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I started reading Far From the Madding Crowd. So far, the main thing that puzzles me is that most of Gabriel Oak's ewes have been delivering their lambs in winter, starting about Christmas I think, and continuing through February. I am no countryman, but I thought lambing started in spring. Is Hardy using poetic licence or did sheep used to give birth in winter in Victorian times?
Most flocks lamb in spring, but you can get lowland sheep to lamb at Christmas with the right management. Ovulation in sheep is triggered by the shortening days of autumn, so Christmas is about the earliest practical lambing time normally.
HOWEVER there is one exception! Dorset Horn Ewes ovulate at any time, and I think are the only native bred sheep that will. Dorset is Hardy country, so if the Dorset Horn was on the go at that time - and I think it would be- Hardy's got it right.
Good find. I read here that this ability of Dorset Horn sheep to breed throughout the year was noted as early as the 17th century. I will have to watch out in the book for references to the sheeps' horns and other characteristics of the breed. This answers another question that occurred to me. Gabriel Oak frequently brings in the lambs to warm them up before returning them to their mothers. I would have thought that it was better to leave the lambs with their mothers to allow them to bond. I am no expert, but I thought to bring them in would be to risk their mothers rejecting them. I still wonder whether lambs would have thick enough wool to survive a cold winter.
He's got that right as well. A cold lamb loses its ability to suckle, and to absorb nutrients from the milk, and they can get cold very quickly. The mother will miss its lamb until it is returned to it , they have strong mothering instincts for days after giving birth.
They don't rely on wool to keep warm, but on the brown fat they are born with, this is quickly used up so they have to feed pretty quick.
How do you know all this animal husbandry?
Pity there weren't Dorset Horns back in Jesus' time. Then the story of the Nativity could be match His date of birth a bit better.
I'm a shepherd in real life.
I'm a shepherd in real life.
Excellent!
There was some more information about Bathsheba Everdene's sheep in chapter 50:
"The great mass of sheep in the fair consisted of South Downs and the old Wessex horned breeds; to the latter class Bathsheba's and Farmer Boldwood's mainly belonged. These filed in about nine o' clock, their vermiculated horns lopping gracefully on each side of their cheeks in geometrically perfect spirals, a small pink and white ear nestling under each horn..."
He does not say they were Dorset Horns, but then Dorset is not called Dorset in his books; it is called part of Wessex.
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