We feed the Dorset Ewes with a special feed for breakfast and tea each day, to help provide them with a balanced diet to keep them healthy in themselves and to make sure that they keep producing the vast amounts of milk that their offspring need to grow. There are three lambs who decided some time ago, that they should copy their mums and do the same, the trouble is that they aren't tall enough to reach the trough, so they climb in and potter up and down it instead... not very clever when they have trodden in things which should't be eaten!!! This is chunky little Annie... she's not blind, its the camera flash.... She's exactly 1 month old today and is demanding solids...... We put the mum's feed in the trough that is attached to the wall in the old barn extension, and 3 little hungry lambs have taken to escaping through the main gate in the barn which acts as a lock between the storage area and outside to steal food which was set aside for Tabatha when she lived in a pen while... So we've put the little dividing gate back which separates the old barn extension from the new.. feed the mums and then tonight have bundled all the lambs together to enable them to munch their creep feed without being hassled by the ewes... it was the first attempt, and worked perfectly........ so I fished Ellie out of her pen so she could join in and integrate at feeding time...... she was brilliant until the mums had finished and started to call for their lambs.... we had to let them mix in again, at which point Ellie came to find me and asked to be picked up, it was all too much.... we'll try again tomorrow and eventually the amount of time will extend and allow the lambs to finish their meal without becoming agitated........ and Ellie can learn how its done too!
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July 2017
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Welcome to my Blog
My long suffering partner and I love where we live and our growing flock of Ryeland and Mule sheep. At the rear of our home we tend a pretty cottage garden and at the front, just over the road, a walled and terraced vegetable garden which steps down to Walden Beck. We grow our own fruit and vegetables, and also keep a few hens and hives of bees...... And we run this lovely little country shop!
........Happy Days!