Three of the Ewes lambed today, two sets of twins, one set by another Crossbreed, another set by the Dolly the Texel Ewe, another Portland also had a single lamb. I put the camera on them this afternoon, you may have seen two Fox sniffing around Dolly’s pair, and Dolly chasing them off. I should think that the Fox were a pair with cubs, we see them most years in that area with their cubs, hopefully we will catch them on camera in a few weeks time. It is unusual for the Fox to take healthy lambs, that are on their feet. The Fox may take a weak lamb and sometimes a lamb that is being born.
I think this would be the first lambs that the Texel Ewes have had. They were orphaned lambs and hand reared by a child. They are quite old and it is nice that they have had lambs. Most we have named, Dolly, Minty, Cranberry etc. They are very friendly and will feed from your hands.
We walked down the valley before we put the Ewe and lamb in the barn tonight. When we went back to put them away, we found them waiting by the barn door, Ky who had run on in front, was sitting by the side of the lamb. I reckon Ky thinks the lamb as a playmate, or maybe dinner. The Ewe looks forward to coming in of a night, and is making sure she is not forgotten.
I bottle fed the lamb late last night, somehow without me realising, as I left the barn, the lamb managed to squeeze itself out of the barn door. The Ewe let me know by bleating, I quickly looked around the barn, not seeing the lamb I went out to look for her, there was the lamb running to the paddock, were they are put in the daytime, without a care in the world, not caring if its mother was with it or not. It would not survive out on it own, the Fox would soon get her, still being weak.
Ladies udder is very large, with a little waxing of the nipples, I wouldn’t swear to it, but it looks like she will foal anytime. The Broadband connection went down just after 1.am, when it goes down, even for just a second, it turns the webcam sending signal off, I have to turn it back on manually. If I had known, no doubt I could have reset it immediately. It sometimes happens for a few night in a row. When I check Lady I will make sure the webcams are working, hopefully then they wont be off for long. I may even change Ladies camera over onto the Denbury Farm, camera one. Check it out if the foaling camera is not on.