Lambing Live on BBC2

A programme starts on BBC2 on Sunday 7th March 2010 at 8.00.  There will be five consecutive programmes -  Sunday to Thursday all at 8 p.m.

  Capturing the drama of life and death as it unfolds during five consecutive nightly visits to a sheep farm in Wales run by the Beavans who have 300 expectant ewes.  Every year 16 million lambs are born in the UK.  It's big business but also a gamble.  Kate Humble has been learning how to become a shepherdess for the past six months and co-presenter Adam Henson has been exploring the secret life of sheep.

At long last a good television programme to watch. Kate Humble is a brilliant presenter of countrylife including animals and birds so the series should be extremely interesting - especially to us lambwatchers.

Oh, to be in England!!!  There is no chance we will see it here.  I hope it is as informative and enjoyable as you hope.

that sounds very interesting... will make a note to watch it and see how it compares with our experiences !!

Thanks for the reminder Margaret,

It will be a brilliant programme especially if the farm is in Mid Wales.

And Kate Humble is a great presenter of different animal programmes.

I will certainly be watching.

Don't forget to watch Lambing Live

TONIGHT

BBBC  2 - 8.00 p.m.

Hi all, how is this series going? I haven't been able to see any of them yet but from what I have heard they have been good! I will hopeully catch tonight's if not I will record it.

One thing that has struck me is their choice of name...  So far we have had Spring Watch, Autumn Watch, even Snow Watch... but Lambing Live? I wonder if they chose this name because the original Lamb Watch was already taken :)

I am not complaining! Any mainstream media attention that is given to the lambing season is great news. There is such a lack of awareness when it comes to lambing time in general society. Only yesterday on my way home from work I saw a lady walking her dog in a field. On the gateway was a "Please keep dogs on lead" signpost and the lady completely disregarded this... her dog was chasing after a ball which she had thrown for her pooch. Fortunately there were no sheep in the field so perhaps if there were she would not have done this.

At this time of year, the sign "please keep dogs on leads" is probably the most important rural sign that you could see. The distress caused to sheep by an out of control dog could lead to serious problems for sheep and lambs both unborn and born so it irritates me when I see this happening.

Rant over though, on a brilliant note, since the Lambing Live programme began last week there has been a significant increase in site traffic to LambWatch! Now I don't think they have mentioned this website on their programme (it would be great if they did! * hint hint nudge nudge *) but even without a mention, there has been a significant increase in traffic to this site which is great! The programme must be raising awareness and people are doing lots more google searches for lambing related queries such as:

• bbc live lamb cam
• bbc lambing live webcam
• lamb cam
• bbc lamb watch

etc etc...

All these searches lead to this site coming close to the top of the list which is great.

Yesterday we had over 2100 hits!

For those who are interested in the statistics for LambWatch, I have setup a "guest" account onto the LambWatch statistics where you can view all sorts of very interesting statistics and patterns.

To view the stats, login at StatCounter with the username and password of lambwatch and lambwatchguest

If you have any questions, please ask!

I have also been getting a steady stream of questions and comments about the programme from people thinking this site is the actual BBC Lambing Live website! I have had several requests from viewers asking me to pass on questions to Kate and the team! I would of course be happy to do so if I could!!

I have only seen one of these programmes so far. I had to tape last nights programme (monday) and havent had chance to watch it yet. The reason being that as soon as it had started, Howard came in to say we needed to get a sheep into the barn quickly as she was beginning to prolapse and required the insertion of what we call a "coat hanger". Its a device to push back the prolapse and it is a two man job... well three last night as Ben helped too.

What has struck me so far is the amount of handling the presenters do with the lambs... this worries me as they are bound to transfer different smells to the lambs and this is always a risk when the lambs are put back in the pens. The mum could easily detect a "strange" smell and this runs the risk of rejection... perhaps I am being paranoid about this as it has happened to us and we are always extremely careful about not putting strange smells on lambs and handling them as little as possible.I look forward, however to watching the series and seeing how it compares with the real thing. It also registers with me the amount of noise they make in the lambing sheds when they are looking for any sheep that may be lambing..... Am I being too critical ??

How is the sheep that you had to see to last night Lynda?  Is it okay?

I wondered about all the handling of the lambs on Lambing Live after what you told us.  I hope that the farmer doesn't find his sheep rejecting their lambs.  I have found the programme very interesting and love watching the sheep giving birth.  You can watch the programmes you have missed on BBCiplayer.

The sheep is okay at the moment, thanks Margaret,,, we are keeping a very close eye on it

It's ironic that BBC2 has just been using music by the strict vegetarian musician Mobey during a lamb auction scene. I wonder if he would give permission for this? 

Next stop abattoir!!

How do you wet a lamb from a set of triplets with fluid from a birth so that a sheep with a single lamb will accept it as its own?

The above question should have read.  Do you use that same way of wetting a lamb so that a sheep will accept an adopted lamb as its own? 

Why did one lamb come out completely black please?

As always, Thank you to everyone at Marlfield for allowing us to see your farm life

Hi Margaret, in answer to your question: yep we do use that way of getting a surrogate mother to adopt an orphan lamb but it is not always successful. The orphan lamb can't be too old and the "wet" from the surrogate mother must still be available! We have in the past also skinned a dead lamb and put it on an orphan lamb in order to acheive the same thing. This is quite common practice but as I say, it is not always successful!

Hi Fi, I didn't see the particular lamb that came out black but it is not unusual to get all black lambs depending on the genes it has inherited from its mother and father. I should think you are more likely to get an all black lamb if one  of the parents is a suffolk sheep.

Hi James, I dont recall seeing this bit on the programme but that would certainly be ironic!

There will be a Lambing Live Special on Saturday 13th March at 7.30 p.m. BBC2