Devonshire April May 17

was no visible evidence that
she had lambed, no blood, no
afterbirth, nothing. I didn’t
think I needed to examine her,
but just to satisfy my theory, I
tried; my little hands weren’t
going anywhere... she had not
lambed. I looked up at Edward
and was about the mutter
“idiot”, but decided to smile
instead.
“What are you smiling at, why
don’t you examine her?” My
dear husband was confused.
Edward shook his head in
disbelief. He explained that he
didn’t see the ewe lamb but had
found her cleaning it up when
he came down to the barn and
did a check. I asked him if he
had his glasses on when he
checked - another poor joke!
I nearly added that If he had
looked at her back end, I might
still be snuggled up in bed, but
thought the better of it!
Our ewes are housed in big
pens and no one is perfect -
things do get overlooked. We
other lamb you penned up. She
was scanned for 2, the first
she had was stolen by a very
jealous mother to be. Edward
was obviously upset and still
waiting for his bollocking, so
with a cheeky, sympathetic grin
I said:
“This isn’t the first time this has
happened, and it isn’t the last,
so don’t beat yourself up - you
did the right thing by calling
me, otherwise I might have
beaten you up!”
Janet East is the proprietor
at Yellingham Farm, also
running a Farmhouse B&B
establishment
www.yellinghamfarm.co.uk
01404 850272
“That lamb is not hers, she has
stolen it from another ewe,
which means there is a ewe in
the big pen where she came
from that has lambed and
literally has been robbed and
this ewe here has yet to have
her lambs”.
both went into the big pen
in question and sure enough,
there sat in the corner, quite
unperturbed was a ewe
pushing and in no time at
all a lovely large Jacob lamb
was born. On getting closer, I
said, this is the mum of that
All was well in the end. I was
right with my prognosis. At
least that ewe had one lamb
to look after, even though she
should have had twins - bit of
a waste of a teat though! We
let the thief keep her stolen
goods until she lambed herself
and because she did have
twins, sadly “orphan annie” as
we called her was taken away
and put on the bottle with
other homeless, but very happy
lambs. - Janet
FARM CALENDAR
APRIL
• Move feeders and hay
racks out to fields
• Build large pens in the
field for catching up ewes
and lambs when necessary
• Continue to take out ewes
and lambs to the field
• Decide which fields to let
up for hay
• Clean out lambing sheds
and disinfect when
lambing finishes
• Start, yet again, mending
fences as lambs find holes
that didn’t exist
• Enjoy the wonderful sight
of ewes and lambs in their
natural environment.
MAY
• Check fencing and
repair - lambs find a hole
anywhere
• Chain harrow and roll
fields when dry enough
• Worm lambs after 6 weeks
• Vaccinate lambs against
sheep related diseases - 2
injections 2 to 4 weeks
apart
• Keep a close eye on
condition of ewes as lambs
get bigger and bigger
• Trim ewes feet after
housing
• Clean out and disinfect
barn after lambing
• Let up fields for hay.
• Book the shearer before he
gets too busy
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