Auchenstroan Wool

I can’t believe how tough lambing is turning out to be.  We have been doing 4 hourly checks for what seems like forever, but is in fact just 3 or 4 weeks.  On top of that, every ewe that has lambed so far has presented with problems of one sort or another.  Mainly, they just can’t seem to get the poor wee lambs out.

We have had amazing support from our friends who have come over at each birth and helped rescue the situation.  Of the 7 ewes that were expecting, 4 have now produced lambs.

Our best surprise was Bluemli.  She’s our youngest and is a first time mum.  We were expecting problems (you can do just a little too much reading you know).  Well, last night she did have trouble squeezing her lamb out, but with a little help, out popped a very cute ram lamb.  And Bluemli was licking it straight away, the first of our ewes to do so.  In fact, she’s besotted with her little lamb and talks to it constantly.  Having learned that this year, the RFBS deems names to start with ‘W’, we have named him Wart.  And this is not after those annoying little growths we sometimes get.  It’s after the nickname given to the the young King Arthur (before he was king) in T.H. White’s classic novel.

The best part of this is that we had Bluemli’s due date completely wrong, sometime in mid April).  Crafty Ginge, the ram, had obviously managed to have his way without leaving a mark a bit earlier than we had realised.

And then today, around lunchtime, Sky went into labour.  Now, Sky had been behaving a little strangely and truth be told, I had a strange feeling all was not well. She had been headbutting Bluemli while Bluemli was giving birth and then seemed fixated with her lamb – we had to put her in a pen  for a while.  Sadly, my fears turned out to be true.  The first lamb was still born and it seemed he had been dead before she went into labour.  We suspect that Sky was aware of this and hence the odd behaviour.

Thankfully, she was having twins and out popped a beautiful baby ewe lamb.  She has been named Winifred (after Nicole’s aunt) and is already Winnie (for short).

In the meantime we discovered a great device for feeding our orphan lambs.  As they grow, they are getting more and more frantic at feeds.  We now have a rack into which we can put their bottles and they can help themselves as and when they like.  Of course, the first attempt didn’t go too well, not helped by my not hanging it correctly and Larry (or wlarry as must his name must start with ‘W’ :)) kept butting it.  But, this evening they have got the hang of it and are starting to take smaller feeds on demand which is just great.

After the introduction to the deep end of lambing on Thursday, we spent Saturday waiting for Shelby to give birth.  We were hopeful it would not be a repeat of Thursday.  I mean, we love hand rearing the first two, but ideally they should be raised by their mother.

Well, around 7pm Nicole spotted that Shelby was in trouble.  We called a friend who also breeds coloured ryelands and asked for advice.  He had been quite “vocal” in telling us not to ring the vet if there was a problem, but to ring him.  Despite having 22 ewes of his own, he and his wife came round to help.  If Scarlett’s experience was traumatic, then I don’t really know what word to use to describe what Shelby went through.  Her cervix was even tighter.

It took some effort to get the first lamb out.  And then, well over an hour, nearer two, to bring out the second.  Working in such a tight, constricted and slippery place, it was proving almost impossible to get both front legs and head lined up correctly.  But he carried on and with the help of Nicole and some baler twine, finally we had number two.

To be honest, I couldn’t believe she was alive, but she was.  The best part of it all was the totally calm atmosphere throughout.  Shelby didn’t struggle, she just lay there as if she knew we were helping.  The other sheep kept a respectful distance.  Both lambs were presented to Shelby and despite being exhausted, and sore I bet, she immediately bonded with them.

But, she was so was so exhausted she just lay down.  We constructed a pen around her and the lambs where she lay so as she would not have to move.  Then we withdrew and left them in peace for an hour.  In the meantime, I drove over to our friend’s house to get some antibiotics and a decent syringe.  We have a huge lambing kit, but we had no antibiotics – typical!  When I got back, we gave Shelby a jab.  I say we, but Nicole actually did the injection, she is much braver than me.

Then we checked the lambs and decided to give them some feed by bottle.  We were able to milk Shelby to get some of her colostrum and then topped it up with some we made up.  Bottle feeding newly born lambs is not that easy, they don’t expect a rubber teat!  One of them just wouldn’t even try.  I popped her under my jacket and Nicole warmed up some towels on the aga.  Soon, she warmed up and began to wriggle and we were able to feed her too.  Then, once again we were up every two hours checking and giving them supplementary feed.  We were also really worried about Shelby.

