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Foster Lambing - 3rd Installment - Topsy Farms - By Sally Bowen
Foster Lambs at Topsy Farms - by Sally Bowen
Lambing at Topsy Farms - by Sally Bowen
Boys and Carrots - By Sally Bowen October 26, 2009
Lambing - By Sally Bowen June 02, 2009
Lamb Marketing - By Sally Bowen December 16, 2009
Foster Lambs - by Sally Bowen - May 28, 2008
Blog - by Ian Murray (April 30, 2008 - May 19, 2008)
Foster Lambs - by Sally Bowen (May 18, 2008)
Blog - by Ian Murray (May 12, 2007)
Blog - by Ian Murray (February 28, 2007)
Blog - by Ian Murray (February 26, 2007)
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| Foster Lambs - by Sally Bowen (May 18, 2008) |
During lambing at Topsy, we often have ewes who birth triplets. Some, who are in great shape and have lots of milk, are able to raise all three. This only works if the lambs are of similar size. If one is much bigger, or more frequently, much smaller, one must be taken away for the health of the others. Chris, our main shepherd, has been very successful in arranging adoptions with a ewe who only had a single lamb. Occasionally, a small hungry lamb has no acceptable mother.
So, our son Kyle and I are back in the foster lamb business.
One Mother's Day present was sitting with a blatting baby curled up on my lap (butt end wrapped in an old blanket) learning to suck, then proceeding to do so, busily.
I started at 5:30 am on a gorgeous spring morning, sitting outside, listening to the dawn chorus of birds and watching their busy mating rituals and (for the early birds) nest building and/or feeding squawkers. There is so much COLOUR right now. Our huge wild plum tree is a mass of white flowers, that are just starting to scatter its confetti-like petals when the breeze hits.
We have a big wire dog cage set up on the front verandah for overnight warmth for the foster lambs, and put the babies outside in the daytime in a small pen with the front yard ewes and lambs nearby.
The second day, a couple of three year olds and their moms came to visit the Wool Shed. Kyle gave them all bottle-feeding lessons, then they trailed after him, Pied Piper-like, as I visited with their moms in the Wool Shed. Grandson Nathan was leading the tour to visit the egg-laying hens, but stopped at the highest point of interest, a parked tractor, and announced "that is the Alice Chalmers 185 but we don't climb in it as it has a tippy seat." (He just turned three.)
Day three, we have 5 healthy fosters.
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