LAMBING FINALLY FINISHED!

We had our first set of twins on 22 March, and our last single lamb on Good Friday!  I am totally exhausted - having done lots of early mornings (3am!) to check on the ewes in the barn, and then out in the field....we decided to put the last ewe out with all the others as she just didn't seem to be showing any sign of lambing - i had nearly given up on her, when she finally started lambing on Good Friday morning.   We had to give her a helping hand, as it was a huge ram lamb and she was really struggling.  She wouldn't come in from the field, so we just put a pen up around her and kept an eye on her there.   It has been great finally having some sunshine and the lambs are all looking really good.  The ewes not quite so good, as the spring grass seems to be going through some of them rather quickly!

We have had a bit of a disaster with our quails - the two older ones disappeared out of their house at the weekend - the door was wide open and they had flown off - i hope they are somewhere safe....and sadly only 3 of the quail we hatched have survived - no wonder they are so expensive to buy in the shops!

great to be out in the field

All our bantam hens are suddenly going broody and refusing to get off the nest boxes / or are to be found hiding in the barn and the hens are all laying furiously at the moment which is great.  We had so many eggs at Easter, that i took six dozen down to church on Easter Sunday, and put up a sign saying "help yourself to eggs" and put the donation box beside them!   It proved to be a great success, and we only came back with six eggs....and hopefully we may get some new customers too.

re-locating the hedgehog!

'we love it here...'

The potatoes are through already and so i've been busy 'suring' them up (i think that's the right terminology?) and in the Poly tunnel we have lots of seedlings coming through ready to plant out - cabbage, cauliflower, celery & parsley.

'March with her lovely ram lamb

Sandy finding it difficult to get up...!

We are busy getting all the fencing sorted for the pig nursery - Sandy really looks pregnant now, and will be due to farrow around 7 May, so we want to make sure she is settled into her farrowing ark and nursery at least two weeks before if possible!

more lambs!!

The students start back on Thursday, and so we will have plenty for them to be getting on with - let's hope the weather holds fair