A SAD/HAPPY TALE.
The picture on the left shows Sandy with her mother Socks on day 1 (April 14). As you can see from the picture of her in the buttercups at 8 weeks, Sandy thrived. However what she does not know is that she has a twin sister. Her twin was born in the field during a terrible storm and she must have wandered off in confusion during Sandy's birth. Now Shetland sheep are excellent mothers. They form a strong bond and look after their lambs exceptionally well. Unfortunately the downside of this is that they will not allow outsiders into the family unit. By the time I found the lost lamb it was too late. She no longer recognised her in the pouring rain and was focusing all her attention on Sandy. The day before all this happened, Janice had triplets. Notice the little runt at the back. When I found Sock's orphaned lamb I took another look at this tiny girl who was struggling to keep up with her brother and sister, and could see that if left she would be dead by the end of the day. So I took her as a companion for the lost lamb and proceeded to bottle feed them both. These orphans are Daisy and Lilah and here they are at 3 months. Lilah on the left is the lost sister of Sandy, and Daisy on the right is that sad little runt. Both are now thriving.
Search our LAMB pages for pictures of grown-up Lilah with her lambs.
Daisy is too small to breed from safely, so is kept as a pet, and for her wool.

JEALOUSY
March 29 and the first lamb born in this year is to Strawberry. Her boy was born in the early morning with no problems, but I arrived to find her in the middle of a Battle Royal. It seems Specks was jealous. She couldn't wait for her own lamb so she wanted Strawberry's! Specks and Strawberry were busy bashing heads together while the confused little boy looked on and wondered what sort of world he'd come into! To separate them Strawberry and her son were put into a pen while Specks was distracted with some food. An hour later Specks had forgotten all about it, so Strawberry and son were able to quietly rejoin the flock.

First of April and the excitement over the first lambs continues. Unfortunately so does the jealousy. On the left is Katy with her new born twins. She is nervous because Gaila is trying to steal one. In the centre you can see Gaila has been penned to give Katy time to calm down and bond. So Gaila is turning her attention to Nush's newly born twins instead! The next day peace has returned, so Katy and Blackberry get together for a good old gossip about it all.

  A CLOSE SHAVE FOR JAMBOREE
This is Katy with her son Jamboree in July. In October Jamboree had an unfortunate accident. He has beautiful wool so along with a few of his friends he was promoted to the main rams field so that I could watch him develop over the next year. Rough and tumble is a daily occurrence among the rams as they establish and preserve their pecking order. In October Jamboree was nibbling at grass at the bottom of a fence and got one of his horns caught in the wire. This is a common occurrence and the rams quickly learn to extricate themselves. However it seems before he could do this one of his friends butted him causing the second horn to become jammed too. Now he could not move his head and was stuck. I discovered him just in time, managed to free him and lifted him over the fence away from the others. After two hours of massage he was still unable to stand. So I loaded him onto a wheelbarrow, pushed him to the top of the hill, and made a pen for him in the winter shelter. The pregnant ewes passing regularly between field and shelter kept him company. After three days of nursing he finally managed to get to his feet. A few days later he had improved enough to be placed in a field alongside the main rams, with one docile friend for company. Happily over the winter he gradually recovered.
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