Monday 28 March 2011

Wimpole Farm

It is Lambing Season here in the UK, which means there are tons of farms opening up for people to visit and watch, if you are very lucky, a lamb being born. We witnessed one 2 years ago, but last year we had no luck seeing a live birth despite 2 separate trips to 2 different farms during lambing season. Lambing season here is from mid March to early April.

Today, we met up with some homeschoolers and headed out to one of our favorite farms. Wimpole Home and Farm which is one of the UK national trust sites. It is open year round and has lots of fun things for children to do while exploring the farm life.

The Scottish Cow known here as the Highland Coo!









Pigs and piglets. The children got to feed the pigs and even help the farmer round up one piglet that got out of its pen.






Saw lots of cows and calves.









Goats with baby Kids. Princess fell in love with this goat who was very friendly.







Then we went to see the sheep. The first time we stop by we watched and waited but there didn't appear to be any sheep in labor so the kids got bored and we moved on to the wood land park and had a picnic and let the kids play. After about 2 hours we returned to the sheep pens and were told that this sheep in the corner was in labor! How did the farmer know, I asked? He said the signs were the sheep pawing at the ground, changing position often such as standing or lying down and baring its teeth.

The kids watched patiently, well as patiently as kids can:)








and lo and behold the birth of twin lambs were born. The farmer kept his distance preferring to allow the sheep to take immediate care of its lambs. We watched as the mother ate the sac around the face of the second lamb and nudge them to a standing position. Very cool to see:)!!!


Once the lambs are standing and the mother sheep has settled down the farmer removes them from the big pens and moves them to smaller pens so they can bond and the farmer can examine the lambs and the mother to make sure they are healthy.

What an exciting day!!!


Please join Lynda, Tracy and myself at the No Ordinary Blog Hop. Join the fun!!!

14 comments:

  1. That is AWESOME to witness a twin birth! And you were able to remember to take pictures with all the excitement! Impressive :) This sounds so wonderful and the Highland Coo is quite a unique looking creature :) Voted for you!

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  2. I have witnessed puppies...never anything more than that (except my children)....I bet it was very awesome!! We want to buy a farm....I wonder if my children really understand how much work it is?

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  3. I bet the kids just were so amazed...what an incredible experience!

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  4. What a great experience for your kids! So glad you snapped some photos to share . . .

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  5. Good morning Anna-Marie! Have a great Tuesday and clicked a vote for you! :)

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  6. HI Tracy,
    I don't go anywhere these days without my camera:) It was amazing to see.

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  7. Hi Rebecca,
    Seeing puppies born would have been neat to watch. We have another fieldtrip scheduled next week at a different farm.

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  8. Thanks Kara, it was pretty neat to watch

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  9. Renee Ann,
    My camera is never far from my side these days:)

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  10. Oh how neat! I wish there were farms like that near us! Can't believe you saw twins being born!

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  11. You and your children go on so many very interesting field trips.

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  12. Hi Christine,
    It was fantastic, I only wish it happened closer to us so we could see it even better:)!

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  13. Hi Jennifer,
    Yes we do and we love it. We still get our school work done but it is so good to get out of the house and go somewhere new and you never know what you can learn from it:)

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