The current set of lambs are doing so well. Each set of twins is growing similarly in size and with ages ranging from four to nine days old, the lamb races have already begun. We have castrated the two boys - both were done at six days old as by law, you must do them before they are a week old if using a rubber band. After seven days, they can be surgically castrated or have the sperm cord crushed but both of these methods require anesthetic and must be done by a vet!! We pretty much hate castration because it does hurt the animal for a while (although you can provide a bit of pain relief) but for both us and the animal, we feel it a necessary evil that actually has the animals’ welfare at heart too.
If the youngsters aren’t castrated, they have to be weaned before they become sexually active in case they mate with mothers or sisters. Weaning is stressful and on our small amount of land it would be difficult to separate them enough so they could no longer see or hear each other. Having castrated lambs and kids means they can say with their mothers until naturally weaned which is definitely less stressful all round!