There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting from eleven.
The first two are of our new Lamb, the three others are from Maddi of the Moose Calf.
That was a bit of a surprise this morning. I had only checked the Ewes udders a few days ago and there were no sign that a Lamb was going to drop this morning. As soon as we entered the barn we could hear the Lamb calling. Some how it had got on the outside of the pen. It was still wet when I picked it up so it couldn’t have been born to long. I was a bit concerned if the Lamb had got the colostrum from the Ewe, or even if it was feeding at all. I could see the Lamb trying to get on to a teat, but I wasn’t sure if it was being successful getting milk. I checked both side of the udder to make sure that there was milk coming out. One side was alright, the other I needed to start it off. The Lamb seems to be feeding alright now. It is a Portland Lamb. The other Portland Ewe has bagged up, so she will be lambing over the coming day. I have put an infra red lamp up facing the Sheep’s pen, so hopefully you will be able to see the Sheep during the night.
We have always been fortunate with weaning Foal off of the Mares. Put the Mares in a stable and the Foals in a secure field or stable the Foals together, within a few days both the Foals and the Mares accept it without any problems. Willow has been the exception. Initially yesterday she was fine in the stable between Emmi and Gypsy. That lasted until about 9.pm last night, when she was stressing so badly that we needed to keep going out to check on her to make sure that she was not going to hurt herself. We only went to bed when it looked as if she had settled, that was nearly 2.am. We got up early to see that she was alright. By the way that she had sweated up she had obviously had a bad night, and was still very agitated and throwing herself about the stable. We had no alternative but to let her Emmi and Gypsy out together with Willow, hoping it would quieten her down. It did for a few minutes, after that she decided that she was getting back with Lady no matter. In the end we have had to put Willow back with Lady.
I can see that weaning Willow off Lady could well be a problem. It will be my own fault for being too soft. We should have weaned her two months ago, but as I did not have a companion for her, I left it, giving her more time to be reliant on Lady as her food source. That really is the problem. Willow wants the milk. We have now got to stop her from suckling, Willow will then be easier to take off of Lady. Tonight we have put a mixture of Vaseline and Cayenne Pepper on Lady’s teats to try to stop Willow from suckling. As it is dry we have turned the Horses out tonight. As Willow and Lady entered the field, Willow went to suckle, trying both side of Lady’s udder, stopping we hope by the nasty taste. We will try that for a couple of days to see if it works.
We had hoped to have put Willow and Gypsy in the pen we have put up next to the Sheep. We would then have deep littered that area. Deep litter is to only muck out the dung, and adding new straw on top of the old. The underneath straw starts to compost giving off heat. It is a good way of bedding Horses in large areas, and saves a lot of work. We could then have put Emmi next to Lady, getting them use to each other for when they are turned out together with their Foals in the Spring.