I'm not sure how we came to have Holly, she was kept last year. She was scared, and skittish, and not at all friendly, but she is beautiful. I have taken great pains to try to socialize her and build her confidence, but until she lambed she had remained slightly distant, only occasionally letting me touch her face.
She went into labour one March morning, and wouldn't be caught in the barn.. so armed with a bucket of nuts, fooled the other sheep to feed at the trough and persuaded Holly to follow me to a pen... which she eventually did. The next stage was to gain her trust so that I could help lambing her.
This was the day that I discovered that using her mothering instinct to my advantage was a real help.... If you smell of the various fluids that a sheep is "passing" lets say... at this very delicate time.... and present them on your "gloved hand" to the ewe, she will lick them as if you were a new born lamb, thus bonding her to you and relieving the anxiety that she is feeling... The change in her was immediate and lasting... She clearly understood I was there to help her.
She delivered two grand lambs, and licked them clean... once this was done, Holly wanted to keep them in sight, obviously as a first time mum, worried that if she couldn't see them then she could loose them... It was the point at which they had backed her into a corner, so she couldn't move, I realised that it was becoming an issue so I intervened... pressing her against the side of the pen so she couldn't go forward of backwards and pushing the lambs under her, one on each side. She soon got the idea that sucking lambs was a good thing... and that they wouldn't be lost.
She went into labour one March morning, and wouldn't be caught in the barn.. so armed with a bucket of nuts, fooled the other sheep to feed at the trough and persuaded Holly to follow me to a pen... which she eventually did. The next stage was to gain her trust so that I could help lambing her.
This was the day that I discovered that using her mothering instinct to my advantage was a real help.... If you smell of the various fluids that a sheep is "passing" lets say... at this very delicate time.... and present them on your "gloved hand" to the ewe, she will lick them as if you were a new born lamb, thus bonding her to you and relieving the anxiety that she is feeling... The change in her was immediate and lasting... She clearly understood I was there to help her.
She delivered two grand lambs, and licked them clean... once this was done, Holly wanted to keep them in sight, obviously as a first time mum, worried that if she couldn't see them then she could loose them... It was the point at which they had backed her into a corner, so she couldn't move, I realised that it was becoming an issue so I intervened... pressing her against the side of the pen so she couldn't go forward of backwards and pushing the lambs under her, one on each side. She soon got the idea that sucking lambs was a good thing... and that they wouldn't be lost.
We kept her inside for 48 hours and then let them out into home field... She took them to a close corner just under the wall, and stayed there for the whole first day outside... Now she is one of our babysitters, and is so much calmer and confident with us as you can see... she's a fantastic mum and her lambs are really sociable... we may keep her daughter as she's a little belter,.... and still has the blue dot on her bum!
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