The weather was a bit chill today but the pastures are coming up well so I kicked everyone out for an early taste of spring grass and went out with my camera to catch them enjoying the treat. 
The lambs will be getting weaned in another week and I’m sure the ewes will be relieved. When twins get up under their mother at the same time it’s almost painful to watch. From the look on this mom’s face she’s going to be more than happy to have Spike getting her meals from another source.
Lambing is officially over for the year with Marge’s contribution this weekend. She gave us these adorable twin ewe lambs.
They are the same color combination as last year’s twins.
So our final count is twenty lambs with 10 ram lambs and 10 ewe lambs. I’ve put new pictures of a lot of them on the photos page and my web site. I would have liked more ewes but the rams will be wethered and used as working sheep. Some of them will stay. Some will become freezer lambs. Yes, that’s the hard, cold truth of raising livestock for meat. One of Gazelle’s boys was purchased by Renea Desorcy of Indigo Hills to use for future breeding. Thanks, Renea! Anyone else interested in purchasing a ram lamb should contact me before the end of the month.
Overall this lambing season went much smoother and quicker than last year. No prolapses and only one vet call to have Mother’s twins pulled. We’ve set up a nice, covered creep feeder for the lambs, well stocked with their own supply of hay and grain. Some of the older lambs have figured out what it’s all about so I’m sure soon they will all be making use of it. Some of them have also met their first dog as it was necessary to bring Rowan in to help us corner the ewe with mastitis to give her a last round of penicillin. The mastitis cleared up nicely within a few days of treatment and milking her out once a day. The milk finally cleared and the lambs began making use of that udder again. At this point there is no longer a difference in her udders.
Gazelle had a pair of beautiful twins Friday. 
And of course, what are they? Ram lambs. Not only that, but they totally blew my record of one white twin, one colored twin. As you can see, both are fairly solid colored. One is dark red, the other a darker brown. Both with just a smidge of white on their heads. I’d have to look back at last year’s records but I believe Gazelle gave me a solid reddish-brown ewe lamb last year. Besides the white lambs, she is the only one to throw solid color.
So we’re down to just Marge and Brown to go (and Spotsy who resides with Amy). Fingers, toes, legs, and every other body part that can be crossed is crossed that they give me ewe lambs. Butter does not appear to be bred (yes, I do realize how funny that sounds) so I have to wonder if her incident with the fence post two summers ago is to blame. I’m not sure that makes sense in my head but this would be the second year she’s been exposed to the ram and not bred. It’s obvious he doesn’t have any problems in covering the ewes and appears to have gotten just about all of them within the first couple of weeks he was in.
Three more ram lambs born over the weekend. A single on Friday and a set of twins born on Sunday afternoon. Their mother developed mastitis on Tuesday. Thankfully it’s not the severe form, though her one udder is very swollen and the other probably doesn’t have much milk in it at all. We are treating her with penicillin twice a day and I’m supplementing the twins as often as I can with a bottle. I’m amazed they took to it. They prefer mom but I’m afraid she doesn’t have much to offer them.
At least we finally got another ewe lamb, born yesterday to a first time mom. Cute little brown and white girl.
I noticed a day or so ago that one of the lambs was limping. I thought it was the white twin and had caught him to take a look, couldn’t find anything wrong. Today I realized why. The gimpy lamb is actually Speed, Mother’s ewe lamb. Unfortunately, I noticed this as she was heading out the gate onto the hill pasture which we could finally open up to give them all a little more room. Now I’m going to have to try and catch her to see what is wrong. Hopefully nothing too major.
Never a dull moment, that’s for sure.
Marge, Brown and Gazelle are the last three that have to lamb yet. Looks like Gazelle might go first. Fingers crossed they all give me ewes.
This morning, as with every morning, I grabbed the mega-watt, high powered spotlight and headed out before work to check on the girls. Everyone was out in the small arena and alleyway and were all looking toward the shelter. A dead give away that someone was lambing. I peeked around the corner and there was another of my first time moms busily cleaning off this adorable girl. 
Yeah, I know all lambs are cute, but she has the “it” factor. The same thing Harry Flash exhibited when he was born. And she seems to have decided I’m someone special because she followed me around when I was feeding and if I hadn’t looked back at the right time she would have followed me right out the gate. There are some more pictures of her and her mom on the Photos page.
When Dave did his lamb check before work we had another ewe lamb on the ground. What he didn’t realize was the ewe was having twins. So as of dinner time tonight we have three new ewe lambs. (Let’s hear it for the girls!) Once again this year I’m finding that twins here are, without exception, born in a combination of one solid white and one colored. This is one of the girls born this morning. Her twin wasn’t being very photogenic so I didn’t get a shot of her. 
Right now the lambs really aren’t relating to each other too much. They stick close by mom and when mom’s eating they curl up next to the feeder. Soon, though, they’ll take more notice of each other and then the games will begin.
