We may have finished lambing weeks ago but there's still daily checking and looking after required.
Ewes with twins in our low fields get sugar beet every day and are counted to make sure none are missing or ailing.
My herdy lambs are in the low fields and like the Swaledale lambs are beginning to eat cake too.
However unlike the Swaledale lambs who hardly alter in appearance, the
herdwick lambs change very quickly and develop a white mask-like face
and grey legs. Marco is changing faster than the gimmer twins who are
still quite black except for their white tipped ears!
Pet lambs are part and parcel of lambing time and are a great source of delight to friends who like to come and bottle feed them.
Not all sheep are able to rear their lambs particularly if they have twins. Occasionally we have to take one away and it becomes a 'pet lamb'. Similarly not all lambs survive either. When this happens we quickly 'mother on' a pet lambs so that the ewe has a lamb to raise. This year however we have been left with three pet lambs that didn't get a mother. I have called them the Three Musketeers!
Today, as the sun shone warm and bright, we put them in the little field by the house. They have a lean-to shed where they can shelter and they will get milk and lamb pellets to supplement all that beautiful meadow grass! I have reared pet lambs before (they were the Three Amigos) and they get up to all sorts of mischief. Why? No mum to keep them in order. Watch this space!
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