Back, Sack and Crack

Last week we had a good look at the sheep's' hooves which were found to be in a terrible state and the dags were looking grim so Al got on the internet and ordered a pair of hand shears and nail-clippers.  There was no putting it off  when the tools arrived so this morning the sheep were corralled into the shelter (using maize as bait) and one by one they were tipped on their bums and they underwent a full pedicure and the sheep's equivalent of a Brazilian. We have never handled shears so carefully......

Here are the last 3 of the 8 looking nervous; they were hatching an unsuccessful escape plan at the time;

Here is one of the worst ewes' feet  with the nails completely curled under the hooves (this one had been a little lame at one point which prompted the exercise);

And here she is post pedicure;

She underwent a light pedicure to allow her hooves to get used to their new shape and will get another trim soon now we are a bit more practiced. Bizarrely the 2 rams were easier to handle than the ewes - think they may have been to a spa in the past as they seemed to enjoy being pampered.

We thought we wouldn't offend anyone's sensibilities with photos of dagging - we'll leave that to your imagination............and go wash our hands!

Trading in the spirit of self-sufficiency

If the ideal of no money changing hands be true, then our most recent trade came up trumps - the tired old Citroen AX that made it from Chamonix that has since been languishing under the car port was exchanged for 3 lambs. The trailer that brought them towed the AX away.   The little 4x4 runabout now has a new loving home but we are happy with our 2 ram lambs and one more ewe.

We are now up to 8 lambs and had our first experience of flipping them to find out if they are boys or girls and to check their hooves. They were corralled into the shelter (in truth they were bribed with maize) and we stopped and looked at each other asking how were going to actually catch them? Calling them and finger clicking certainly didn't work. Solution - Al tackled the nearest one from behind by grabbing its fleece and dragging it onto its bottom.  This technique seems to work well but it is best to grab them on their rumps as it hurts them less.   The lamb (all 20+ kg) surrendered to an inspection (how did Bee get that job?!) and was let back out into the field. The poor rams got marked with a blast of building-site spray paint  - not sure they are too pleased with their new orange-neck look. Now they all just need a good dagging (bottom trim) and pedicure and they will look beautiful!

The only real dilemma we face now is whether to leave one or both ram lambs with the ewes all the time.  With large sheep farms, the rams are kept seperate from the ewes and only introduced for a set period in order to reduce the spread of the lambing period and to time lambing with the best flush of spring grass whereas in SW France, we get strong grass growing in Spring and Autumn (and almost none in mid summer as it is too dry).  We would be pleased if the ram lambs do their business in the spring to time the lambing with the Autumn grass.  Once their work is done, the rams will be dispatched to the freezer.

Big learning curve but great fun!

White and fluffy

Well the sheep finally arrived a few weeks back and after some shocking behaviour (5000 volts electric fence to be precise) they settled in pretty well.  It took about 3 zaps per sheep for them to learn that the boundary is not to be crossed.  Having said that, their flocking instinct is so strong that one little chancer that pushed through the electric fence in a bid for freedom realised she was all alone and decided to push her way back through the live wires to be with her mates.  Honestly it is like women and going to the bathroom together! (Al wrote that bit....)

The lambs are crossbreeds but are majority Berichon du Cher which is a stocky meat animal from a region north of here.  They are all ewes and about 8 months old - they are "store" lambs which we discovered means they weren't fattened enough to be sold last Autumn. The donkeys are taking the new arrivals well and are guarding them from the local itinerant dogs (not that we have seen any) and foxes etc. We have sort of selected which two lambs we are likely to put in the freezer once they have been fattened up a little more (we point and whisper in case they understand!)  Al has got his eyes on their fleeces as sheepskin rugs would look great in our bedroom!

At the moment they are pretty happy with their pasture (we are strip grazing them over a large field) but we occasionally give them some maize and wheat to supplement their diet - this has to be done when the donkeys are out of the field being "walked". Bee usually gets the enviable job of walking the donkeys around the barn whilst the sheep are being fed - and hanging onto to the donkeys for dear life when they hear the grain bucket being rattled for the sheep......