Lambing has officially finished for this year!

Well that's lambing over for another year.
On Monday morning this Scottie gave birth to twin lambs, totally unaided. She had a tup (the lamb stood up) and a ewe (the one laid down) lamb. They get the prize for the cutest of this year's lambs

Then this morning Allium produced twins, the tup lamb (the one of the left) had to be helped out by Tim, followed by a ewe lamb, which too had to have a bit of a help as she was stuck by her back legs. The final count of lambs is 41, 26 tup lambs, 15 ewe lambs. We actually had 43 lambs but two were born deformed and so we had to humanly destroy them, not a nice task.
The other Scottie that was left to lamb, Tim and I turned her over to see if she had any milk in her udder. She had very little or no udder to speak of and a quick feel of her stomach confirmed that she was not pregnant. We will put her to the tup again this November to see what happens as it has been a tough winter.
We have one other ewe and her lamb in the barn, it's a Scottie with her tup lamb that was born last Thursday evening (Tim had to assist). Feeding up on Monday night we noticed her lamb was not at all well, so into the barn they both came. A quick jab of antibiotic and a warm barn usually dose the trick, but to be safe I rang the vet just to check and he suggested another dose of Watery Mouth medication as he may not have got a lot of his mother's colostrum. Yesterday he was still with us, but not improving, so I rang a local farmer to come and check the lamb out, and it was a chance comment about Selenium deficiency that everything fell into place. Our land is low in Selenium, so I did a quick dash to the vets for some medication for the "little man". Today he's a lot better, but still has a long way to go.
So tonight we are enjoying a long earned bottle of wine and tomorrow morning the alarm will be turned off!!!!!! But I bet we will be awake at 5am!!!!

We're on the final leg....

3 lambs have been born since last night's blog.
This is Anya's tup lamb, born yesterday morning with a bit of assistance. As you can see he's a big lad.
This is the only female Scottie lamb to be born so far this year. She was the one born as I was doing last night's blog. We will be keeping her to add to our future breeding stock.

This Scottie tup lamb was born this morning. We had to assist with the birth, he again is a big lamb, so the ewe needed help pulling him out. But he's fine, up and about and feeding well.
The little lamb that has the "rattle" is improving and hopefully he and his mum will be able to join the other new mums and lambs out in the field tomorrow.

Only 3 ewes left to lamb.........

10 lambs born this week!!!!

Well actually it's 12, Anya had hers today and just as I'm starting to do the blog one of the Scotties has given birth.
Anyway here's the role call so far this week,

Bernice with her ewe lamb born on late on Monday night
Here is Cicely with her twins, one of each a ewe and a tup lamb, born early Tuesday morning

This Scottie with her tup lamb born on Wednesday

Also on Wednesday, Beatrix with her 2 tup lambs. The first time she's had twins

On Thursday evening, Tim had to chase this Scottie, down the field with the lamb's head hanging out. A leg was back and one pulled forward he was born, no trouble at all. For the first 24hours we were giving this little man a bottle as his mum's milk had not "come down". But she's feeding him fine now.

This tup lamb was born Friday lunch time. But today he's not very well, he has a loud rattle on his chest. But a couple of shots of antibiotics should pick him up. We've also given his mum a shot as well in case she's carrying something in her milk to make him ill. This evening the "rattle" is a little quieter.

Finally, ear;y this morning, with no problems, Abbi gave birth to twin lambs, a ewe and a tup. The lambs were up and suckling and look to all the world as if there were several days old.

Anya and a Scottie have had lambs today, but I've not had chance to take photos. These will be posted tomorrow, hopefully.
Only 4 ewes left to lamb. We should finish lambing on Wednesday and it can't come soon enough!!!!

Just like buses, nothing happens.......

then two ewes decide to lamb. Not at the same time, but on the same day.

The first to lamb was one of our "old girls", Amber, this will be the last year she will have lambs. We are to retire her from breeding this year and she will join her daughter, Amy and Brazil looking after the young gimmer lambs.

