Lambing is nearly over!
The past couple of weeks have been really busy as the lambs have been coming thick and fast! We've had several sets of triplets this year - something we've never had before. Most of them are doing fine with their mums and it seems there'll be enough milk to go round but we'll be keeping an eye out to make sure no one's getting pushed out. If they are, we can supplement feed them with bottles of milk.
We have only lost one lamb so far - the third of a set of triplets. He was absolutely tiny and was too weak to get up and feed from his mum. I ended up bringing him indoors as he was getting cold and I spent a couple of hours that evening warming him up and trying to coax him to drink a little milk. I put him in a cardboard box with some snuggly towels and he spent the night by the side of my bed, with me getting up every couple of hours through the night to feed him. I had to go into the office the next day and left him with Eddie. He spent the day in the kitchen quite happily trotting about with the dogs (who thought he was the greatest toy EVER!). He even got to spend lunchtime lying on the sofa with Eddie watching Neighbours! But unfortunately, later that afternoon he went to sleep and quietly died in his sleep. Clearly he wasn't viable, but we did our best and at least he had some fun in his very short life.
Several people left comments on my last post to say they hadn't realised sheep could be spotty!
We have two Jacob rams who are brown and white, and our ewes are a mixture of Jacobs, Dorsets (who are plain old cream) and Jacob/Dorset crosses, who turn out all manner of spots and stripes. But we've never had one like this
Isn't he cute? Here he is with his mum and brother
Note the (complete lack of) family resemblance!
Sadly, he won't stay that lovely black - the lambs are all born black and white, but the black fades to brown as they get older.
We have just one more ewe to lamb and then that's our breeding season over. It can't come quickly enough for Eddie who's survived the last couple of weeks on an average of about 3 hours a night sleep. He's looks like something out of The Night of the Living Dead ;)
We have only lost one lamb so far - the third of a set of triplets. He was absolutely tiny and was too weak to get up and feed from his mum. I ended up bringing him indoors as he was getting cold and I spent a couple of hours that evening warming him up and trying to coax him to drink a little milk. I put him in a cardboard box with some snuggly towels and he spent the night by the side of my bed, with me getting up every couple of hours through the night to feed him. I had to go into the office the next day and left him with Eddie. He spent the day in the kitchen quite happily trotting about with the dogs (who thought he was the greatest toy EVER!). He even got to spend lunchtime lying on the sofa with Eddie watching Neighbours! But unfortunately, later that afternoon he went to sleep and quietly died in his sleep. Clearly he wasn't viable, but we did our best and at least he had some fun in his very short life.
Several people left comments on my last post to say they hadn't realised sheep could be spotty!
We have two Jacob rams who are brown and white, and our ewes are a mixture of Jacobs, Dorsets (who are plain old cream) and Jacob/Dorset crosses, who turn out all manner of spots and stripes. But we've never had one like this
Isn't he cute? Here he is with his mum and brother
Note the (complete lack of) family resemblance!
Sadly, he won't stay that lovely black - the lambs are all born black and white, but the black fades to brown as they get older.
We have just one more ewe to lamb and then that's our breeding season over. It can't come quickly enough for Eddie who's survived the last couple of weeks on an average of about 3 hours a night sleep. He's looks like something out of The Night of the Living Dead ;)
posted by Carolyn at 11:59 am
2 Comments:
Absolutely adorable, and how lucky to have so many triplet sets! :)
Aw, sad that you lost the little one... but, hey, that lamb watched neighbours and was loved during its short life!
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