Welcome, guest!
Moderate rain Moderate rain, 7°C,    19mph

No More Expectant Mums!

Well today we realised that no more sheep are due to lamb this year, so that's a wrap!

Until an hour or so ago, we thought we still had one sheep left to lamb. That was until it was brought indoors for the night as normal when Howard realised that it didn't actually have a bag (which means it is not in lamb)! To look at, you would think this sheep was going to have triplets but this turns out not to be the case. It has no bag and after final inspection of her belly it was determined that there were no lambs inside and that she was just a bit overweight!

That now means all the sheep who were in lamb this year have given birth! So now begins the post-natal care, which involves continuing to bottle feed the spare lambs, rubber-ringing (putting rings around their tails for hygeine purposes so that they fall off), treating lame sheep, ensuring there are no bunged-up bums (from too much milk!), checking for mastitis and foot-rot, and generally checking all the animals remain healthy and show no sign of going short of milk, keeping crows and magpies away (as they are known to attack lambs and peck out their eyes), regular feeding of mothers to ensure they are eating healthily! The lambs will all need worming in a month or so.

Comments

Only registered users can leave a comment. Please sign in or register an account to leave a comment.

Well I bet you and your family are quite glad that the lambing part is over after the trauma you have all had this year. Having been here a while I know it certainly is not a time of complete rest for any of you. I has been great to see the sheep and the new arrivals coming together and I know we will see alot more of them in the future. Are you able to give us any stats? Please dont worry if you cant. I was wonder how many were male/female and how many were suffolks? I have lost track on the suffolks as they are always jumping about. Thank you to your whole family for what you do. Its the best webcam ever seen!

had a bit trouble with sheep do those two not like each other

dan and lynda and howard glad everything is done for another year, can't want for the next bach of lambs next year. hehe thankyou for sharing your lambs with all of us lambwatchers.

Fi - Lynda said last week that there were 7 suffolk lambs. Two sets of twins and 3 singles. Not sure if there have been any more since. They are adorable aren't they?

Such a lot of things still left to be getting on with. I'm sure many like me, who live in towns and cities, just don't realise all there is to be done once the lambs have been born. You hardly catch your breath after being up at all hours helping with difficult births and then you have all those other jobs to do to keep the sheep and lambs healthy. You all have my greatest respect.