{"id":3817,"date":"2026-05-22T21:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T21:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/?p=3817"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:41:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:41:47","slug":"the-abandoned-lamb-at-the-ticket-booth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/the-abandoned-lamb-at-the-ticket-booth\/","title":{"rendered":"The abandoned lamb at the ticket booth"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was making my way around the Dingle Peninsula, and decided to pull over near the village of Ventry in order to see some beehive huts. The Irish Gaelic name for this particular location is “T\u00f3char Maothaithe,” and it features a group of dry-stone beehive huts (cloch\u00e1in) along the slopes of Slea Head in County Kerry. I parked my car and as I followed the signs to see the beehive huts, I noticed there was a ticket booth, and as I got closer, saw this little furry head sticking out of the ticket booth window.<\/p>\n

When it was my turn to buy a ticket, the guy in the ticket booth (seen below) shared a story: he said this baby lamb was only 5 days old, and had been abandoned by her mother shortly after birth. In order to save this lamb, he was taking care of it, and said that he had to feed her milk every 30 minutes, including through the night. That’s a pretty serious commitment, although with a face like this (the lamb), how could anyone just let it be?<\/p>\n

\"5
This man rescued this 5 day old lamb who was abandoned or rejected by its mother.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, I don’t know the first thing about sheep or lambs, so the idea of a mother rejecting a newborn is not something I was aware could happen. In researching why this might happen, a few scenarios are suggested: a first-time mother or a mother who gives birth to multiples (triplets or quadruplets), might lack the milk or energy to care for all of them. Another possibility is that a difficult or painful birth can prevent the mother from bonding with her newborn.<\/p>\n

Because newborns rely entirely on their mother’s milk, being left alone is fatal without a caregiver stepping in. Thankfully, this man stepped in and saved this baby lamb. I see that there are two options for a rescue situation like this: the farmer may attempt to convince another mother ewe to “adopt” this one, if he can encourage a bond. If that fails, the lamb becomes a “bottle baby,” raised by hand on regular bottle feedings for several weeks before transitioning to eating grass.<\/p>\n

I wonder if a bottle-fed baby like this forms an attachment with the man feeding her that lasts beyond the bottle stage?<\/p>\n

Since I mentioned that I was here to see some beehive huts, I should at least share a picture here to show you what I’m talking about … I’ll have more on this location soon, but in the meantime, here’s a look at the location.<\/p>\n

\"beehive
T\u00f3char Maothaithe is the local Irish Gaelic name for these dry-stone beehive huts on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was making my way around the Dingle Peninsula, and decided to pull over near the village of Ventry in order to see some beehive huts. The Irish Gaelic name for this particular location is “T\u00f3char Maothaithe,” and it features a group of dry-stone beehive huts (cloch\u00e1in) along the slopes of Slea Head in County … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3820,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[921,922,910,920],"class_list":["post-3817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-explore","tag-beehive-huts","tag-dingle-peninsula","tag-ireland","tag-lamb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3817"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3824,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3817\/revisions\/3824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mckinneyarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}