So far all of our sheep have been scanned in lamb, singles and twins are expected. We still have the other half to scan at the end of Feb, this was a slight undetected hiccup due to Ramiro being so poorly and his fertility plummeting, hence Gizmo having to step up to the job.
We start lambing the week of 10th Feb, kicking off with twins. All that week are Coloured Ryelands plus Humble our first Northumbrian bred Black North Country Cheviot expecting twins too.
We have now condensed all the flocks together as much as possible, primarily due to not so much readily available grazing. So all the ewes are together, that includes the Coloured Ryelands, the Black North Country Cheviots and the White North Country Cheviots. The ones that are due to lamb in Feb have had their Heptavac P boosters and are being fed Ewe Nuts to increase their nutritional intake for the growing foetuses. They will be treated against liver fluke next week and have the Brinicombes Pre-lambing mineral bucket.
The ewe lambs are all living together and are enjoying a big field, plenty of hay and hard feed. They have also had their Heptavac P booster and will be treated against liver fluke next week. They are growing really well and are a pleasure to own, they are always so pleased to see me.
The boys, oh the boys, there has been a lot of testosterone flowing and disagreements. So the time came to pull all the boys out from their girls, they had done their job. So the 4 Coloured Ryelands were penned tightly together to stop them fighting. They were only penned for 36 hours and then they were out getting along fine….phew!
Hotspur
I then had every intention of leaving Hotspur out a bit longer but circumstances dictated and he ended up being pulled out too. So I had to bring all the boys in and pen them tight together again. Wow – what disagreements. Twix was an utter pain causing trouble constantly, Ramiro and Hotspur really did fight it out which was going to happen as they are two older established rams. Poor little Wally just kept himself out of the way, and then there was Gizmo, oh my boy he is such a character and so clever! He very quickly worked out that if he lay down under each hay rack he would stay out of the line of fire and and be able to do his favourite pastime – eat, and so he could continue to do that, it was the funniest thing I have ever seen, he had it totally sussed. Anyway they finally decided they would get on and are one nice happy family now, they are out by day and in by night. They have had their Heptavac P boosters and will also be treated against liver fluke next week.
And last but by no means least Ewellery Jewellery continues to grow. I had a really good week trading in Basingstoke Christmas Market. Just getting signed up to all the County & Agricultural shows for 2018 to trade at, and I have now got my lovely Mum helping me with production. Sales have gone around the UK and as far afield as California now!