[andywalt]

They are now starting to jump around the pen, how amusing it is....

[Rosemary]

Terrible timewasters, though 

[Brucklay]

They look so great - can't wait for my lambs - still a while for me though - March!!

[morri2]

Yes, I know what you mean, nothing cuter than tiny lambs starting with their first jumps.  Our little ram lamb started doing this today too.  Rosemary is right - it provides a very entertaining diversion!!!

[waterhouse]

and as the 19yo pointed out as good as a lab puppy for pulling girls....

[OhLaLa]

Looks like they have made a bed out of their hay?   

When are you planning to let them out with the grown ups?

Please keep us posted, very interesting. And more photo's please as they progress.....!!!

  

[faith0504]

oh they are lovely, well done 

[andywalt]

Ohhhlala

well we wont actually put them out until 2 weeks or so old, this is for a few reasons, the main one is that i am wary we have a lot of foxes around and I really want to put a few out in the field together, also where they are in a barn in the farmyard has some small industrial units with a couple of local companies, the lambs are causing a stir, lots of visitors.

tonight have seen another 3 bagged up so i recon i will get a few popping very soon.


thanks for all the comments

[waterhouse]

we've been keeping the lambs in at night and putting them out in the day for the last week.  We have them on clean pasture away from the flock with another heavily pregnant ewe for company (and so we can watch her). 

It is quite entertaining twice a day to pick up the lambs and walk the 50m or so with mum bleating and the companion following.  Actually the last couple of days the ewes have made it back in first: they know the way and seem happy with the shelter and food.  The lambs seem to enjoy the ride.

BTW for feeding colostrum with a tube we found that a syringe was way easier than a squeezy bottle

[andywalt]

thanks for that waterhouse, the only problem with putting them out for days is that the entrance to the field is away up the road, maybe if the weather is ok on the weekend we can put them out for sat and sunday day time when we will be around, the only thing is its not clean pasture ive just moved my other 10 ewes off that are due in april to another field, but I will worm her, give her a foot trim and a trim up around the backside.

[OhLaLa]

I have an untouched large grass area directly outside the barn where I will be putting the ewes to lamb, a lot of foxes here too, so am thinking it would be handy if I could (in due course), pop mums and lambs out on the grass for a few hours in the day. The area is not fenced off but I do have a couple of rolls of 4ft high electric stock netting. I'm unsure about using it for them though - advice - or other ideas please if it is a no-go. Thanks.

 

[waterhouse]

I'm not a big fan of netting for permanent or semi-permanent fencing but it has its place and temporary fencing it's good.  Because it's floppy a fox can't jump onto it he has to jump over it and they seem not to do that.  But because it's floppy it is quite hard to keep it taught and stop it earthing out.  You also get grass growing into it but not a big prob in January!

As always with electric fencing you need to make sure you get enough oomph into the wire from the energiser and that there's a really good earth connection for it.  If the fence isn't hot the real danger is that the lambs get their heads stuck through it. 

Gallaher Smartfence T4100 is a brilliant four wire 100m wind-out fence that is easy to deploy and to put away but it's £130 expensive.  I got one from Mole Valley at a special offer price and have used it a lot.  We're using it now to keep the lambs and mums in the orchard without them eating the trees, hedges, bushes and everything else.  It's also a second line defence against foxes who are populous round here.  The first line is howitzers...

[OhLaLa]

Thanks for the info, I took a look at the website, unfortunately can't see what it's like in use as no pic. Over £150 so not poss for me to get this time around but I will add it to the list and investigate.

In the meantime other options are elec post and tape, I have plenty of that but thought lambs would walk right through it - followed by mum?

No problem re powering it, just more concerned about lambs getting caught up in netting or escaping through tape.

Which is best?

? ? ?

[shrekfeet]

be very careful that your lambs don't get caught in an electrified netting. They won't live for long of you are not there to help!

[waterhouse]

We have stock fence all the way round the property with standoffs using 40mm tape to protect the fence from the horses.  It's also divided into paddocks just with tape for grazing rotation.  For the sheep we just added some lower lines mostly in rope or 20mm tape and found that once they got caught they left it well alone.  The lambs are in a strip in the orchard right now restrained only by electric string and it's working fine.  But then the fallback is the stock fence if they escape from the paddock.

I prefer white tape so that it can be easily seen, especially by the horses and dogs.  Stripey rope is good too and easy to handle.  I think the manufacturers suggest three lines of wire for adult sheep and five for lambs (initially spaced at 6" intervals) but they're selling the stuff and I hate wire.