Getting ready for lambing

By the time you read this we will, hopefully, have a few lambs, but as I write we are still waiting expectantly for the first little ones to appear.

The ewes, housed together in a large comfortable building, are noticeably slowing down as they are carrying a lot of weight around. Many of them will have twins, some even triplets, and so it is hardly surprising they feel tired towards the end of their pregnancy.

My husband checks them at least twice a day, and feeds them ad lib hay and a barley mixture he has mixed up himself.

Because there is no plumbed in water supply to the building, he has to carry the water from 60 yards away, filling churns and transporting them on a churn trolley, to pour the water into the troughs.

The ewes are currently altogether, but as they begin to lamb they will be separated out. The mums and babies will move into a ‘mum and tot’ area, while the still expectant ewes will remain where they are.

If a ewe and lamb pair have problems of any kind they will be penned up by themselves for special attention. This may include particularly weak lambs, or ewes who are not taking enough interest in their offspring. Or mis-mothjering where ewes and lambs are pairing up in the wrong couplings.