Long May it continue

Hello everyone!

May was always destined to be our main lambing month. We had arranged for the unproven young ram 'Johnny Depp' to visit in December so that any lambs would be born when the weather was warm and the grass was growing.
Having seen Milly bring two new lambs into the big wide world we were full of excitement at the prospects of the other gimmers. Of course the main priority being for the freezer to be filled for over winter and beyond, but Debbie had also wanted to look at the possibility of keeping some of the ewe lambs for our own breeding stock.
It started on 9th May when we woke at 6.30am to looked out of bedroom window and see Daisy with her two lambs who had literally just been born, again a ram (Ramsey) and a ewe (Buttercup)
On 13th May 5am Cruella (she is the foot stamper of the group) found to have just lambed two ewe lambs (Bluebell and Lavender) again no problems, and thanks given for no assistance required!
Then on the 17th Rose who we were starting to worry about produced a ewe (petal) and a ram (patch) after we called the vet out. She had a condition called ring womb, which meant that she was not dilating fully, not helped by the first lamb pushing against her hip instead of her cervix. Although we had to call the vet we learned so much from this lambing and hope that the next time this condition presents we will be able to assist the ewe ourselves.
Finally on the 27th May early in the morning again Lilly produced twin rams (Little Fella and Ferny) initially things seemed fine and we were beginning to think we had unbelievably gotten away with no major problems but we found over the last few days that Lilly has paid less attention to one of her lambs Ferny which meant that we had to bring the three in and supervise the feeding hopefully only for a few days. She was butting him away from her yesterday but seems better today, strange how this has happened after a few days especially with no sign of any mastitis.
All in all couldn't have worked out much better 5 rams and 5 ewes. Although we have banded all their tails the boys are left intact as we feel they grow much better like this, and also leave no option for us to keep them. The ewes I think will be grown on as breeding stock although this year we will again rely on our current stock to produce the goods in 2006. Most will probably be sold on once they have weaned next year's lambs.
In the middle of May we also implemented a plan to produce pure breed New Hampshire Red hens and Light Sussex hens. They had all been living free range together with our two cockerels one of each breed, but this would be a case of very hit and miss where the purity of breed of the chicks were concerned. So to ensure we have pure stock I made a hen house and run then introduced the New Hampshire Red cockerel to it with two girls to keep him company. We will leave them for three weeks to make sure purity of the fertile eggs then incubate eggs from then on, unless they go broody themselves, which seems to have happened to another of the Light Sussex hens. Time will tell! The two rejected Piglets Jake and Elwood finally moved to their own big paddock next to the sow Baby and her piglets and promptly tried to get stuck into one and all thankfully the stock proof fencing held and their squabbles have become less and less, to the extent that any skirmishes appear to be nothing more than a token gesture now.
Doesn't time fly just seem like yesterday when Jake and Elwood were born and all the problems we experienced nearly 4 months ago! They are at that stage now where you can see them growing before your eyes and in another few months will be going on that final journey to the abattoir.
As you can see things have really turned around again and I could write an essay on the productivity in the polytunnel but shall leave that until next month just incase we have an uneventful month!