It is lambing season, so you can watch live again in Doldersum. About 125 lambs have now been born, roughly half of the total number of expected babies in the sheep flock on the Doldersummerveld.
Sheep shepherd Catrinus Homan put a camera on it for the first time during corona. “Nobody could go out there anymore. Our annual lambing day was cancelled, but we still wanted people to enjoy the birth of the lambs. Well, that camera was a big success. It was national news.”
But there is also great enthusiasm in the years that follow. Last year the site four thousand individual visitors in the first two weeks alone. “In the first years the connection sometimes faltered, but we now have fiber optic.”
Bluetongue
The herd in Doldersum consists only of Schoonebeker sheep, a rare breed. More people died last year than usual due to the bluetongue virus. “We were afraid that bluetongue could affect the fertility of the sheep, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. We are currently not experiencing any problems with bluetongue, because the mosquitoes that cause the disease are still in hibernation. But as soon as the temperature rises, they come back. I hope many sheep in the flock had a bit of bluetongue last year. Then they should be better protected now.”