The story since my
last blog entry is really all about lambs. We have gone from simply
having a couple of sheep to having a field full of animals. There has
been joy and tragedy along the way. The recent combination of me
working a couple of days a week, Zoe being hectic at work, lambing,
peak time for vegetable planting, planting out and decorating has
meant life has been rather hectic for a while. I think we are all
looking forward to half term and a trip to the Hay Festival.
We started a couple
of weeks ago with (we thought) two pregnant Ewe's (three years old
having lambed once before) two year old Wethers (Castrated males).
And the two adopted lambs. We knew lambing would be at some stage
soon (after a quick look at the calendar to find when the Ram stayed
with us). After a few weeks of waiting and wondering we found that
one of our Ewe's was suddenly in milk (her udders went massive) and
Zoe noticed subtle changes in her behaviour (too subtle for me). The
poor girl was walking like John Wayne all the time. So we kept an eye
on her and that night got up every hour (Zoe and I alternately) to go
down to the field to see if a lamb was on the way. It clearly was
not. Apparently the lamb was not arriving as soon as we had thought.
They can have milk for almost a week before birth. We realised that
we probably couldn't manage checking every hour on the sheep for a
week so the next night cut down on the checks. Zoe checked on the
sheep late Wednesday having been out for the night and there was no
sign. However when I got up a few hours later the first thing I saw
in the field was a white lamb happily sat there looking at me. I
called the others and Harriett and Zoe all got up (at 3am) to see the
new lamb. She was big and bouncy and our first lamb. Clearly a
healthy one. I sprayed it's naval with Iodine and then we started
worrying whether it getting enough milk, was the mother OK etc etc. I
think it was fine but it was our first lamb so we made quite a fuss.
On a second visit to the field we spotted the placenta and then we
saw the sad sight of our first lost lamb. It had clearly been born
while we were asleep and not survived the birth. This brought quite a
sombre atmosphere to what had been a night of celebration. While
everyone else slept I brought the new lamb and Ewe into the barn to
keep warm. By 6:30 and having had a brief nap our local sheep expert
arrived and found it to be a big healthy lamb with nothing to worry
about.
After this first
experience we were determined to be there for the birth of the other
lambs to be able to help if needed. The next Ewe did not seem to be
in milk (although with all the wool it was a bit tricky to tell) and
so we were not keeping quite such a vigilant eye on the sheep field.
Saturday morning came and we were busy getting organised for a
visitor when Zoe shouted to me “Sam there's something black in the
field run out quick!” I imagined it was a stick or something
equally exciting, but dashed out anyway only to find a lamb in the
field, and clearly one that had not been born just then. Oddly out
other pregnant Ewe was still looking large and calm. Then I spotted
one of our “males”. It had clearly recently given birth and
clearly was not male. It was a mother at only one year old. Often
sheep are left until they are two before lambing as they make much
better mothers. This lamb was looking a bit weak and the mother a bit
lost so I got them into the barn quick. This was easier said than
done as this mother was a bit dopey and not very good at finding her
lamb. This meant as soon as I picked her lamb up and walked off it
(unlike the last Ewe and sheep normally do) did not follow. With
Zoe's help to coax from behind as well as me tempting from the front
with the aid of a lamb we finally got Ewe and Lamb into the barn. We
got the mother food and water and fed the Lamb with Collustrum (after
Zoe had done a quick dash quick to the local BATA store). We were now
even more determined not to miss the next lambs appearance. By
Saturday afternoon it was clear the last Ewe was in milk so a lamb
would be soon. We thought about getting up every hour in the night
and Zoe decided the best thing was just to sleep in the field. Waking
up every our to turn a torch on and then go back to sleep is a lot
easier than getting out of bed, going downstairs, coat on etc etc. So
Zoe spent the night in the field. No lamb came. I spent the next
night (Sunday) in the field and again no lamb came. I was woken in
the morning by Zoe and Harriett coming out to feed the pigs. It was
time then to get going as both Zoe and I needed to be in work at a
good time. That's when we spotted the hooves sticking out the back
end of the Ewe, what a convenient time to start birthing. She soon
started contractions ans was pushing hard to get it out. After about
half an hour the head and then very quickly the rest of the lamb
appeared. We dashed over and helped it get breathing before leaving
Mum to get to know her new addition. That was it we were finally
there for one of the lambs arriving. I dashed in for a shower. I had
got as far as getting slightly wet when Harriett barged in telling me
Mummy needed me now. I dashed back out (with some clothes on) and
found Zoe looking very pleased with herself having sorted out the
second lamb that had arrived not long after the first. Neither of us
were very on time for work that morning.
Thankfully since
then things have calmed down a lot and bar dealing with slug
epidemics it has been a bit more peaceful and we have finally caught
up on sleep (despite Harriett's best efforts to the contrary).
As a final note we are 99.9% certain the final male sheep is male.
