Thursday, 18 March 2010

Lambs...one week to go

The lambs are due a week today. Both ewes look on schedule, both bagging up nicely, although it is harder to tell with Freda, just at a glance.
Annie is tall, with clean wool free legs and a thin tail so her udder is easily seen. Freda is shorter, woollier and not so tame, I need to crouched down and look under her whilst she is feeding to note how she is developing.

Freda is huge. I am sure she must at least be expecting twins, as she is round on both sides. Twins will be fine, I certainly don't want her to have any more. She is a first time mum and I am not sure what to expect of her.

Annie is expecting her third set of lambs. Although she is looking larger than last year, I still think it may only be a single. When she lies down she is very one sided. For the past two years she has lambed a few days early, so we now need to start checking her last thing at night. Although previous years she has lambed during the day time unaided.

The grass in the Fowls run - the small paddock they will go in once they have lambed - is beginning to look greener, so although there will be less grass than previous years, at least there will be some !

This morning I noticed Annie was stamping her hind leg and kicking her udder whilst she was grazing. Her udder is fine it's not noticeably hot and I could feel no lumps, her feet are clean (stamping can sometimes be a sign of fly strike and foot rot, but not this time of year) so I guess she is just feeling a little uncomfortable as she gets nearer her time.


I will feel happier once both ewes have lambed, hopefully without incident.

5 comments:

A Green and Rosie Life said...

Oooh - exciting times. Keeping everything crossed for staight-forward lambing.

Rosie x

Sandra said...

Thanks.... yours look well :)

Anonymous said...

ahh! i thought you had lambs already from your new picture!

goodluck!

and isn't the grass poor for this time of year. perhaps todays rain will help

Sandra said...

: ) hopefully not too much longer.I need to decide when to bring them in...don't really want them lambing over night in the wet.
We are so low on grass this year but it has started to turn green again...a little.

A Green and Rosie Life said...

Same here with the lack of grass - but it has rained today and more is forecast so hopefully it'll look greener when I get back from the UK.

Rosie x