Wednesday 19 March 2014

A Lovely Spring Surprise

From my previous posts you will know how much I love my three lovely Southdown sheep Petal, Blossom and renamed Flower.


Flower, Petal and Blossom

The last few months have been a joy looking after them. They have at times been a bit cheeky managing to walk through the sheep netting which we don’t always put electricity to it, as we have stock fencing around the perimeter of the field. The netting is handy to just keep them moving onto fresh grass within the field and to protect newly planted fruit trees and to stop them wandering into the dew pond, which because of the wet weather can fill up and get muddy very quickly. We decided to move them into the old orchard on Saturday morning to keep the grass down as it is quite lush now and with all the daffodils out it looked really idyllic. Anyway I got up early on Monday gave them some of their favourite sheep nuts and fed the hens and geese in the orchard, went inside to make my hubby's breakfast. It was such a lovely morning we decided to have our coffee and croissant outside and watch the sheep and hens in the orchard. Then Oh dear something clearly wasn’t ok with Flower, she was bleating and looking very uncomfortable with mucus coming away from her rear end. My hubby and I are still very much novice shepherds with lots to learn. Petal, Blossom and Flower which are only shearlings are not due to go with the ram until next November, so we thought we had plenty of time to study and learn about lambing. Since they arrived last October they have never been near a ram, but quite clearly Flower had come to us with a liaison with some handsome ram that found her irresistible, as 20 minutes later out popped a very tiny very beautiful lamb which we have called Cherry.
 I don’t know who was more shocked Flower or us. It was a bit touch and go as I suppose she is a very young mum and although attentive we thought she was a bit reluctant to feed her lamb. But we have made a maternity ward for her with lots of fresh hay and treats and have also given her the option of using the polytunnel if it rains.


Flower in the labour  ward
Now I was panicking is that it or is there 2 more or maybe shes dead.


After a wash and brush up water and sheep nuts


Baby Cherry enjoying the Orchard and Sunshine

Cherry is still very weak but I hope she will be ok she is so pretty and has the most delicate bleat. It has all been very unexpected but we coped and hopeful she will be a happy fine ewe, for our new flock we can keep. She is very special to us being our first lamb and such a surprise. Gosh I feel so attached to her it would have been upsetting to have had to part from a baby ram.
Well I'm off to read up on tail docking and ear tagging, don't know whether I will be able to watch this.

12 comments:

  1. Bonsoir,
    C'est un merveilleux événement. Merci d'avoir partagé ces très jolies et émouvantes photos.
    J'espère que la maman va bien ainsi que les deux adorables bébés.
    Gros bisous

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    1. Un grand merci pour appeler à nous voir. Il était bon de vous entendre. Profitez du printemps.

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  2. What a dear little sweet surprise! I hope she grows into a strong lovely old ewe.

    Happy Spring ~ FlowerLady

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    1. Lovely to hear from you FlowerLady. It was a sweet surprise but a bit worrying at the time, but she seems to be getting stronger each day.
      Happy Spring and thankyou for passing by.

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  3. Ahhh. what a surprise. I hope all goes well. What a great spring post.

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    1. It certainly was a big surprise and I was so glad that I wasn't out for the day. My thoughts with you.

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  4. What a wonderful surprise :) I hope all goes well - she is incredibly cute!

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    1. She indeed is cute. I feel she is very precious we have had to protect her from foxes, buzzards and also a nasty crow gave her a peck when she was asleep today.

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  5. What a lovely surprise, now you don't have to feel so nervous when the next one comes along as you coped so well. I have never delivered a lamb but being a midwife in a previous life you never forget your first.

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  6. How lovely to have been a midwife with all those babies. Little Cherry is doing fine today.
    Have a nice weekend.

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It would lovely to receive your comments, hear about what you do and where you live. Thank you for visiting me here in the Orchard, I will reply as soon as I can. Do visit again. Many happy times.
Sarah xx