The toboganning sheep and other sheep adventures

Saturday 7th April 2018
Brown ram lamb has taken to the bath tub recently. Rambo is bemused.

Monster chicks, your time is up
The day started off with a bit of chicken culling. The time had come for some of the monster chicks as four of them met their maker. They have grown absolutely massive compared to the traditional breed meat birds we have been keeping. Two we jointed and two we kept whole for roasting. They were 3 and 3.4kg. Yes, kilograms, not pounds! I'll write a blog in the near future to summarise our experience of raising the monster chicks.

Fun and games with Rambutan
With Rambutan now two weeks old (how time flies) and looking strong, we decided it was time to move him and mum down to the paddock with the other ewes and last year's lambs.
The actual move was remarkably easy. Rambutan is being bottle fed, so he just followed me all the way down the land. The biggest difficulty was not tripping over him. And Ewe 0004 followed Rambutan.

There was the expected hustle and tussle when everybody met up again. This is always the most difficult time for the lamb as the ewes reacquaint themselves and sort out the pecking order. For maybe half an hour the lamb is vulnerable. Rambutan got butted over a couple of times but lambs bounce back up very effectively. However the young ram lamb was being a bit rough with him . I had considered this might happen. Luckily rams come with horns which in an emergency act as a good handle for catching hold of them. The only reason he had moved up with the ewes was because grass was in short supply in the top paddock, but now that spring is allegedly here that won't be an issue for much longer.

It was time for the older ram lamb to come back up to the top paddock with Rambo and brown ram lamb. For an hour or so he probably wished he had been gentler with Rambutan as the other too chased him around the paddock. Order was soon established though and no serious damage was done.

With that operation over and done, I headed for the veg plot where the soil was freshly worked and dry enough for me to plant my first early potatoes and my onion sets. The potatoes especially are a couple of weeks later going in than I would have liked, but sometimes in the UK you just have to bend with the weather.
I kept checking on Rambutan and was happy to see him following mum around the paddock, now separated from the rest of the flock. Everything had settled down after all the initial excitement.

I decided to take the dogs for a walk around the circuit path which passes the sheep. Boris and Arthur are fantastic farm dogs who have grown up with other animals. In a young lamb Arthur just sees the potential for another friend.
As we passed the sheep paddock, Rambutan came running over but he didn't stop at the electric fence. He carried on straight through it and started following me. The trouble with bottle feeding is that he now thinks I am his other mum.
I tried putting him back over the fence but every time he came back through. In the end I gave up and let him trot round the circuit with me and the dogs.  It must have been quite a sight! When we got back towards the farmhouse I put him over some metal hurdles to go back in with the flock and left them to it.

I briefly forgot about the sheep as somebody turned up to buy some of our turkey eggs for hatching out. I introduced them to Rambo, who turned on his charms, and we chatted about sheep and chickens and turkeys. It was at this point that the whole sheep moving plan went wrong. For our neighbour turned up on the doorstep holding Rambutan! He had become separated from mum again and was trying to get in with next door's four ram lambs.
I am not sure if he had actually got through the stock fence to next door, but they were worried about him if they took their hounds (their word, not mine) along the path, for they are not trained to be with livestock.

And so, for now, Rambutan and Ewe 0004 have returned to the back lawn. I shall have to come up with another plan!