Lambing - Calke Abbey, National Trust Property
28/3 - 2/4 2011
Calke Abbey is a National Trust Property in Ticknall, Derbyshire.
Lambing has been the most rewarding piece of voluntary work I have ever done; being able to assist in bringing a new life into the world is a wonderful thing to be a part of.
As Calke Abbey is a National Trust house, and open to the public, they have an interesting lambing setup that enables the public to see the new born lambs and allows an easy method of caring for the sheep.
Every morning the sheep that have lambed in the night are collected in the trailer and brought around to the 'Lambing Pens'.
Whilst in the Lambing Pens; the sheep are wormed and have their feet trimmed and the lambs are castrated, tailed and tagged, this involves using a very thick elastic band to cut of the blood circulation to the tail and testicles. The female lambs from the 'white-faces' are tagged through their ears, once for being of that breed and a second time if they are from a set of twins. The lambs are also vaccinated against Orf, which is a skin disease caused by the parapox virus, this is a scratch vaccine and is given in the inner thigh of the lamb.
After 24 hours in the pens the sheep and lambs are moved from the lambing pens into the marquee where they stay for several days before being pushed out into the field where the older lambs are.
A few of the sheep were suffering from a prolapsed uterus (pictured), the head warden had to put these sheep into special harnesses that kept the uterus inside the sheep so that it didn't become infected and cause any problems for the sheep or lambs.
I found my first orphan on the 2nd day of lambing and he was placed into a pen with several other lambs who had either been rejected by their mothers, orphaned when the mother died or lost in the main field. The lambs were kept under several heat lamps to keep them warm and given a 'bucket-mum' which keeps milk at the temperature which is required by the lambs. It was sometimes possible to foster an orphan onto a ewe that had lost her own lambs; this would either involve covering the lambs in the afterbirth of the original lamb or skinning the dead lamb and creating a coat for the orphan so that the mother accepts the new lamb as her own.
The head warden at the house was very keen to allow the Sheep to lamb on their own with intervention and so when a sheep was seen in labour it was left for at least an hour, if after that hour, the sheep was struggling to deliver the lambs we would step in to catch the sheep and assist in the delivery. Easier said than done, even whilst in labour the sheep were perfectly capable of running away from us, fast, and on more than one occasion we had to rely on the skills of Gwen the sheepdog to round up the troublesome ewe! When caught, the sheep is lowered onto her side and one of us would then have to pull the lamb out of the ewe by gripping onto the two front feet and 'shoe-horning' the head out past the pelvis. If the lamb was breached it was necessary to swing the lamb around to bring it out head first which can be extremely difficult.
During my time at Calke Abbey, I witnessed the birth of at least 100 lambs, and seeing them full of life strengthened my desire to study veterinary medicine. Being able to help a sick animal and watch it recover will be as rewarding as helping to bring new life into the world. Although this type of work is so gratifying it is also incredibly gruelling work with long hours and cold mornings, being constantly covered in all manner of bodily fluids and mud but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and would gladly do it every year.
Calke Abbey is a National Trust Property in Ticknall, Derbyshire.
Lambing has been the most rewarding piece of voluntary work I have ever done; being able to assist in bringing a new life into the world is a wonderful thing to be a part of.
As Calke Abbey is a National Trust house, and open to the public, they have an interesting lambing setup that enables the public to see the new born lambs and allows an easy method of caring for the sheep.
Every morning the sheep that have lambed in the night are collected in the trailer and brought around to the 'Lambing Pens'.
Whilst in the Lambing Pens; the sheep are wormed and have their feet trimmed and the lambs are castrated, tailed and tagged, this involves using a very thick elastic band to cut of the blood circulation to the tail and testicles. The female lambs from the 'white-faces' are tagged through their ears, once for being of that breed and a second time if they are from a set of twins. The lambs are also vaccinated against Orf, which is a skin disease caused by the parapox virus, this is a scratch vaccine and is given in the inner thigh of the lamb.
After 24 hours in the pens the sheep and lambs are moved from the lambing pens into the marquee where they stay for several days before being pushed out into the field where the older lambs are.
A few of the sheep were suffering from a prolapsed uterus (pictured), the head warden had to put these sheep into special harnesses that kept the uterus inside the sheep so that it didn't become infected and cause any problems for the sheep or lambs.
I found my first orphan on the 2nd day of lambing and he was placed into a pen with several other lambs who had either been rejected by their mothers, orphaned when the mother died or lost in the main field. The lambs were kept under several heat lamps to keep them warm and given a 'bucket-mum' which keeps milk at the temperature which is required by the lambs. It was sometimes possible to foster an orphan onto a ewe that had lost her own lambs; this would either involve covering the lambs in the afterbirth of the original lamb or skinning the dead lamb and creating a coat for the orphan so that the mother accepts the new lamb as her own.
The head warden at the house was very keen to allow the Sheep to lamb on their own with intervention and so when a sheep was seen in labour it was left for at least an hour, if after that hour, the sheep was struggling to deliver the lambs we would step in to catch the sheep and assist in the delivery. Easier said than done, even whilst in labour the sheep were perfectly capable of running away from us, fast, and on more than one occasion we had to rely on the skills of Gwen the sheepdog to round up the troublesome ewe! When caught, the sheep is lowered onto her side and one of us would then have to pull the lamb out of the ewe by gripping onto the two front feet and 'shoe-horning' the head out past the pelvis. If the lamb was breached it was necessary to swing the lamb around to bring it out head first which can be extremely difficult.
During my time at Calke Abbey, I witnessed the birth of at least 100 lambs, and seeing them full of life strengthened my desire to study veterinary medicine. Being able to help a sick animal and watch it recover will be as rewarding as helping to bring new life into the world. Although this type of work is so gratifying it is also incredibly gruelling work with long hours and cold mornings, being constantly covered in all manner of bodily fluids and mud but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and would gladly do it every year.