Day 10 - Spring lambing 2012

Another busy day, with 36 good, strong lambs born. This morning we moved most of the 15 ewes and their twins born yesterday outside, the weather could not have been better for them. Tomorrow we shall be opening the gates to visitors and having an open day, so even earlier start in the morning to get all the feeding and bedding up done, not to mention having a proper sweep up before our guests arrive. By the end of the weekend the barn will be full of lambs as we will not be able to take any out to the fields if we have lots of visitors, so a busy monday. Badger (our black lamb)is looking cuter by the day, and she knows it - no doubt she is going to really work the crowds! Our vet students are doing a fantastic job both with ewes, lambs and also talking to the variuos people that come and visit us. Bed time

Day 9 - spring lambing 2012

It has been the most beautiful day here, and reached 19 degrees this afternoon! It could not be more perfect for turning our lambs outside, you can almost see them visibly grow with the sun on their backs.

It has been a relatively quiet day in the sheds up until about an hour ago and Roly still isn't home now which indicates that the girls have decided to uncross their legs just as we feel like having a break! Badger is doing well and we are keeping her in the sheds for a few days so that our visitors at our lambing weekends this weekend and next can meet her, I think she is going to have a few fans!

With the weather set to stay settled we are expecting a lot of visitors this weekend and we're looking forward to it, there is plenty to see in the lambing sheds as well as lots of other activities happening around the Earth Trust site. We are offering 10% off any lamb ordered over the weekend and will be selling our lamb burgers thanks to the help of our amazing friends and family.

Video today is dropping the ewes and their lambs off into the great outdoors for the first time, enjoy!

Day 8 - spring lambing 2012

For those who are keeping a close eye on Badgers diary, we now have the promised information from Joel who I mentioned yesterday who is a bit of an expert on how we have ended up with such a beautiful little girl! Here is what he has told us - "the lamb inherits two alleles – one from each parent. The alleles that carry the code for deciding the colour of the lamb will each carry the code for a different colour. However, only one colour can be dominant – the other is recessive. We call these the dominant and recessive genes. Some colours, such as black, are carried in the recessive gene, so the lamb will have to inherit two recessive genes to actually be born black, because if another colour is present that is carried in the dominant gene, this will ‘overpower’ the black recessive gene. So, basically, if black runs in the recessive gene, for a lamb to born black it will have to receive recessive black genes from both parents". Thanks Joel!

Another busy day, we had a lovely school visit this morning from Woodcote Primary School, they saw a lamb being born and our little triplets who are doing really well. They also met Badger too who seemed very happy to be stroked. Badger had to undergo her necessary 'tailing' today, which involves putting a rubber ring on her tail so that it falls off. This helps prevent nasty things like 'fly strike', a real problem in the summer months. Flys lay their eggs on the lambs and if they still have their tail they are more at risk. Have a look at the video, poor Badger, but she was soon up on her feet.

The sheds are just a wonderful place to be at the moment with the sun streaming in, long may this weather continue. Our other job today was putting more lambs outside, one of our favourite jobs!

More tomorrow.

Day 7 continued...

Here are Paul and Anita from Staffordshire, who were 'shepherds for the day' today - they just helped this ewe lamb her two beautiful girls! We were also joined by Bobbie Nicholls, one of our regular customers at Abingdon Farmers Market who was keen to see the story behind her favourite lamb!

Day 7 - lambing, spring 2012

We couldn't wait to share with you these two photos of our latest very exciting arrival! She is just the sweetest little lamb and so pretty! Well we think so, and we will be keeping her as her Mum is one of our replacement ewes. When she was born, about 10 o'clock last night, Joel and Cameron were up with us in the lambing sheds, who are two local friends who have been keen to help and be involved. Joel gave us a brilliant biology lesson on recessive genes, I will ask Joel to email how he described it to us as it was great and I'm worried that sleep deprivation will not allow me to recount it properly for everyone. Anyway, what is important is we have ended up with our lovely little girl! We need some help with names please!

Day 6 - Lambing spring 2012

Today has been about 10 days rolled into one. It started by walking into the sheds whilst watching the sunrise over the Wittenham Clumps and opening up the doors to the sheds, which feels like opening the curtains! It couldn't have been more atmospheric for Clare who was being a shepherd for the day with us today alongwith Phil and Kinnon who had come back for a second time, it was lovely having them with us today.

It was a busy morning lambing. One lamb had been laid on in the night and another tiny lamb just was not strong enough to make it through either - really sad when we put so much time, energy and emotion into the lambs that need that extra bit of shepherding. We need to get better at remembering there is a barn full of bright, strong lambs doing really well and not just the small ones who we work so hard at keeping alive.

We moved our first group of Mum's and lambs outside which was amazing and a really fun job to do with our visitors. It is always chaos when you let them out of the trailer as they all try and find one another in a new environment and the Mum's are very distracted by the grass!

Our second move was with our ewes and lambs from January, we moved them down the road for the first time, great fun, but slightly high risk, but we managed with the help of a school group of 4 year olds who happened to be out on a trip to the woods, we got them to block off a gate way by all holding hands and giggling, where is the camerea when you need it!

A trip to the butchers was also squeezed in as Mark our neighbour from Dorchester is going to Wallingford market for us tomorrow morning and selling their beef too.

More shepherds for the day tomorrow, one job will be selecting lambs for the next few markets.
Our other job is to start getting the sheds ready for the lambing weekends, putting signs up and explaining everything that is going on to our visitors.

We plan to include a daily update of Henry, who was one of our first orphan lambs, who still hasn't lambed yet but we think it will be rather special when she does. Henry and Molly are great friends, mainly because Molly hands her some extra nuts to eat!

Roly has gone up for his final check and then Akash, one of our lovely vet students is doing the late check at about midnight.

More tomorrow, hopefully the sunshine will be as beautiful as it has been today.