Sheep don't automatically know how to eat hay or the sheep food we give them as a supplement. Every year in the autumn Farmer has to teach the hoggs (the ewe lambs) how to feed. This involves gathering them in and putting them in to the building. He puts a ewe or two in with them to set a good example. It takes a few days but gradually they catch on that the lamb nuts being sprinkled in to the troughs are rather delicious and they start to tuck in. Similarly they start eating the hay slowly too! Occasionally we have problems with one or two of them becoming unwell from a vitamin deficiency and so Farmer has a bottle of Vitamin B1 on hand to give them which sorts them out.
By the end of the winter the hoggs will be used to being fed and know exactly what is in the feed bag Farmer might be carrying with him. This will stand them in good stead later on should they ever be ill and need to be brought into the shed, or if they are having twins and they need some supplementary feeding.
Here they are tucking to the hay in the hay feeders having finished most of the nuts in the troughs!
The Herdwicks are a flock on their own, and they always enjoy the sight of a feed bag over Farmer's shoulder. Because they live on the in-bye fields they are fed most of the winter.