But, the good news is that all three survived their ordeal and seem in good health.  Nicole has been training the young lambs (Camille and Florence) to use their mother’s teats to feed.  And they are learning, though still getting the odd top up.  And Shelby is proving to be a wonderful mother, she’s a joy to watch.

So today, being a lovely sunny day, we turned them out into the paddock.  The other ewes were curious and Peaches seemed a little put out and tried to head butt one of them (we couldn’t tell which one as they are virtually identical).  Before Shelby could intervene, the young lamb went head to head with Peaches and sent her scurrying backwards.

Checking later, they are all happy in the spring sunshine.

And Larry and Lisa continue to grow stronger every day.  I have taken a bit of time off work so will build them an outdoor pen in the paddock tomorrow so they can be outside among the others but safe.  Of course, we’ll be bringing them in at night into their luxury indoor bed :).

We have been on lamb alert for almost two weeks now.  We started 4 hourly checks  a week before we thought the first ones were due.  They finally arrived 6 days after the due date, on Thursday evening.  It was, however, not plain sailing.

In our first year of lambing, we have done everything we can to learn as much as we can about what we need to do.  Nicole has researched all the ins and outs and prepared laminated sheets and instructions.  We have both been out making sure everything was ready, lambing shed, pasture, emergency heating box and so on.  I only just finished the emergency heating box Thursday afternoon.

Later that Thursday, as I headed out to one of my Maths students, Scarlett’s waters broke.  Nicole had it all under control, so I headed off, after all I was only away for an hour or so.  When I got back, nothing had happened and the vet had been called.

It turned out that Scarlett had a very tight cervix and this was stopping the lambs from coming.  The vet duly delivered both lambs, but in the process, the whole bonding process was shattered.  And so, Scarlett would not accept her lambs.  The vet just shrugged and disappeared, but we kept watch.  An hour later with the lambs not getting any feed and just being pushed away, we tried to help.  We managed to get both to suckle for a short period, but Scarlett just would not accept them.

We took them indoors, made some emergency colostrum and bottle fed them.  We felt it was too risky to leave them with Scarlett, there was every chance she might accidentally crush them.  So we set up a pen in the living room, found a comfy quilt, turned on the under floor heating and set our alarm clocks for 2 hour intervals.  I was on 11pm, 1am and 5am bottle feeding duty!

Well, today, still not yet 2 whole days old, the lambs are prospering.  We tried many times to repair their bond with Scarlett but in the end we have decided to hand rear them.  And we have both bonded with them rather strongly it should be said.  They are a little ewe and a little ram, called Lisa and Larry respectively.

Today we built them safe quarters in the lambing shed where we will put them in daylight hours – it will be good for them to be among the sheep.  We also took them for a walk in the paddock.  Like all living creatures, they love the outdoors and need to feel the sun on their backs.  We had a lovely time and they were already skipping about.

Then after the 5 o’clock feed, we all fell asleep on the couch, myself and Nicole each with a sleeping lamb on our chests.  It really is quite magical.

As the ghastly winter rolls on towards spring, lambing time is fast approaching.  Our first lambs are due on 4th of March (give or take).  But the weather presented us with a dilemma.

Sheep like it outside.  But they, like the rest of us, can get a bit tired of the wet, especially if it gets through their fleece and onto their skin.  Generally, sheep are brought into the lambing shed about 2 weeks before the first lambs are due.  But we were not sure whether to bring them in early due to the constant rain.  If we brought them in too early, might they get bored?

Sheep are delicate creatures at the best of times, so any stress this close to lambing can be a bad thing.  Sadly, our hand was forced when one of the ewes miscarried about 4 weeks before she was due.  The vet suggested we could bring them in at nights until closer to lambing.

So, it was rubber gloves on, disinfectant solution prepared and the shed got a thorough clean.  Once it had dried, we put down a thick bed of straw and set up the hay feeders.  We brought them in early and they were ever so happy.  Dry feet (the paddock was very wet and muddy in places), out of the wind and rain and a plentiful supply of food and water.

Then, a quick trip to the local Agricentre for a trough for their high protein pre lambing nuts and we were all set.

And now, they are happy as larry in their shed and getting lots of attention.  Mind you, at nuts feeding time, it can turn into something of a scrum (see the picture!) as you try to spread the nuts into the trough.  They like their sheep nuts!

And for us, it’s fingers crossed that things will go well from here.