There were three eggs waiting for me at Garth Hall this morning. I put them in the truck and Rascal appeared. He followed me through the wall garden so we could check the railway carriages. They were empty so we headed to the barn. I counted as I walked and saw 8 ewes, no lambs.
Ah well. It’s that stage, pre lambing. I’m looking forward to it so much and I’m a little disappointed each time I go and there aren’t any lambs. About 30 minutes after the first lamb arrives, the worrying will start and I’ll wonder why I was looking forward to it so much. I’ll still be pleased each time I see a new life but the pressure to look after them increases with each one. Lots went wrong last year and it was difficult. The weather was appalling, the mud horrendous and lots of first time mothers wouldn’t allow their lambs to feed. I became adept at tipping ewes or getting the lambs to suck whilst pinning an ewe in a pen. Emma took two weeks holiday to help as well, for which I was really grateful, but lambing lasted longer than that.Then there were pets to look after and it was draining. With the end in sight, Neil ended up in hospital and I ran out of help. I survived, barely. I lost only two lambs. An acceptable loss rate is 10% so that would have been 6. Ridiculously I’m looking forward to it. At this point!
After feeding the alpacas and rams, I had a good look around. No one was lambing. I checked the chicken shed on my way to the truck and the 4th hen had laid her egg. Excellent news.
During the time my dinner was cooking, I received an enquiry about an alpaca adoption + family visit. While I was dealing with the enquiry, I had a thought. It’s all a big surprise for one lucky lady’s birthday so we don’t know who she would like to adopt. I thought maybe they would like to visit and choose which one to adopt then instead of the other way around. I made the suggestion and it’s all agreed. It was more work for Jordan, making a new voucher and of course I’ll have to write up a bio if she chooses one of the alpacas that aren’t on the list but that will be OK.
I went up for the afternoon shift because the rain was due to start. I swear they give birth in rain more often than the dry! I put my warm, red Garth Hall coat on but the rain started on the journey. I looked in the back, no waterproof coat or cap. Bit of a bugger that. I thought they were there! I got my lambing kit rucksack and crook and set off. There were only 7 in the wellfield, Molly was missing. Rascal was ‘helping’ me by going in between my feet and trying to trip me up. My last hope was the railway carriages and she wasn’t there either. I went inside the one to message on the chat when I saw her, outside the carriages but behind the low wall so out of sight. She was oblivious to my anguish and happily sat there chewing the cud. Good old Molly!
I went to check the Nursery and area above the boys field next. I saw the black ewe and Beyonce. Beyonce is a Texel cross lamb. Her mother was clearly a bit of a wanderer as we don’t have any Texel rams 🙄 Texels are huge (really ugly) meaty and muscly sheep that look like they are on steroids. So, because she has a big bum, we call her Beyonce. A lot of thoughtbwent into that name 😂 The group she belongs to haven’t started eating ewe rolls and we had trouble finding them yesterday. They were safe today so I went off to the barn to get out of the rain.
I did a bit of an equipment inventory whilst in there. The medication of course comes home every night but there are other necessary things. I realised, we didn’t have bottles or teats there so I’ll sterilise them overnight and take them up tomorrow.
The forecast for tomorrow is rain so there are bound to be lambs born in the rain! Neil has put the wellfield lot in the barn though so at least if they give birth, they’ll be warm and dry.
Helen x
