We have just got back from 5 wonderful days in the Lake District, staying (just for a change) on a sheep farm between the lakes of Brotherswater and Ullswater that does B&B and also has a fantastic self-catering property, converted from an old traditional cow byre. We first went there 8 years ago and came back with one of their collie puppies as a souvenir and have been going back ever since for a post-lambing sanity break. I am loathed to tell you where it is or you will all want to go but it really is too good to keep to myself so here it is, Deepdale Hall near Patterdale, run by Chris Brown and his family. http://www.deepdalehall.co.uk/
We had some incredible rain the first day we were there and seeing water being blown uphill along the Kirkstone Pass between Patterdale and Windermere was quite amazing. So was being stuck in a sudden hail storm 2500 feet up on Roman road called High Street that runs along the top of a section of mountain, ending up eventually at Troutbeck, but the sun came out between showers and the views were worth both the stiff climb and the buffeting from the weather.
Back at home, and despite a few drizzle showers, it is still so dry that the dogs kick up little puffs of dust as they run about in the fields and the cracks are deepening by the day. However, the forecast for tomorrow is for heavy rain I make no apologies for being glad of it, bank holiday or no bank holiday!
We had one lamb while we were away and are now down to just three to go but none of them look in much of a hurry. If it wasn't for the ravens that are constantly prowling the paddock, sneaking up on the lambs and calves and pulling their tails, we would let the ewes out to lamb in the field, but for as long as the ravens are there, the lambs would be in real danger so the ewes are stuck indoors for the duration.
The next event on the calender is Open Farm Sunday on June 12th. We have been incredibly lucky with the weather the last two years but I am starting to plan the events and with the way the weather keeps doing strange things, I will also sort out a wet weather contingency just in we can't run the farm walk and need to have the cream teas and plans stall indoors. Luckily, the barn is big but I hope the three ewes will have lambed by then or we will be sharing with them!
Sunday 29 May 2011
Tuesday 10 May 2011
The boring bit!
Well, here we are, stuck with 16 ewes still in the shed and none of them looking remotely like lambing. This is the boring bit when the workload seems to be slightly less but more fiddly and nothing much happens on the giving birth front....until you dare to go and do something else for a bit and then you come back to find all hell has broken loose!
I was hoping the recent thunderstorms would get them moving but all we had was a rather lovely set of twin ewe lambs a couple of days later. The rest will doubtless lamb when they are ready. You can't rush these things! Meanwhile, the cows continue to produce a calf every few days which makes a pleasant change.
Sadly, Churchill died two days after my last blog post. He had been a bit off-colour the previous night so I put him under the heat lamb in the TLC department. He was on his feet and waiting for his breakfast the next morning, wagging his tail as usual when I went over to say hello but by lunchtime he had died, curled up peacefully where I left him.
Meanwhile, I still have a right old rag, tag and bobtail brigade of about 10 lambs to keep me busy. Some are with their mothers but the ewes don't have enough milk for two lambs and some had to be taken away from their mothers because they had no milk at all. Others were fostered on but are having a hard time competing with the ewe's own lamb who is inevitably bigger than the foster lamb as we foster onto "singles" and single lambs are generally bigger than twins or triplets.
I now have a milk feeder set up in the barn that can feed 6 lambs at a time and I have got them all trained to drink from it. The lambs can come in from the paddock and drink any time which is much more natural and better for their digestive systems, and saves me an awful lot of bottle feeding.
However, some of them are incredibly tame and I can generally be seen walking across the paddock to feed my horses with a small flock of tiny sheep pursuing me relentlessly.There's Stampy (my favourite), Stampy's foster sister, Peachy, Blue dot, Red 33.....
Now lambing has slowed down, we are starting to think of other things (like a holiday!!!) so the lambing bit of the blog is pretty much at an end. However, several people have said they enjoy catching up with what we are doing (clearly there is nothing better on tv!) so I will do my best to post whenever something interesting is going on.
In the meantime, the next big event on the calender is Open Farm Sunday, a national event where we throw the doors open to the public for an afternoon of farm walks, displays, lamb cuddling, plant sales and cream teas. If you care to join us on Sunday 12th June from 1pm to 5pm, we will be delighted to see you. Entrance is free, cream teas are in aid of Tree of Life for Animals Veterinary Hospital in Rajasthan, India and if it rains, we will move it all in to the barn and carry on regardless!
