[garden cottage]

had our first seasons lambs last night twins boy and girl with no problems, should be lambing every night now sadly our last season.......neil

[Rosemary]

Congratulations! It's fab isn't it?

[Shnoowie]

Congratulations, Neil!
We're expecting our first lamb(s) at the end of March/beginning of April - any tips?

[kaz]

My Ryelands are due any day now. Only 15 to the tup this year  and later than norm because of Hubby accident last year.

All the best to every one lambing now.

[VSS]

We've got 170 to lamb in next two weeks - due date today.

Not a single lamb yet . Very surprised we haven't had anything yet/

[kaz]

Do You reckon they are keeping their legs crossed hoping for warmer weather?

[acorn zwartbles]

My zwartbles have just finished, 15 ewes and got 34 lambs. no real problem. ready for a full nights sleep now.

[garden cottage]

hey im certainly no sheep expert but i would say a couple of things regarding ryelands that weve observed since having them from 2006. They can lamb on their own but weve found at least half needed assistance, also and especially with first time lambers they can be very aggresive towards the new lamb and can take some hours before bonding with it all you can do is keep an eye on mum so the lamb doesnt get injured but they will bond. Entropion, we first came across this last season when we had 2 lambs with it, check eyelids very carefully usually bottom lid if its turned in so eyelash is rubbing on  eyeball very carefully pull it out so it sits correctly. if rectified straight away its usually cured but if you miss it it will cause severe irritation to eye discharge from corner of eye and lamb appears to be crying is a sign that youve missed it. If you get a lot of entropion it is recommended to change your ram................enjoy

[Shnoowie]

Thanks, Garden Cottage!
What would you recommend on the feeding front?  Our ewe is currently has access to grass, fresh hay and ewe and lamb nuts.  Different websites state that different amounts of nuts need to be given, it is very confusing!  What do you do?  We estimate our ewe is in the last 4 weeks before lambing.

[kaz]

hey im certainly no sheep expert but i would say a couple of things regarding ryelands that weve observed since having them from 2006. They can lamb on their own but weve found at least half needed assistance, also and especially with first time lambers they can be very aggresive towards the new lamb and can take some hours before bonding with it all you can do is keep an eye on mum so the lamb doesnt get injured but they will bond. Entropion, we first came across this last season when we had 2 lambs with it, check eyelids very carefully usually bottom lid if its turned in so eyelash is rubbing on  eyeball very carefully pull it out so it sits correctly. if rectified straight away its usually cured but if you miss it it will cause severe irritation to eye discharge from corner of eye and lamb appears to be crying is a sign that youve missed it. If you get a lot of entropion it is recommended to change your ram................enjoy

Have you overfed the ewes, because this can cause awful problems if they become too fat and the lambs too big.

True if you have entropian the answer is to change your tup, but if you miss the irritation of the eye/eyes in a lamb most vets will put clips in above or below the lid to rectify this, which eventually full out.

I have only ever had two ewes that have not been too good with lambs and one of those lambs died later on.
I have had many Ryelands and would not change them for the world.

[garden cottage]

hey kaz im not knocking ryelands just an observation, hadnt come across the clip thing, the one we did take to the vet with eye problem had a small amount of fluid injected in lower lid to stop the eyelash turning in and worked a treat, also only the first time mums were aggressive to lambs other than that yes i would say ryelands are ideal smallholder sheep easy to work with....................neil

[Rosemary]

We've only lambed once before and our Ryelands did it themselves and were great mums. Let's hope they do it all again this year!

[garden cottage]

second lot of twins last night (boys) then we did an all nighter as we were sure of 2 others due, no further lambs tired now!!!!!

[Padge]

We had our first two lambs appear today    twins one boy one girl 

I saw Kaz's comments on the overfed sheep probs...................exactly what we suffered last year...awful problems    hopefully this year will be better