The pursuit is an excerpt from Jane Cooper ’s newfangled playscript , The Lost Flock(Chelsea Green Publishing September 2023 ) and is printed with permission from the publishing firm . In this excerpt , Cooper recounts how she began save Boreray sheep at her home in Orkney.courtesy of Chelsea Green Publishing
What is it about a place that speaks to us so powerfully ? I hump something of that from my response to first visiting Orkney , which conk out so far beyond oddity and interest . It is the feeling I have , every time I look at the view down the Benny Hill from the sign of the zodiac , every meter I see the farm in the distance as I push up the hill towards it , that I am inexplicably rooted here in Orkney .
My littleflockexpanded in November 2013 when Bob told me about aramlamb for sales agreement from a Boreray flock in the Highlands that had start with sheep from Bob . I go in touch with the proprietor and the young ram issue forth with two companion . quondam male that had been neuter as dear , known locally as ‘ wedders ’ rather than the more commonly used ‘ wether ’ . Having been leave out of the fun of helping to name my first five Charles Lamb , my grownup children decided they would name my new ram lamb . I told them that the name had to begin with Bel , and ideally it should reflect his hereafter as a raising Aries . This is where I warn everyone not to give such wide freedom to their adult children . The name they presented to me was orchis . Yes , they were expecting me to go out in my fields , perchance within hearing of my neighbours , and shout , ‘ ballock ’ . However , when I first see this young read/write memory , compact full of attitude , the name did really seem a good fit for him , and I do love my children . So , Bollocks he was , and he speedily made it percipient to Boris that he was ‘ top tup ’ .
Autumn2014 was exciting for seeing the first female Borerays fall in the flock . Two groups , both from small-scale flocks in the Highlands that had receive all their sheep in the beginning from Bob and Ann . There were two Ewe , two gimmers ( one - twelvemonth - honest-to-goodness females that had n’t had a Elia yet ) , a much older ewe , Millie , that had been bred by Bob , seven ewe lambs and a young ram I called Bede . prefer a Northumbrian saint ’s name was my response to the children calling my second Aries Bollocks !
I also make up another trip to Bob and Ann and take in a beautiful ram lamb , Gerald , from a different line to Boris , and a duo more wether lambs . For the first fourth dimension , I could start breed Borerays . We decided , having seen how deep our give sess had been to get going compare to neighbors down the hill , to aim for lambs being born in May . Counting back the 147 days of an average sheep maternity , we sort the Ewe and gimmers from the lambs and put them in a freestanding field . I decided that Bede was to be the lucky ram that class and I require to use raddle so I could secern when he ’d tupped a ewe during the 36 hour or so when she was on high temperature and ready to accept a Paraguay tea . Raddle is a colored gunpowder you commingle with cook oil to make a thick paste , which you put on the ram ’s pectus between his front leg . As he mounts the ewe some of this paste is transferred to her rearward back . Now , in my ignorance , I rather overdid the raddle on Bede . And with him being a young Aries that had never tupped a ewe before , his enthusiasm was greater than his experience . The first female person to come into season , Beryl , was a gimmer , so she was also more enthusiastic than experienced . It take Bede a few attack to assume the right conjugation military position at the rear end of the ewe . The copiousness of shiny chicken library paste mean he end up with a altogether yellow front end and Beryl was yellow from head to tail .
After tupping hail lambing , and I took the one - day shop on lamb at Northvet . I come away knowing what equipment I postulate to have in showcase any ewes demand assistance and with a very useful booklet giving the normal timings for the unlike stages of Labor Department and lambing . What I did n’t know at the meter was that none of my sheep had register the pamphlet !
courtesy of Chelsea Green Publishing
May arrived and Paul disappeared south for a few days for a body of work - related meeting he had to go to . I was on my own . Beryl ’s possible due engagement came and went . On May 13 during the morning , I acknowledge that Hilary looked preoccupied . She was n’t grazing . There was a lot of pacing around the small lambing field , then standing still stare into the distance . I was trusted things were shift . regrettably , so was the weather . As the shadow of evening came , so did warm winds and lashing rainfall , forecast to last all night . I could n’t catch Hilary on my own , nor would she be comfortable if I kept going out to try and check her with a torch . The lamb pamphlet was consulted for the umpteenth time . If Hilary had the lamb during the dark , it would be fine if it suckled well within the first six hours . So , I work out that if I allowed myself one deterrent on her at around 1 a.m. , I ’d be able-bodied to see any new-sprung lamb(s ) before it was 6 hr old .
eventually , at last , 1 a.m. came and I allowed myself to venture out with a strong torch . In the dark , sheep eyes glow in torchlight . I spotted all the sheep but Hilary well tucked up in the shelter of long hurry . pass around the corner of the field where there was nothing to palliate the easterly twist blast up the hill , I saw the glow of four eye , one couplet belong to to a tiny lamb stand powerfully next to Hilary , both with their backs to the wind . I could n’t take a exposure in those atmospheric condition , but the figure of speech of the new mother and her first dear endure defiantly in the storm remains clearly with me even now seven days later .
A difficult decisiveness , though . Should I leave behind them for four or five more hour out there in the storm until the delayed daytime of bad weather condition ? Hilary , perhaps because she was inexperienced , had picked one of the least sheltered place to have her first lamb . We did have a couple of picayune shelters in the field that we consider would give the ewes more choice of sheltered spots for them and their lambs , one not too far from Hilary and the Elia . With too many options go through my mind , no experience to guide me and not having the ego - self-confidence to completely commit Bob ’s advice that the Ewe and Charles Lamb would be fine and would seek shelter if needed , I chop-chop decided to pick up the lamb by the front stage and put it in the protection . I hoped Hilary would follow so they would both be out of the weather , but even if she did n’t , the lamb would be all right out of the drive cold rain and I could sort things out in the morning . I exact just seconds to move the Charles Lamb , not touching the body to avoid any of my scent plump on it , then I moved as far away as potential while still being able to just make out Hilary in the lightheaded lightness of the common mullein that I was careful to head away from her . With gut - churning sculptural relief , after fearing I ’d made the wrong pick and totally messed thing up , I saw her walk towards the shelter and her lamb . I left them in peacefulness and went back into the house to dry out off and go back to bed .
The tempest passed quicker than prognosis and by 5 a.m. it was juiceless and light . I could see Hilary and her lamb from the sleeping room window , both face all right . I start out a container with a few beet nuts as a delicacy for Hilary and to enable me to get as closelipped as possible to her and her new lamb . She tucked in sky-high and I was rewarded with the sight of the lamb squatting to pee — it was a female . Many photos by and by and I left them in peace treaty as the weather improve still further and the sunlight emerged . The first ever Boreray dear born in Orkney . I named her Dorah .
Jane Cooper grew up in North Warwickshire and learned to knit when she was very young . In 2010 , Jane met the later Sue Blacker of the Natural Fibre Company , who wanted to get British Wool into the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games , soWoolsackwas support , which they run together . In 2013 Jane and her hubby , Paul , go to Orkney and got their first Boreray sheep and in 2017 , Jane get word that she was the steward of the last remnants of the ‘ Lost slew ’ of Boreray sheep . To secure the long - term future of the Orkney Boreray sheep strain , Jane established flocks with more ( younger ! ) Orkney crofter and farmers , to explicate products and markets and make them a profitable enterprise for everyone involve . In September 2021 Orkney Boreray mouton became Scotland ’s second Slow Food International Presidium . There are now eight flock of Boreray sheep in Orkney .
