Another day, another lamb

Natasha & her lamb Piper

What a beautiful sight greeted me this morning. Right by the feeder was Natasha lying down with her newborn lamb tucked safely in the corner, contentedly sleeping. The lamb is another ewe...I'm so lucky to get so many ewe lambs. I'm halfway done lambing with a count of 10 (7 ewes and 3 rams). I have 6 girls to go yet and they will hopefully provide me with 10 more lambs.

Since Nadia was putting up such a fuss in her lambing pen, I let her out with the other moms and lambs. She happily marched out of there with her little ram lamb following (now named Paz, which is Spanish for peace). The shed is a lot more peaceful now that Nadia is not "isolated" in the lambing pen. She's a very social girl...didn't realize she could be so vocal about it. I got her twin Natasha to occupy the lambing pen in her place. Natasha was not easily convinced to follow as I carried her lamb into the pen. She kept going back to where her lamb had been lying down. Eventually she settled down. I realize that Natasha was a fantastic mom and must have had quite the night protecting her lamb from my older girls who are yet to have their twins. Shetlands have very strong mothering instincts and stealing of lambs is a very real issue.

Natasha's lamb is a dark moorit Blettet ewe lamb weighing 2.0 kg, again, definitely a Quinn breeding. We've named her Piper. She also has some small white spots, a couple on either side of her body. She is very sweet. I'll let them out with the others tomorrow, as they seem to have bonded well.

I decided to keep Elphaba in with her lamb Giselle a little longer this morning, because last night I noticed that she hadn't quite passed all her placenta....(stop reading if this word makes you uncomfortable)...likely due to her difficult labour. I looked up in my sheep books that a retained placenta can cause infection, etc, and that if truly it didn't pass within 24 hours, a vet should be consulted. To my absolute relief, she looked good this morning, everything was gone. Just to make sure, I took her temperature which was normal. By mid day, Brianna & I released her and her lamb. She promptly took off leaving Piper wondering where her mama went. It was rather comical to watch as she heard her lamb crying and would rush around sniffing all the other lambs close by that sort of looked like her lamb. Silly girl! We grabbed her lamb and pushed her up to her mother. Instant relief for both mother and lamb and the two stayed happily together for the rest of the day.

I love looking out into the pasture and watching the lambs. They are so much fun to watch as evening starts to settle. I call it the Lamb races. 1 will start, then a few more join in, and the next thing you know, they are all racing about in a herd going around in big circles. Then some get a freak on and they bounce into the air and kick up their heals. They make me laugh!!!

But then its time to round them up to go inside. We bring the girls grain and they rush into the shed to get their treat before bed. But because the lambs aren't eating grain yet, they think its fun to race away from us and panic their mother's with their little cries, and frustrate the 2-3 shepherds it takes to gather them all up. We have to come up with some inventive trickery to keep the mom's inside while still allowing the lambs to get in. Tonight didn't go so well. The noise must be annoying the neighbours because it was total utter chaos. Some moms got out, everyone is screaming, we are grabbing any lamb we can get our hands and dumping them over the gate. Anyway, tonight they all made it in...its getting more difficult everyday and the time will soon come when we won't be able to...until they get a taste for grain.