Sometime during the night or very early morning two first time mom’s had their lambs. Sticking to the 95 percentile where I prefer to be. No muss, no fuss, no bother. Most importantly, no vet call. Another ram lamb, solid white, and a lovely solid brown/red ewe lamb. I’ve put photos on the Photo page and will add more as I get them.
Every book I have states that 95% of ewes lamb with no difficulty and need no assistance. Of course I have to delve into the 5% category.
Last night around 9:30 Mother’s water broke. She appeared in no hurry to lamb however, so I kept checking on her to make sure there was no need to step in. While all this was happening, the cold/flu like thing that’s been brewing in me since last week erupted full force and knocked me out cold. I woke up this morning and high tailed it outside to check on Mother, certain she would be dead, the lambs dead, basically beating myself up for not making sure I stayed awake. There were no lambs on the ground and Mother wasn’t dead. In fact she seemed quite alert and was extremely perky given how long it took me to catch her.
I made a quick call to the vet to come pull the lambs even though I was now beginning to wonder if I had actually seen her water break. She was certainly not in distress nor, apparently, in hard labor. Dr. Jeff even gave me a second look when he hopped out of his truck. It was some time around 6:00 a.m. by now. Too long, I figured, to pull live lambs from Mother. Hopefully not so long that we lost her as well.
Dr. Jeff went to work, reaching inside he could definitely feel the twins and they seemed to want to come out together. He needed to push the twins back a bit, then sort out which head belonged to which legs and which body. We were both certain it was bodies he would be removing.
As he pulled the first twin free, a largish brown & white ram, we stared at each other in an instant’s amazement. It was alive! I cleared its head and mouth and Dr. Jeff gave it a good swing or two through the air to clear its lungs and really get it breathing. He laid the ram lamb across Mother’s back to keep it warm and allow me to work on it and keep Mother still as he pulled the second lamb. She let us know as soon as her mouth was clear that she was not only alive but royally ticked off. With both lambs draped across Mother, Dave (who only just showed up on the scene) was sent running after some towels.
Dr. Jeff looked at me in amazement. “I love these sheep,” he declared. A woolie ewe, in his estimation, would not have survived, nor would the lambs. So with the rising of the sun, glinting off the snow covered fields with a hint of spring to come, he clambered back into his truck and left me to help Mother see to the twins.
Now, I know I swore I wasn’t going to name lambs this year but I just had to name Mother’s twins Jugs and Speed. I intend to keep a close eye on them throughout the day since I’m home sick from work. They are far from out of the woods as far as I’m concerned. It was rough getting into the world, I want to make sure they stay a while.
Lambing season has officially begun. Oddly enough, on exactly the same date and manner as last year: A single ram lamb born on 2/26. He’s just a little guy but this ewe seems to throw small lambs. I’ve taken a couple mug shots of him.
His mother is very protective of him, keeping him out of trouble as best she can but the little guy is determined to adventure out. The other ewes and the yearlings are all very gentle with him and very conscious of where he is. When he was tottering around one of the feeders I saw one of my least favorite ewes gently put her head down and guide him back to his mother. Another ewe gave up an open spot at the feed bunker because he had chosen to lie down next to it. It’s sometimes amazing to watch. I’ve even noticed that he is “checked up on” by various ewes when his mom is feeding.
As I’m writing this, Mother is looking a lot like she is going to be the next to deliver her lambs. I’ll add photos to the photo page as I start to gather more. Once they’re all here I may even put up some video of their antics so you can all sit back with your drink of choice and practice my form of stress release.
We have officially entered what I call our Lamb Watch period. Any day now we’re scheduled to start lambing. That means extra trips out to check on all the girls. One of the reasons I chose Katahdins was their ability to pasture lamb with little to no assistance. They mother up quickly and take excellent care of their lambs. Working full time outside the house makes those qualities essential. Still, I trundle out one last time before bed, make an early morning check at 4:30 a.m. before I head off to work, Dave peeks in on them before he leaves for work and then they’re on their own till I get home. I’m guessing, sheep being sheep, they’re going to hold off lambing until the weekend just because Dave & I will be at my god-daughter’s wedding and our friend Dawn will be farm sitting. In their own little sheep minds that will prove to be great entertainment for them.
This is really one of my favorite times of the year. Lambs have got to be one of the most adorable creatures ever and they are a complete riot to watch play and romp. It’s almost as good a form of stress relief after work as a good, stiff drink. And, many’s the time I combined the two. Work can really be a pain at times.
Drag racing was a favorite past time of last year’s lamb crop. All 15 would run about half way up the alleyway, turn around, line up side by side and then, as if someone were saying, “ready, set, go!” they’d come flying back down the alleyway, take a lap around the ewes and sprint back up to the starting line. They’d repeat the race four or five times before moving on to a new game. And I never got tired of watching them.
I wonder what antics this year’s crop of lambs will invent.
I’ll make sure I get pics when the lambs start arriving and will post them on the photos page. Maybe I’ll even get some video of them doing what lambs do best, entertaining, oblivious to the world around them and living in the sheer joy of the moment.
Wow, almost make me wish I was a lamb for a day.