Rosie does it again, lambs this time!
10th April 2010 | Dee's Diary, Southlands Farm News
Rosie has been spending a week doing work experience lambing at our friends the Fenwicks; Tony, Sarah and their son Jack at Crookdene Farm. She has had a wonderful time thrown in at the deep end. She has risen to the challenges set. Delivered lambs, Tail docked, castrated, revived, stomach tubed, bottle fed. Leapt off the quad to flatten a sheep, brought in flocks, and turned them out, depending on the weather.
However the thought of having sheep here again has crossed our minds (possibly not Charles!) and Rosie’s stint at the Fenwicks seemed to catapult the idea. Half way through her week the idea of pet lambs cropped up and under the guidance of Tony and Sarah they hatched a plan that Rosie could take home six pet lambs. On the last day I got a phone call saying could the lambs come home with Rosie that night!
I then spent the day mucking out a stable, disinfecting it, filling it with lovely fresh straw and a few bales round the sides for extra comfort for our new arrivals….a trip to Farmway to get lamb milk, teats etc. and we were ready. Pampered lambs or what!
By tea time the chosen six were marked and ready to go. We put them in the boot of the Grolly (Charles’ ancient Range rover) and brought them home. They seemed pretty small in the stable at only four days old.
They have been named Blossom, Florence and Clover all white faces. Wonk because it has a wonky ear, Pixie as it has a little pixie face and Kid because it is grey brown and looks more like a baby goat! They are getting round the clock TLC from Rosie with GCSE revision sandwiched in between bottle feeds and they seem to be thriving on it!
A week on it is wonderful to see them leaping from bale to bale and skipping about. Kid had a naval infection but we hope we have caught it early and she is on a course of antibiotics which we think are doing the job and her feeds are picking up. All the lambs are ewes and Rosie has already made plans that they may return to the farm to be bred from next year. Then we will be “Lambing Live” here too!!!
Rosie has been so lucky to work with such a lovely family and has signed up to help again next year. It is a big commitment to bottle feed for several weeks but if they all survive it will be very rewarding and they will be the beginning of our Southlands flock.
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