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

The calm before the storm....

With little under 3 weeks until our main flock start to lamb we are busy getting all our lambing supplies ready and in place. The ewes all look well and we are busy feeding them up to maintain their condition and give their lambs all the nutrients they need to grow inside them.

Our lambing weekends which we are holding jointly with the Northmoor Trust (soon to be the Earth Trust) are fast approaching too and we are looking forward to welcoming lots of visitors to the farm to see this years offspring! For those interested in picking up some lamb on the day or a sheepskin rug we are asking people to preorder with us first so we can have everything ready for collection, so do call us on 07776 393072.

We have a very exciting new customer in London, Corrigans in Mayfair www.corrigansmayfair.com who have had 2 half lambs and some racks for a VIP dinner they are holding this evening! So we are really pleased that news of our delicious Oxfordshire lamb is spreading to top chefs in London.

Despite the cold weather still the grass is beginning to green up and soon the fields will be filling up with newborn lambs and we will be able to hear them calling for their Mums when we are walking in the village. A true sign of spring.

We have lots of people joining us to be shepherds for the day and we are looking forward to having them with us and getting them involved with all the jobs which make up our busy days whilst we are lambing.

Molly is busy growing too! She will be 2 months old on Monday...she will be making an appearance at the lambing weekends and we hope will be on her best behaviour...

More soon, probably with news of the first arrivals up in the lambing sheds!

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle

248 hair cuts = a long day!

This time last week we had just got home having helped Brian (in the video clip) shear 248 of our sheep, it was a long day! We started at 7am and finished by 9pm. On the whole, the ewes seem to rather enjoy it, and look like putty in Brian's professional hands. It is so relaxing to watch. I took Molly up to the sheds and she snoozed along to the sound of the shearing machine!

People often ask us why we shear our flock in the winter - well, one of the main reasons is that they are only 6 weeks from lambing, which is when 70% of their unborn lambs growth takes place, and also the main development of the their mammary glands (the udder) to produce that vital food source milk for their lambs takes place during this time. A sheep that has been shawn will eat more hay and therefore be getting more nutrients during the key final few weeks of pregnancy.

But there are other advantages to shearing our sheep prior to lambing. Shawn sheep take up less room in the barn and around feeders, therefore reducing the risk of trough bullying or trough rage! It is also easier for lambs to feed from shawn ewes.

Also, sheep are very good at keeping warm - their wool insulates them, holding in body heat. Pregnant sheep, in which growth of the lamb results in heat production, stay even warmer as their pregnancy progresses. In fact, sheep carrying multiple lambs have to increase their respiratory rate just to get rid of body heat.

Anyway, we have a big week ahead of us with three farmers markets, two trips to the butchers, one trip to the abbatoir, a training course for using our faecal egg counter (a brilliant way for us to decide whether we need to use a wormer or not). . . not to mention feeding lots of hungry sheep twice a day!

More soon

Roly, Camilla, Molly, Boris and Belle

198%!

What a couple of weeks - wow! As I write our beautiful daughter is fast asleep so I am grabbing this opportunity to capture what has been going on at the farm these last couple of weeks.

We did miscalculate our lambing dates...so the day I went into labour the 30 ewes all started producing as well. We have had some wonderful lambs but some sadness too with losing a ewe who produced a wonderful set of quadruplets but had suffered a prolapse so we were unable to save her. Our vet Adelle was wonderful and after safely delivering her lambs helped put her to sleep. We managed to adopt one of them onto another ewe and we are bottle feeding the other three. We have put a lot of them outside already, we have been lucky with the weather that it has been a bit milder and not wet. They are doing really well and we are giving the ewes sheep nuts and some hay to supplement what grass there is at this time of year.

The main flock of 253 are all inside now as of 2 days ago and we have had them scanned and our percentage is up on last year! We are at 198% which we are really pleased with. So the grand total is - 5 empty, 36 singles, 171 twins and 41 triplets! I think that is going to keep us busy! We have two veterinary students Nick and Rebecca coming to help us as well as the wonderful Melanie who has already been helping us with this batch of lambs and in fact is coming this afternoon to help us sort the ewes into the relevant pens according to how many lambs they are having so we can feed them accordingly.

