Our first lambs

[Pford75]

Having had pigs, chickens and ducks previously...our first lambs finally went out into the paddock after weaning. Intended for the BBQ and freezer later this year.

 

[Hatster]

Gosh, they're beautifully clean!

I'd like to say 'ah, how cute', but since they're for eating I'll just say 'yum, how tasty'.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I'm dying of a cuteness attack! They're just beautiful.

I want to sing Handel's "All we like sheep" to them! We like sheep!

 

[Hatster]

I sing that at sheep too! And "fleecy flocks"

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol:

I also quote Blake at them.

"Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?"

They tend to look really confused at that.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Hey, well done--- you must be pleased to have got this stage after all your hard work in the house.

Joss

 

[Schoolmarm]

Why are all mine still with their mums? What have you done to get mumless lambs?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

MMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmint sauce

 

[DaveBrigg]

Is that environmentally friendly loft insulation they're wearing?

 

[yamin]

I hope you have a big freezer!! What a lovely (and delicious!) site. Hope your soft side doesn't get the better of you!

 

[Pford75]

What have you done to get mumless lambs?

We purchased them from a local breeder. They have to be bottle-fed when first purchased and then gradually weaned....so we have had them in a barn for the past 4-5 weeks. It's meant feeding them 4 times a day, which was quite an effort...

 

[Schoolmarm]

That is more work than lambing :shock: although you will have got rid by winter and I will still have sheep to look after I suppose.

 

[Hatster]

I also quote Blake at them.

"Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?"

Also "Did he who made the lamb make thee?". If I happen to see any tigers in the same field.

 

[Gervase]

I rear our molly lambs on a feeder bucket after the first week or so, and that's enough of a pain (it has to be cleaned and refilled twice a day and the teats checked - and often replaced where the little beggars chew them), so bottle-feeding that crowd for a month must have been a major job.
If you're going to keep any, make sure you don't keep any intact rams - hand-reared rams are dangerous, as they have no wariness of humans and can easily break your leg with a 'playful' butt at a year old.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Blimey.

Molly lamb ounds particularly cute, what are they?

 

[skier-hughes]

Plus when you have 47 ewes like we did, making sure one of them isn't a ram leads to more babies like yours. So instead of going off to slaughter they went into a field to produce!!

 

[Schoolmarm]

I rear our molly lambs on a feeder bucket after the first week or so, and that's enough of a pain (it has to be cleaned and refilled twice a day and the teats checked - and often replaced where the little beggars chew them), so bottle-feeding that crowd for a month must have been a major job.
If you're going to keep any, make sure you don't keep any intact rams - hand-reared rams are dangerous, as they have no wariness of humans and can easily break your leg with a 'playful' butt at a year old.

Apparently, or so I read, more people are killed per year by rams than bulls :shock: we have got two tups, one is an absolute sweetheart and the other is a complete b#stard.
I go suitably equipped if I need to go anywhere near him.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

We have grey-faced dartmoors. The ram is a swine and I am sure is pure evil. They are a bugg£r to shear - very thick coat. Got it down to 45 mins per sheep last year - am hoping to break the 40 minute barrier this year!!



Here's an unexpected addition to the flock - found bleating woefully in the snow on the bitterest day this year, and brought inside at just an hour or two old. She'll taste very sweet come this October... The moral of the tale is to move your ram early enough from the ewes in summer!

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[FamilyWiggs]

and the other is a complete b#stard. I go suitably equipped if I need to go anywhere near him.

Suit of armour, and electric cattle prods?

 

[Gervase]

Luckily I've got a 'fluffer', a vasectomised ram* who goes in with the ewes for a couple of weeks before Guy Fawkes' night to get them in the mood. By the time he's had his fun firing blanks, the little jezebels are so keen that the main tup does his business in one cycle, so all the lambs come within a week or so of April 1st. Apart, that is, from one ewe, who held out for another fortnight this year. I can only imagine that she was the ugly one...

*not a deliberate choice - I literally made a balls-up with the castration ring, so he had one nadger tucked up in his abdomen - cryptorchid being the fancy word, and 'bucky ram' the vernacular in these parts. I was assured by two neighbours that he'd be sterile, so he ran with his half sisters for a few weeks, only to produce a batch of gymslip mums with very pathetic lambs the following summer. £50 and 15 minutes on an upturned table later he was vasectomised and now, at least, has a job to do as teaser.