Well here they are!! Five months since Tupping, the little devils have started to “hatch!”
This lot below, are the “Orphan lambs” (Say Aaah! Sweet!)
Not to worry, only another 400 Ewes to go! Now its time for a “Cuppa Tea!”
Ahhh! Thats better!……..Sorry no horses today, or stories, apart from helping out with the sheep, I am also decorating! I could show you the rooms, but? Well lets not! There`s more paint on me, than on the walls!
So be good out there! catch up with you all later.
They're soooooo cute!! OK...what's with the red marks on their heads?
ReplyDeleteAh, look at all those cute little ba-ba-ba-baby sheep!
ReplyDeleteHi Gtyyp, and Chris! The red marks refer to the Ewe, breed and tup. So whern we tag them it allows us to conform to the Regs.
ReplyDeleteAh, baby animals, tis the season.
ReplyDeleteThey look like the bunch of orphans I raised as a boy...but 400 I could not deal with...
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of Bummers!
ReplyDeleteCan you pair them or will you feed them...you will bo SO BLASTED busy!!!
Awwww! I want some!
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, AHS, that we have just got a automatic lamb feeder. Its self contained, holds milk powder, warm water, and mixes it, pipes it round to the pens and there is enough teats for the lambs to work on.
ReplyDeleteSo enough work, but a lot less than I would have normally!
These lambs will be raised as singles, so pairing wont happen. But I see what you are getting at.
But the main thing is, they are worth money, and cant afford to lose any. Sheep prices are good to fair, if they hold, we will make a few "quid"!!
Obviously I'm going to make a girl comment now and say they are absolutely adorable! I really want some but hubby won't let me - he says we have enough to do, and he's probably right.
ReplyDeleteYour husband is right!!.....Or not? Sheep are a pain in the? (arse) If there is a hole in a fence, they will find it!
ReplyDeleteA hole doesnt have to be sheep size! Oh no! It can be any size, but before they are finished, it will be sheep size!! Trust me!!
I see a bunch of little girls in that pen!
ReplyDeleteI have been catching up on reading your blog, and now must read the riding the boundaries stories! I'll be up forever tonight!!!! Thanks :-) Happy lambing!
Hmmmmmmm 400 to go. Lets hope the orphan pen doesn't fill up toooo much. Glad prices are good. Thats what we want to hear. We have loads of sheep around us as well. A favourite day out for the kids is helping Grandad with the docking. They are the catchers!. A few bunts up the bum brings them down a peg or 2 ....Me well I did my jail sentence in the shearing shed as a youngster so stay clear nowdays. So anyway as your lambs arive I'm hoping that means the weather is on the improve ....longer days ....more riding. OUr days are getting darker, shorter and wetter
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, Cheyenne.
ReplyDeleteSally, Mat ann, ans AMV, The weather is getting slightly warmer. The lambs are out in the field and the little buggers are still coming!
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear winters on the way! But you have a damn sight more sheep down there than us!! I know I`ve seen them!!!
OK, I need an interpretor here: what is "tupping", and "Regs", and are those all really ORPHANS?(as in, their mothers all died??) Sorry, but I'm not up on my sheep facts. lol
ReplyDeleteI am pretty interested in the automatic lamb feeder that mixes the powder with water. Could we see a photo of that? What a labor saver. The fellow who invented that deserves to be rich!
ReplyDeleteShoofly, the Regs are Regulations in accordance with the European Directives ( load of red tape!) Tupping is a what the male sheep do to the female sheep? Its a local word for that.
ReplyDeleteThose orphans are that, in the sense that the mothers have had triplets, but can only feed two lambs. So we take them off, and class them as such.
OOC, good point, I will soonest, and it is a god send for us.
I just got a whole education in sheep by reading one post and the comments. My goodness!
ReplyDeleteIt certainly sounds like you are going to be busy, but what a way to spend your time. They're adorable!
400+ ... I can't fathom trying to keep track of 400 rubber bands, let alone living creatures. :)
Your right! Its a lot of work, but there are two of us, plus one other who covers through the night! We have two large sheds, like the one in the pics? They can hold upwards of 500 sheep. But the thing is, to make a suitable profit, we need to lamb twins on one third of the herd!!!! So any lambs that look sickly or are in need of help, they get it!
ReplyDeleteAfter a few days, mums and their lambs can go out into the fields. But the orphans stay in the sheds `till they get some weight on.
Glad you liked the post Amber!
So... on with this educational thread... do you ever take an orphan and try to pair it up with one of the ewes who had a single instead of twins?
ReplyDeleteInteresting life, that.
Hi Shoofly! Yes we do, just today, we lost a Ewe with a twisted gut. She gave birth to twins. We already had a potential mother, she had lost a singleton. So we....you wont like this!So if your squeamish, sorry.
ReplyDeleteTake th skin off the dead lamb, half it, and put each half on the twins. By the time we had done that to the first lamb, the new mother was already letting the first twin suckle!! Doesnt take long!