Our immediate neighbours on one side are a young family…
And on the other side we have youngsters….
Otherwise, this is the neighbouring farm as seen over the garden fence…
We went over to say hello during my first few days here in Scotland where we got to meet some of the livestock and their new arrivals ~ the baby ducklings are Easter’ish so thought I’d put up these photos today 🙂
A gaggle of geese
Ducks off to the pond for a swim
Ducklings
Feeding the lambs with Margaret Smith, the farmer
And here is our local morning alarm clock, no matter what day 😀
Linda, the first photo of the Suffolk ewes and lambs is just great because it allows for the colouring of this English sheep breed to be explained. Suffolk sheep are bred more for meat than for their ‘medium’ weight wool. The Suffolk breed came about from crossing Southdown rams on Blackface Northfolk Horned ewes. The resultant “Suffolk” being an improvement on both parent breeds.
The lambs are born all-white and then the black fleece on their legs comes through. Then the very short black fleece comes through on their heads and ears.
This colour change can be seen in that photo where the slightly taller and older (by about 1 week) lamb on the left has a slightly darker face than the lamb on the right. In another couple weeks, both those lambs will have the same colouring as their mothers.
Look closely at the last photo for the black-faced sheep sneaking up on to the USA developed Rhode Island Red cockerel “alarm clock” 🙂 Those boys can grow some really long and sharp spurs on their lower legs. To save having a painful encounter with them (they are very protective of their hens) just don’t turn your back on then when you’re in ‘their’ yard 🙂 Been there, done that … Ouch!!
John ~ Your comment makes a great read! 🙂
I’m off out to see how the lambs’ colourings are coming on… but avoiding the barn with the cockerel! lol