last check for the night but if nothing doing then don't go back over until 5/6 a.m.   From memory haven't had one lamb much beyond 10pm at night or pre 6am but maybe that's related to their routine or I've just been lucky.  December/January lambing usually.  Would love a wireless camera but no direct line of sight between their little shed and the house unfortunately.

Crossways

  • Joined Jan 2015
Re: When do you start your night checks? How early have yours Lambed?
« Reply #3 on: February 16, 2015, 07:25:27 pm »
 :wave:

I've sponged this year for the first time so I too know when they are due. Lambing indoor.

This is my third lambing of my own sheep and mine have always Lambed either early morning around 6 am and before 10 pm too!

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: When do you start your night checks? How early have yours Lambed?
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2015, 07:30:58 pm »
Last year all of mine bar one lambed at lunchtime; the bar one lambed at teatime. All those 2am checks for nowt  ::) Still be doing them though. First ewe due 23rd so probably start about the 20th.

shep53

  • Joined Jan 2011
  • Dumfries & Galloway
Re: When do you start your night checks? How early have yours Lambed?
« Reply #5 on: February 16, 2015, 07:46:15 pm »
Don't do night checks ( after 50 + years well relaxed about it ) lights off at 10  ,  most lambs born dawn and dusk

bigchicken

  • Joined Nov 2008
  • Fife Scotland
Re: When do you start your night checks? How early have yours Lambed?
« Reply #6 on: February 16, 2015, 07:50:14 pm »
Don't usually do night checks as my sheep usually lamb early morning with the odd one or two during the day. Anytime I have thought one looked like lambing during the night it never happened and she lambed in the morning. One of these day one will surprise me. My ewes are due to start round about the first of April.
Shetland sheep, Castlemilk Moorits sheep, Hebridean sheep, Scots Grey Bantams, Scots Dumpy Bantams. Shetland Ducks.

MarvinH

  • Joined Oct 2011
  • England
Re: When do you start your night checks? How early have yours Lambed?
« Reply #7 on: February 16, 2015, 09:27:43 pm »
I wouldnt untill first lamb born.
Sheep

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: When do you start your night checks? How early have yours Lambed?
« Reply #8 on: February 16, 2015, 09:50:25 pm »
Twins 143 days post AI

ScotsGirl

  • Joined Dec 2009
  • Wiltshire
Re: When do you start your night checks? How early have yours Lambed?
« Reply #9 on: February 16, 2015, 10:40:00 pm »
I'm having the same dilemma. My first is due 22/2 so possibly tomorrow I will start checking around 10pm then only later if concerned. I've had several lamb between midnight and 7am and I lost a few last year but not waking up in time to check them. Also lost a few to fox which were born around dawn.


I have bought a cctv (actually 2!) system so I can check from the house. Anyone interested, Motorola Focus 66W works off wireless router so as long as you have power and are within range of router you can use it via iPad, iPhone etc. I have it working in house so just hope it works in shed tomorrow

Foobar

  • Joined Mar 2012
  • South Wales
Re: When do you start your night checks? How early have yours Lambed?
« Reply #10 on: February 17, 2015, 11:33:43 am »
No night checks for me (lambing outside).  Unless one has already gone into labour then I will wait up...maybe...depending on how tired i am! :)
Sponging this year though, so will just have to see how it goes.  Lambing outside still, my only concern is other ewes stealing newly lambed lambs as they will all be very hormonal at the same time!

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: When do you start your night checks? How early have yours Lambed?
« Reply #11 on: February 17, 2015, 12:27:26 pm »
No night checks for me (lambing outside).  Unless one has already gone into labour then I will wait up...maybe...depending on how tired i am! :)

If we have one lambing last thing and there's any possibility there could be any problem, BH lambs them himself so that he can make sure everything is ok and not lose sleep.  At first I found this hard to take, preferring always to let the girls do what comes naturally as far as possible, but after several years lambing hundreds of ewes over a period of many weeks, sometimes months (we don't go for a concentrated lambing, and usually have a few earlies, then the main flock, then the first-timers, so it can go on for a couple of months or more), I have come to understand that occasionally it makes sense to do what may be slightly less than optimum for this one ewe or lamb but which overall results in a better rested, more competent and able farmer for the rest of the flock.

It won't be the right thing for every sheepkeeper, but for us with several hundred ewes (and cattle calving at the same time, some of them) and a protracted lambing time, it is sometimes the best thing to do.

Almost all ours lamb outdoors.  If really horrid weather is expected, we'll bring in any that look imminent.  If they aren't getting on with it before we go to bed, they'll be left till first light.  If they are showing a bleb, or are further along than that, they'll be lambed before we go to bed.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Marches Farmer

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Herefordshire
Re: When do you start your night checks? How early have yours Lambed?
« Reply #12 on: February 17, 2015, 01:24:10 pm »
None of ours lambed earlier than three days before due date until ..... we had a first timer expecting triplets. Decided to start checking at night at minus five days.  Went down to the shed on the morning of that day and found her with one lamb up and suckling, one dead and one dead still in the bag.  All good size ewe lambs.  Now check at minus six days.  Better safe than very sorry, I feel, but all over in 19 days or so, anyway.  Always have a big baking session before lambing - I find cake keeps the spirits up most wonderfully.

 

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