Duck tales and lamb tails

A duck was missing this evening

Except that she wasn’t. She has made her nest in some wood in the duck run.

Stay safe little girl
Here’s a lamb tail

We ring the baby lambs’ tails so that within a month they drop off leaving just a short tail. Why? read below the next two photos

Nearly gone
Neatly gone

If we leave the tails long then they get sticky with excrement. Blow flies are attracted to these mucky behinds and lay eggs in the sheep/lamb wool. These hatch into maggots which burrow into the flesh of the animal and can kill the sheep or the lamb. So tail ringing is what we do. Years ago when we didn’t do this we had a horrible case of blow flies and only just managed to save the affected sheep with the timely intervention of a skilled local farmer. Never again!

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