Babes In Soayland
We take our newborn lambs and their mothers into "jugs," small (3-1/2 x 5 ft) pens, so they can bond and get the lamb off to a good start with its colostrum, sheltered from the relative chaos outside. Having the ewe and her lamb(s) isolated for a few days allows us to spot problems early enough to intervene when appropriate. For more on the benefits of jugging, see Priscilla's April 2007 entry in The Soay Sheep Chronicles .
Usually when we work a newborn lamb (temperature check, baby eartag, shots, iodine the navel, weigh), the ewe stands close by calmly watching Steve work. In fact, it is one of the most pleasant times for us as shepherds, since we get to see both our lambs and their moms up close one time before they join the flock. To learn the details of how we work our lambs, please read Priscilla's posting in The Soay Sheep Chronicles on how we do it.
About once a season, some ewe takes serious offense at our presumptuousness in invading her jug. This picture of Priscilla holding Nova's twins in a milk crate is related to the current example. We were in the jug trying to work the twins when they were about 8 hours old, and Nova was having none of it. She is a very large ewe by Soay standards, with a full set of horns, and she is the most aggressively protective dam in our flock. Did she have blood in her eye! So that Steve could administer Nova's BoSe shot without having her step on a lamb in her displeasure, Steve simply upturned one of the milk crates we use as a temporary feeders in our jugs and popped the twins into it for safekeeping.