Lambing time officially starts at Pry House Farm on 15th April however, for one reason or another, we have had two early lambs but overall we are expecting a slow start this lambing time. The walking season has also begun and for us, here at Pry House, that as also been slow however last weekend we had a family from north London staying and the girls were thrilled we had some lambs for them to see.
As the bed and breakfast business is quiet at the moment it gives me time to help Chris at this busy time in the farming calendar. Today we have been preparing the buildings for the coming days when we expect to get a lot of lambs all at once. This entails creating lots of little pens, each with a water bucket and hay net and bedded up with straw, ready to house a ewe with her lamb or lambs.
There are many reasons why a ewe may need to be brought indoors; cold, wet windy weather is the greatest cause when the new born lambs need help to get dry and warm and suckled on to their mothers. Once this is achieved they can soon go out again. Twins sometimes need to come indoors especially if one is weaker than the other and not getting its share of its mother's milk. Another reason is when a ewe loses her lamb and needs another one 'mothering on'. We often take a twin lamb off its natural mother and give it to the ewe who has lost hers. This is beneficial for both sheep; it eases the pressure on the ewe with twins (much easier for her to feed just one lamb) and allows the adopting mother to raise a lamb as she is expecting to do.
Some sheep have the luxury of lambing in the buildings, nice for the sheep as its warm and dry but it has its problems. The lambs can easily get mixed up or worse still 'get off' their mother, especially if she has had two. Individually penning up the ewe and her lambs solves all these problems.
lovely to see the lambs are on their way!
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