Tuesday 22 March 2011

In the thick of it!

Roly has just returned from one of the many trips to and from the lambing sheds and reported that we have had some 'cracking' lambs today, they are arriving thick and fast and it feels good after a slightly rocky start...

Two weeks ago we had about ten ewes with a condition called 'pregnancy toxaemia' or 'twin lamb disease'. During the last 8 weeks of pregnancy, the lambs grow at a terrific rate inside the ewe and puts a huge demand on her. If the ewe is not getting sufficient food her energy levels can drop dramatically and their rate of recovery is low. It is a very distressing condition and we think we had some cases due to 'trough bullying' where the stronger bullish ewes gobble all the food and do not leave enough for those lower down the pecking order....however, all of that is past us now and we are enjoying the fact that lambing is in full swing and that spring feels like it has finally arrived! The daffodils are out and we are already putting lambs out with their Mum's to grass which feels really good.

Other news from last week is that I had an unexpected trip back into hospital with appendicitis. Any one who has had this will sympathise I'm sure, very painful and it was hard with little Molly. She was fine though and got lots of attention from all the nurses and spent her nights back here in her cosy cot with her Daddy looking after her. Annoyingly she slept much better under Roly's supervision! Having said that she is beginning to sleep longer and our nights were beginning to stretch out before lots of woolly babies started arriving!

We are in full flow getting ready for the next two weekends. The Earth Trust are busy promoting the weekends and the weather looks good for this weekend at least, so we are looking forward to seeing everyone.

We have our 'shepherds for the day' starting with an old university friend of mine on Thursday who is coming with his two little boys Sam and Jack. He is looking forward to fingers crossed, having the opportunity of lambing his first ewe and experiencing that amazing feeling of bringing new life into the world.

More soon and we look forward to seeing many of you over the next two weekends to come and see the lambs.

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle

1 comment:

  1. Have been to the farm this weekend for one of the lambing days it was really good. We came last year too-my Mum and I yeah at 36 I enjoyed it as much as when I was a kid and Mum enjoyed it too except when Roly castrated one lamb. It was so much better than two years ago with all the signs explaining stuff and Roly telling us stuff about what he was doing.Didnt see lamb born but still enjoyed it lots.

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