We have been busy with our bookings for our 'shepherd for the day' experience and had Pauline and Matt (pictured above bottle feeding 2 of the quads) joined us a couple of weeks ago. We really enjoyed having them and we are looking forward to welcoming our other visitors in a few weeks time when the main flock start lambing. The lambing weekends are fast approaching too which we are hosting jointly with our landlords the Northmoor Trust, so we look forward to seeing many of you then. The dates are the 26th/27th March and the 2nd/3rd April.

The snowdrops and aconites are just making an appearance and it is now light still at 5 o'clock which is great and helps us look forward to spring even more.

I think I can hear someone stirring...more soon and thank you to all of you for your messages and support.

Camilla, Roly, Molly, Boris and Belle

Molly Elizabeth Sarah Puzey - 7lb and 5oz

Our beautiful baby was born on Monday 10th January 2011, at 4.25pm at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

. . . meanwhile, back in the lambing sheds the small group of sheep that were NOT due to start lambing for another few days decided to produce 1 single, 4 sets of twins, 1 set of triplets and one set of quadruplets! Unfortunately, the ewe that had the quads suffered from a very bad prolapse and Adelle our vet, had to put her to sleep. Thank you so much to Melanie Farmer, John Sargent, Chris Parker, Ian Jones, Pippa Lamb and Hilary Warburton for watching the fort whilst Camilla and I were in hospital.

More to follow soon

Roly, Camilla, Molly, Boris and Belle

New arrival....but not quite what we were expecting!

So we have had a new arrival...but with four legs and not two! With only one week to go until the ewes start lambing we need to be on the alert for any early appearances...and we had one yesterday. Very sweet indeed but sadly we lost her brother or sister who was very small indeed. When lambs are born this early they are very premature and their chances of survival are very slim. However, 'Titch' is doing really well and is happily feeding off her Mum who thinks Titch is wonderful! We discovered last night that Titch's Mum has got mastitis, which is an infection ewes can get in their udders. The udder is very hard and hot and very painful for the ewe. So we have given her some antibiotics and anti-inflammatory treatment and hope that will do the trick. We spoke to Adelle our vet who advised on some further treatment which Roly is picking up from the vets this morning. We will keep you posted on her progress.

In the meantime, no other baby news yet!

Camilla, Roly, Boris, Belle...and...Bump!

Happy New Year!

A very Happy New Year. 2011 is going to be an exciting year! As I write we are still waiting for the new addition to our family, a few days overdue now so taking each day as it comes....thank you to everyone who has been in touch to find out how we are, we will keep you posted!

We have increased the nutrition for our 30 ewes who are now due to lamb in just under 2 weeks, they are catching me up! Some of them look enormous, particularly those who are having triplets. I am only having one so am starting to feel sorry for them and how huge they are looking!

The snow has finally disappeared, it is always rather special when it first arrives and it looks so beautiful and untouched. By the time it has been around for over a week that initial excitement has completely worn off! The sheep rounds take a lot longer as feeding is built into the routine which doubles the time. The ewes would hear us coming and meet us at the gate. I would drive the truck slowly while Roly would be in the trailer in the back throwing out the hay onto the ground, we have put some photos up here to show you. Now the snow has gone there is still some grass for them to eat to tide them over until we bring them indoors in the run up to lambing at the end of March. The sheds are almost ready for them and we can't wait to have them all inside, it is a really special time.

We are looking forward to welcoming our visitors to be 'shepherds for the day' in a couple of weeks to coincide with lambing. There will be plenty to do! We will see if they might be happy to share some of their experiences on the blog so other people will be interested to come along and treat a family member or friend to an alternative present!

Do let us know if you would like to stock up your freezer post Christmas with some delicious local Oxfordshire lamb or mutton and a new year treat of a sheepskin rug....our friend Charlie has a gorgeous deep pink rug which she loves, take a look!

More news soon and thank you for reading....

Camilla, Roly, Belle and Boris...and..Bump!