She had her lambs just before 2am this morning. I'd checked all the sheep at midnight and Amber was starting to "nest", so I decided to check again 2 hours later. By which time she'd had both lambs (a ewe and a tup lamb). Both were up and about and trying to suckle. So I put them into a pen, sprayed their navels etc. Gave mum a much needed bucket of water and left them to it. It was 2.45am when I finally crawled into bed.

Tim did the early morning check, nothing was happening. The Resident Vandal arrived and after a quick cup of tea we all did a ewe check to find that Emma was busily licking a lamb.

A quick check to see if she was having any more lambs and then take her and her tup lamb into the barn. He's a sturdy little fellow and considering this is her first lamb, he's looking good and she is such an attentive mum.
This evening Cicely and Berniece are making signs of pending births. Cicely has claimed the outdoor sheep shelter. It could be a long night for Tim and the Resident Vandal, I'm having an early night as I'm working at the Employment tribunal in Newcastle tomorrow.

Other stuff that's got done whilst waiting for the lambs

As the weather has been so dry and fine, it's been good to be out and about. I've taken the time to get on with some seed planting in the greenhouse and veg garden. I recon that I'm about a month behind with my seed planting. So far I've managed to sow in pots in the greenhouse, peas, brussel sprouts, summer and winter cabbage, leeks and tomatoes, and then today I finally got my seed potatoes planted out in the deep beds. I also cut the grass in the wooded area for the first time this year and used the clipping to mulch out the newly planted potatoes. I'm hoping this week that I can get my parsnip seeds sown as the soil is now warm enough.
We've also managed to get all of the chopped wood split and stacked away in the shed. Now just need to get the rest of the wood pile chopped so that we can get it split and stacked away ready for next winter. It's not even summer and we're already planning for winter!!!!!!!!!!

Latest Lamb pictures

Early on Friday morning one of the Scottish Black Face sheep gave birth and when Tim did the 5am check he had 2 lambs and 2 mums claiming them. He got them all into the barn and by the time I came to help, the right mum had both her lambs. The other Scotty was quickly evicted from the barn, but continued to respond to any lamb that called all day. We did check her but she had not given birth and so we expected her to have her lambs pretty soon, but so far nothing.

These are 2 more tup lambs
On Friday Sharon and Chris came for the weekend as Sharon wanted some "hands on" lambing experience. Predictably not a lot happened, though Missy obliged and produced twin lambs, totally unassisted early Saturday morning
The spotty lamb in front is a ewe, with the tup lamb behind. Both are great "clod hopping" lambs. Unless something drastic happens we will be keeping the ewe lamb to add to our breeding flock. It's a pity we don't know anyone who wants a new tup, as this little man has the looks of a great tup.
No more ewes have lambed today, I think they are all waiting for tomorrows arrival of the Resident Vandal!!!!!!!

Ariadnne has done it again....

had triplets, for the 3rd year on the trot. But she wasn't the only one to give birth yesterday.
In the morning Carmen finally gave birth to her twin ewe lambs, though she took her time over the birth. From the first lamb being born to the second one, it took her 1 hour and 20 minutes. She was so easily distracted from giving birth, but in the end both lambs were up and about and feeding well. This morning they have all gone out into the field with the rest of the new mums and their lambs.

It was around tea time that Ariadnne went in to lamb and it was all over in less than 1/2 hour. The last lamb to be born was coming out backwards, but it came out so fast that it thudded into the rails on the hurdles. Three lovely little, or not so little ewe lambs.
In the picture the lambs are stood in the order they were born, with the first in the front and the the last at the back. They are all still in the barn and will be for a couple of days just to make sure all the lambs are feeding well, but on past record this will not be a problem for Ariadnne. We will watch her lambs with interest as they may be kept as replacements for some of our older ewes.
No lambs were born today, which makes 2 ewes overdue, a Scottish Blackfaced and Missy.