Lambing Time

 So once again the busiest time of the year has come around. Lambing always seems to catch us not quite ready and prepared, no matter how hard we try. Every year is different, and this year has seen a few more single lambs than normal, probably because of the dry summer, but lots of healthy lambs and relatively few problems with the ewes. Sometimes we have to assist the ewes with their lambing, turning lambs around, untangling them and making sure the presentation is correct. The Vendeen ewes are quite easy to lamb because the lambs are unusually soft and flexible, and the head is not too blunt in shape.
 

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Straight after lambing we pen the mothers and their lambs seperately for a day or two to make sure everything is normal. After lambing the ewes are working their hardest, producing milk and looking after the lambs. Our sheep normally have two lambs, sometimes one and occasionally three - we even had a quadruplet birth this year.

We only keep two lambs on the ewes themselves, so these multiple births mean that we have a bunch of baby lambs to rear by hand every year. With up to sometimes over forty lambs arriving on the same day, this is an extra burden at a very busy time. We try to keep the lambing compact, so that it is spread over as short a time as possible. That way the lack of sleep is not quite so punishing.

Once they have lambed, the mothers and their lambs stay inside for about a week and if the weather is not too bad we put them outside and continue to feed them hay and concentrate feed there.