Author: Adrian Doyle

The calendar tells us spring is here though so far, the odd glimmer aside, the weather has remained pretty wintry.  However, winter or spring, the date for our ewes to lamb fast approaches.  The first is due April 10th, but could easily be early.

So, on Good Friday, we moved them.  This was a well planned operation.  First, we separated them at the gate between two fields.  We had to separate the pregnant ewes from those not expecting, namely last year’s lambs and a couple of adults with problems precluding them from giving birth.  That went quite well, though the use of sheep nuts to tempt them through the narrowly open gate was almost too much for the lambs who, being small, quick and agile, almost got past Nicole the gatekeeper.

Then it was a leisurely walk across the field, led by Nicole, while I ran on ahead to open the gates.  Across the field, down a steep slope, through a carefully cut hole in the fence, past the pond and into the lambing paddock.  The slope had been a bit of a worry because some of these ewes are massive and have quite short legs.  We had b=visions of them rolling down.  Thankfully, they negotiated it with no trouble at all.  In no time, the first 7 were into the lambing paddock.  However, the 4 lagging behind got it all wrong, missing the hole in the fence and gathering down the slope way below the entrance.

Nicole zipped over and led them through.

Now, a lot of thought has gone into this lambing paddock.  It has been months of work creating and building it, fencing, removing about 100m of chicken netting, removing masses of brambles, building and equipping the lambing shed.  We wanted a big shed with electricity and also access to grass.  This was the moment of truth – would the sheep like it.

Well, they love it.  A large, spacious and airy shed with fresh water and food just outside.  New views, grass that hasn’t seen a ruminant in years.  A hedge to browse.  Trees for a good head scratch.  What’s not to like?

And new creatures (hens) to observe.  The hens and sheep are sharing this area.

After a quick look round, it was time to stretch out in the afternoon sun.  Yes, afternoon sun! Mind you, the north wind was fair chilly but that’s not a problem when you have a thick woolly coat.

And now, it’s regular checks, ramping up to 3 hourly next week.  Ah, sleepless nights in store.  The good news is that the rams were only with the ewes for 2 weeks, so it should,  things hopefully going well, all be over by the end of April.  And then we’ll be posting piccies of lambs gamboling in the spring sunshine.

Last year’s lambing was hard.  We used an existing shed but it didn’t really go as planned.  We ended up having to lamb one ewe out in the fields and that meant a longish walk two or three times during the night for nearly two weeks (you can read about that here). Plus, the lambs were out of sight over the hill.

So, we had a think about it and decided to build lambing facilities in front of the house.  There’s a bit of an orchard there and it’s also where the chicken run is.  So, we drew up the plans.  It involves fencing on two sides.  One end already is fenced and the other has a dry stone dyke.  Plus, we need to fence the chicken houses and feeders off so they can get out but the sheep can’t get in.

It has turned out to be a long job.  This is mainly as other jobs suddenly surfaced and distracted me – pig pen extension, helping plumber with the new bathrooms, sorting out the new utility room.  And with winter approaching, all I had managed to get done was the hen area and one fence.

Luckily, my brother in law arranged a visit.  We told him to bring his drill!

The lambing shed is to nestle into a hillside so that it is tucked away out of sight.  This meant there was a bit of a drop, a metre in fact.  That seemed quite a lot, so I did some levelling.  When Matt got here, we got straight into putting the posts is.  This should have been a lot easier than it was.  However, the freezing temperatures meant the fast drying postcrete did not dry in seconds, but more like a couple of hours!  Nevertheless, we pressed on and got all the posts in.  It resembled a woodhenge!

We left them to settle and next day started on the walls.  We put up some of the walls to help stabilise things and then got to work on the roof.  We worked pretty much non-stop and by then of the day, we had all the roof beams in place and half the roof on.

Matt headed off home.  The news announced the imminent arrival of storm Caroline.  Great I thought, just what we need, high winds around a half finished shed.

But with Matt’s help, we’d broken the back of it.  I got the rest of the roof on and three walls up.  I left the fourth so I can dump some hard core in to make a better, and level, floor.  It survived the storm.

Now I am waiting for the ground to freeze this weekend so I can use the tractor to get the hardcore in.  Nearly job done.  And next year, lambing should be so much easier.  The ewes will have access to shelter, hay and fresh grass.  We’ll be able to watch them from our kitchen window.  And everything will be close to the house.

It’s two weeks to the winter solstice and the snow is falling gently outside as the afternoon draws towards night.  Storm Caroline is in the area but fortunately, the really high winds have passed us by.  It’s just a wee bit cold and blowy, so I thought I’d catch up with the blog.  It has been a few weeks!

Well, tupping time has been and gone.  We are targeting lambing for late April, so tupping was timed for mid November onwards.  Our two young tups (who we raised from lambs) remained blissfully unaware of the treat in store.  Over the year, they have matured and calmed down a bit.  This made raddling them easy, both their tummies splashed with bright yellow greasy paint.  It really helps to know when the lambs are due!

So one chilly but bright November Saturday morning, we began the process.  This was not just a case of throwing the two tups in with the ewes.  We had worked out the family trees and each tup was allocated 6 ewes.  All this year’s lambs plus one ewe with ring womb were to be kept apart.

So, first job, separating the ewes into three groups.  Nicole handled this and in next to no time we were ready for phase 2.  We moved the first group of six ewes into a small field.  Then, it was off to fetch Wart (these were his 6).  Nicole led him down with the halter.  Now, Wart and Wallace have never been apart so we had given Wallace some sheep nuts in the hope he wouldn’t notice Wart’s absence.

As we drew close to the six ewes, Wart caught their scents and was transformed from a reluctant foot dragging ball of wool to an eager beaver and was through the gate in a flash.  He couldn’t believe his luck and wasn’t sure which ewe to approach first.  The ewes were not that impressed to be honest and largely ignored him.  But, Wart was happy and we left him to it.

I nipped back up to Wallace’s field and Nicole went off to fetch the second group of six.  Wallace joined me in looking down the hill as they approached.  He remained remarkably calm, even as they came through the gate.  Of course, the first thing the ewes smelt was the sheep nuts and they were straight over to the trough.  This gave Wallace the chance to check them out, which he duly did.

After attempting to mount Peaches, who was not impressed, we noticed Vi and Vera had made a beeline for Wallace.  In fact, they stood either side of him making eyes and leaning into him.  If you can imagine a sheep flirting, well that’s what it looked like.  Wallace was happy.

We left them to it.  Wallace was indeed a busy boy and within 2 days 5 of his ewes had the tell tale yellow splodges on their rears.  In Wart’s field, a couple played hard to get so while most will be born in the first 3-4 days of lambing next year, there will likely be a two week window which we will have to monitor.

Of course, it’s never quite that simple.  A few days in, Nicole rushed back from the morning feed and check to announce that Wallace had taken his gate off and was in with Wart.  Well, we had to get him back because his mum and sister were in there!  Plus, Wart had access to his mother and grandmother.  So, we sorted them all out and reset the gate and tied it to it’s hinges.  And there’s me thinking only pigs could do that.

After around two weeks, the weather crashed and it became wet and cold.  So, we separated them back out so that they all had access to shelters.  Wallace and Wart were not that impressed at first and there was a bit of biffing.

But all is calm now, until April that is…