These are this years little poppets!
Bertie is on the left. When Peewee lost her lamb we had rushed round to a friends farm who have hundred of sheep and who always have spare lambs, Bertie was our second from him. (I'll tell you about the first later) He loved Peewee but she wasn't so keen on him, so he became my first pet of the season.
Having raised Peewee on her own for several weeks during lambing last year, I knew that to have other sheep around was essential for company, but as we were coming to the end of lambing, the sheep that were inside would be turned out within a 24 hours.
We have had a glut of triplets this year, in fact about 25% of the flock. As sheep are only built to have twins, having two teats, many farmers take one triplet off and mother it onto another sheep with a single lamb, but we don't really have enough to make this viable, with such small numbers, so tend to keep families together until it becomes obvious that one of the three is not thriving as well as it could. Sometimes we feed the third in the field and sometimes bring one in. So with this in mind, Bob was brought in from the field, he is the one with an orange number 8 on his bum!
The lamb being used as a pillow is another triplet, she was being left on her own too much, so I brought her inside too. One of our lovely suppliers in the shop had come to see me one day, and came to do the lunchtime feed. Elizabeth was the one who named her....... Looks like a "Florence" to me she said, so that's what we called her, although that's been shorted to Flossie! She is lovely, quite feisty, she fought me all the way back from the field, but is a real character......
And finally the little sleepy head, curled up, and protected by everyone.... yes you've already met her........ Daisy who is this years baby!
As the weather is so nice here I have begun field training. Of course Bob and Flossie already know about fields, but Bertie and Daisy don't. They are all in an outside pen during the day, and are getting used to it very nicely..... next will be trailer training as their new home rather than the barn, with a pen made up round it and then they'll be free, probably at the weekend if the sun stays out!..... and always good for carriage later as they'll never be afraid of a trailer!
Bertie is on the left. When Peewee lost her lamb we had rushed round to a friends farm who have hundred of sheep and who always have spare lambs, Bertie was our second from him. (I'll tell you about the first later) He loved Peewee but she wasn't so keen on him, so he became my first pet of the season.
Having raised Peewee on her own for several weeks during lambing last year, I knew that to have other sheep around was essential for company, but as we were coming to the end of lambing, the sheep that were inside would be turned out within a 24 hours.
We have had a glut of triplets this year, in fact about 25% of the flock. As sheep are only built to have twins, having two teats, many farmers take one triplet off and mother it onto another sheep with a single lamb, but we don't really have enough to make this viable, with such small numbers, so tend to keep families together until it becomes obvious that one of the three is not thriving as well as it could. Sometimes we feed the third in the field and sometimes bring one in. So with this in mind, Bob was brought in from the field, he is the one with an orange number 8 on his bum!
The lamb being used as a pillow is another triplet, she was being left on her own too much, so I brought her inside too. One of our lovely suppliers in the shop had come to see me one day, and came to do the lunchtime feed. Elizabeth was the one who named her....... Looks like a "Florence" to me she said, so that's what we called her, although that's been shorted to Flossie! She is lovely, quite feisty, she fought me all the way back from the field, but is a real character......
And finally the little sleepy head, curled up, and protected by everyone.... yes you've already met her........ Daisy who is this years baby!
As the weather is so nice here I have begun field training. Of course Bob and Flossie already know about fields, but Bertie and Daisy don't. They are all in an outside pen during the day, and are getting used to it very nicely..... next will be trailer training as their new home rather than the barn, with a pen made up round it and then they'll be free, probably at the weekend if the sun stays out!..... and always good for carriage later as they'll never be afraid of a trailer!
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