We had one Poll Dorset left to lamb at the beginning of the day, therefore a pen was required! All the sheep were hungry this morning so I wasn't expecting any action today.. so I thought it was time for Tabatha and the girls to be unleashed onto the rest of the inhabitants in the barn.... I removed the gate separating Ezmie and Louisa's gang from the rest and then opened the gate for Tabatha to mix in... everything went ok for the first half an hour until I stepped back in... as I bottle feed the triplets, they know me very well but I wasn't expecting them to follow me around instead of their mum! This resulted in Molly taking umbrage with Tabatha, and a battle broke out..........
I stood back as they need to sort it out themselves, and watched as the 3 lambs hid in safe places, well all except Charlie who was enjoying her new found freedom and started leaping off the bales of straw that we have to segregate informal areas...... then Ezmie joined in for a couple of butts. I'd had enough removing Molly from the situation by gently putting my hand under her chin... she submitted immediately ........ Calm descended fortunately, then Phoebe started to lamb........
There wasn't time to clean a pen so I re-strawed the double pen where Tabatha has been living and Phoebe strolled in, unaided, as she could see it would be much more restful there......... more about her later.......
Meanwhile, back with Tabatha, she couldn't keep control of her lambs at all, Nigel had arrived by this time, so we made a corner pen in the barn and penned her up with Davinia and Ellie, who are suffering with Charlies greed...... leaving Charlie on the outside until the little one's had their fill...... we will do this until they catch up a bit and I'll feed her instead of all three,...... Tabatha can regain control of them!.......
Now lots more has happened today, so I'll put it on a separate page... It'll be easier to fathom..........
Hope you're enjoying our early lambing... and thanks for @SmallholderUK for inviting me to be their weekly Tweeter this week! This is my first day...... if you want to follow our normal Twitter page, follow Woolnweave whenever you like...... and you can find us on Facebook too under Fabric of the Field or Clare Gardiner... Please Like us and tell your friends! xxx
I stood back as they need to sort it out themselves, and watched as the 3 lambs hid in safe places, well all except Charlie who was enjoying her new found freedom and started leaping off the bales of straw that we have to segregate informal areas...... then Ezmie joined in for a couple of butts. I'd had enough removing Molly from the situation by gently putting my hand under her chin... she submitted immediately ........ Calm descended fortunately, then Phoebe started to lamb........
There wasn't time to clean a pen so I re-strawed the double pen where Tabatha has been living and Phoebe strolled in, unaided, as she could see it would be much more restful there......... more about her later.......
Meanwhile, back with Tabatha, she couldn't keep control of her lambs at all, Nigel had arrived by this time, so we made a corner pen in the barn and penned her up with Davinia and Ellie, who are suffering with Charlies greed...... leaving Charlie on the outside until the little one's had their fill...... we will do this until they catch up a bit and I'll feed her instead of all three,...... Tabatha can regain control of them!.......
Now lots more has happened today, so I'll put it on a separate page... It'll be easier to fathom..........
Hope you're enjoying our early lambing... and thanks for @SmallholderUK for inviting me to be their weekly Tweeter this week! This is my first day...... if you want to follow our normal Twitter page, follow Woolnweave whenever you like...... and you can find us on Facebook too under Fabric of the Field or Clare Gardiner... Please Like us and tell your friends! xxx
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