In the lambing shedSo, yet again, Chris did the bulk of the work (3am to 7 pm) and I did from 8 pm until 1 or 2 am. We were helped by our faithful band of guests: Sophie Perks and friends and Alex & Charlie Howlett. Also, a vet student called Jake came for a week to gain some practical experience with sheep. I think he's decided to specialise in dogs & cats!
The poor sheep had lost a lot of condition in the snow during February, and the first lambs to be born were underweight. An additional problem was several ewes had little or no milk. The result has been more tame lambs than usual. Once all our willing bottle-feeders (Sophie, Alex and Charlie) had left, Chris and I had a breakfast 'Board Meeting' to discuss the urgent issue of who was going to feed 11 lambs six times a day with a bottle. By lunchtime we had bought and installed a Shepherdess lamb feeder
www.scanutec.com . This is an ingeneous fake Mummy, which is essentially a bucket full of hot water with another bucket full of milk inside and two teats on one side. The whole thing is heated by a device which switches itself on and off, giving hot flushes for added authenticity. The lambs love it, as they can help themselves whenever they want. They are growing rapidly, and don't seem to get the pot bellies of bottle-fed lambs.
The weather for the past month has been pretty good. In fact (dare I say it?) we need rain. It's such a help to get warm, dry weather at this time of year because there are so many baby animals outside. Yesterday was beautifully warm and sunny, so I took some photos:
Calves enjoying the sunshine
Our new bull, Wellshead Duke
Exmoor Horn ewe and lamb

Our first foal (Ivy's foal) As you can see, he's a colt.
Ivy, Claret and Christmas Pudding have foaled so far. They all have colt foals. Still, an alive colt foal is better than no foal at all.
A few days after birth, Claret's foal was very poorly and couldn't get up. We weren't sure what was wrong, but thought he could have a navel infection. Chris gave him an injection of 'Pen and Strep', and within 12 hours he was running behind his mum again. In fact, he was so lively we couldn't catch him to complete the three-day course of injections! 
Claret with her colt foal the day after he was injected (still looking ill, but standing, suckling and impossible to catch). He now appears to have made a complete recovery.
Some RSPB volunteers are doing a bird survey of the farm, which should prove very interesting. Mike Howlett, who stayed in the cottage for a week during lambing, took these photos of a buzzard and a dipper at West Ilkerton:


Chris went out counting deer and took these photos of West Ilkerton from the unusual vantage point of Butter Hill:

Make a line up * from the asterisk, and West Ilkerton is the grey blob just below the cloud shadow on the far hill.

See?!
http://www.westilkerton.co.uk/