New Barns

It has been a mad rush to get my latest barns up before the ground froze tight. As you can see they are normal open pole sheds, but when compared to the one they back on to it looks as if they have shrunk in the wash! They are in fact three and a half feet tall and just right for a ewe and her lambs to tuck in out of the rain. They are lambing sheds and when I have built some wooden panels as pen dividers we shall have a total of nine lambing "jugs" (pens) one per ewe and her lambs. The ewe with her new born lambs are placed in these pens for one or two days to ensure all is well and the lambs are suckling and getting enough milk before being turned out into the field and a life of fun and frolic with all the other new lambs. Over half the "jug" is in the open and just the back is covered to give the lamb a break from rain or wind. I copied the idea from the Aveley ranch where the ewes came from, there they have many of these little sheds as they lamb about 1200 ewes. Originally I hoped to lamb out the ewes on pasture but felt it best not to change the old girls habits. You may be able to train old dogs new tricks with patience but I'm not so sure about old ewes!