I was hoping the recent thunderstorms would get them moving but all we had was a rather lovely set of twin ewe lambs a couple of days later. The rest will doubtless lamb when they are ready. You can't rush these things! Meanwhile, the cows continue to produce a calf every few days which makes a pleasant change.
Sadly, Churchill died two days after my last blog post. He had been a bit off-colour the previous night so I put him under the heat lamb in the TLC department. He was on his feet and waiting for his breakfast the next morning, wagging his tail as usual when I went over to say hello but by lunchtime he had died, curled up peacefully where I left him.
Meanwhile, I still have a right old rag, tag and bobtail brigade of about 10 lambs to keep me busy. Some are with their mothers but the ewes don't have enough milk for two lambs and some had to be taken away from their mothers because they had no milk at all. Others were fostered on but are having a hard time competing with the ewe's own lamb who is inevitably bigger than the foster lamb as we foster onto "singles" and single lambs are generally bigger than twins or triplets.
I now have a milk feeder set up in the barn that can feed 6 lambs at a time and I have got them all trained to drink from it. The lambs can come in from the paddock and drink any time which is much more natural and better for their digestive systems, and saves me an awful lot of bottle feeding.
However, some of them are incredibly tame and I can generally be seen walking across the paddock to feed my horses with a small flock of tiny sheep pursuing me relentlessly.There's Stampy (my favourite), Stampy's foster sister, Peachy, Blue dot, Red 33.....
Now lambing has slowed down, we are starting to think of other things (like a holiday!!!) so the lambing bit of the blog is pretty much at an end. However, several people have said they enjoy catching up with what we are doing (clearly there is nothing better on tv!) so I will do my best to post whenever something interesting is going on.
In the meantime, the next big event on the calender is Open Farm Sunday, a national event where we throw the doors open to the public for an afternoon of farm walks, displays, lamb cuddling, plant sales and cream teas. If you care to join us on Sunday 12th June from 1pm to 5pm, we will be delighted to see you. Entrance is free, cream teas are in aid of Tree of Life for Animals Veterinary Hospital in Rajasthan, India and if it rains, we will move it all in to the barn and carry on regardless!
Sunday 1 May 2011
Day 20...almost there!
In the blink of an eye we went from 160+ still to lamb at our "open afternoon" last Saturday to only 23 today!
It has been without a doubt the fastest lambing have ever had and it has been exhausting with the night shift ending anything between 3am and even 5.45am on one occasion... marathon 22 hour shift! The worst bit is keeping on top of the ewes and lambs in the "special care unit" and any other problems while the routine goes on around us but the majority of the lambs are now out in the fields and thriving and anyone walking in the area can't fail to see them as they are split into groups of 50-60 and cover virtually the whole farm.
As to Churchill, he is 3 weeks old today and has grown large and solid but he still lurches from one near death experience to another every few days. He seems particularly incapable of maintaining his body temperature in the normal range of 38-39 degrees and for him, "normal" seems to be 35-36. In theory, he should not be able to function at that level of hypothermia but he skips about and plays with the other lambs. He's certainly a paradox. I suspect he has far more developmental problems than those that are immediately visible and there are no guarantees that he will survive but if I can just nurse him over the next two weeks and get him on solid food and nibbling a bit of grass then we will be almost home and dry. Bottle fed lambs must be weaned at 5 weeks of age as they get bloat if they are on formula milk after that age and that is a serious and life-threatening condition in a lamb.
I will let you know how he does.
It has been without a doubt the fastest lambing have ever had and it has been exhausting with the night shift ending anything between 3am and even 5.45am on one occasion... marathon 22 hour shift! The worst bit is keeping on top of the ewes and lambs in the "special care unit" and any other problems while the routine goes on around us but the majority of the lambs are now out in the fields and thriving and anyone walking in the area can't fail to see them as they are split into groups of 50-60 and cover virtually the whole farm.
As to Churchill, he is 3 weeks old today and has grown large and solid but he still lurches from one near death experience to another every few days. He seems particularly incapable of maintaining his body temperature in the normal range of 38-39 degrees and for him, "normal" seems to be 35-36. In theory, he should not be able to function at that level of hypothermia but he skips about and plays with the other lambs. He's certainly a paradox. I suspect he has far more developmental problems than those that are immediately visible and there are no guarantees that he will survive but if I can just nurse him over the next two weeks and get him on solid food and nibbling a bit of grass then we will be almost home and dry. Bottle fed lambs must be weaned at 5 weeks of age as they get bloat if they are on formula milk after that age and that is a serious and life-threatening condition in a lamb.
I will let you know how he does.
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