Sunday, April 6, 2008

"Mothering Up"






The ewe and her new lambs spend one to two days in a small pen on their own so they have peace and quiet and get to know each other, we call these pens "jugs". When we feel they are ready or if we are running out of jugs they then go to a small paddock and mingle with other mums and their new lambs its called the "mothering up pen". This is where they experience the flock and learn to tell who is mum and who is auntie.



We try to introduce them into the pen when the rest of the ewes are busy eating so as not to cause too much confusion. Upon entry other ewes come over to check out the new mum and lambs and usually it is utter pandemonium until every one has sniffed everyone else and the lambs have all found there own mums, usually verified by a quick suckle. This can take one to ten minutes depending on numbers involved and relative intelligence of those involved ! Hope you can see by the two pictures the second showing the right lambs under the right mum.
Sorry about two photos the same , I can't seem to delete the extra one

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