Because we were learning on the job this year we tried to let nature take its course as much as possible, however that wasn't always the case! Lambing outside bought all sorts of problems, especially as they grazing over 60 acres and we have no dog and no pens!!! Norfolk farmer's favourite method was catching them in the dark, blinding them with headlights and pouncing from nowhere, although he did have several long chases in the light, who needs a dog! We had 44 safe arrivals, 5 of which are being hand reared in the garden.
These were our first pet lambs, both from triplets. We decided from the beginning to only leave ewes with twins because of them being outside, it was more difficult to keep an eye on who could cope with more than twins and impossible to adopt any off to an ewes with singles. As you can probably tell they were in the house, being the first we were not totally prepared for triplets having not scanned any of the ewes (definately a job for next year). So the first pair lived in the kitchen for a week while we waited for the arrival of out calf hutch!
There are five lambs living in there, the one you can't see is Wobbles. Wobbles is our special lamb, we think she suffered a spinal trauma during birth and was unable to walk, we removed her from her mother as she couldn't feed. She has made a massive improvement and is slowly learning to walk again!
Lambing has really pushed our sentimental side of farming not knowing what is a hopeless case and what is worth spending (alot!!) time nursing back to health.
We have always strived to stay on the right side of sentimental and practical when it comes to the livestock side of farming as we believe this creates not only happy animals but also happy farmer and family.
Although the busy time of lambing is done we look forward to sharing more about the farm with exciting times ahead.
Sounds very exciting! Lovely pictures especially of the Norfolk Farmers Wife!!
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