More ewe lambs

Vespera

Vespera & Tess
As I was heading off to bed last night, I heard a ewe in the sheep barn making noise. I headed out there at midnight to find that Tess had given birth to a little white & musket spotted katmoget ewe lamb. She was in a corner cleaning off her lamb and using her body to prevent the other ewes from getting anywhere near her lamb. Smart girl because stealing of lambs when they are so close to being due is a very real issue in this breed. I moved her into the lambing pen, helped a bit with the drying and observed for a while. Everything seemed to be going well, so I was back in bed in half an hour. This morning everything was going well with Tess and her lamb. She weighs 2.7 kg and is adorable. Her base colouring is a

dark brown and she has distinct spotting on her body...she looks ready to go outside already, but unless I need the room, I'll leave them in the lambing pen for a bit. I've named her Vespera which is Latin for Evening Star for her midnight arrival.

I was inside talking about fencing plans with Hugh and about to go take a shower, when I spotted another lamb out in the pasture. Peaches gave birth on pasture to a very dark ewe lamb...not what I'm expecting out of Twist. She looks a little wobbly, so hopefully she'll be OK. I've named her Rawnie which is Gypsy for Lady. She is a grey Katmoget.

Peaches with her lamb, Rawnie

Lambing has started finally!!!

I've been so anxious, so ready for quite a while. Finally tonight Brianna and I went to put the sheep in for the night and there was Emma in full labour. I managed to shoo all the other girls out of the shed and move her into the lambing pen. She seemed stressed out by being alone, so I put Peaches in with her, who was all too happy to be getting a lovely helping of hay while Emma laboured. I was busy with the girls in the other side, while Brianna got to watch and report on the entire event, punctuated with exclamations that "I didn't need to see that" and "I'm now scarred for life". A lovely little Katmoget ewe lamb was born. I can't tell what colour her body fleece will be, but its much darker than white...I'm hoping its fawn or mioget or grey. She definitely has some spots on her body (darker patches). Her belly is black and she has spots on her ears. Brianna named her Gypsy. She weighs 2.5kg which is a little less than average but bigger than Emma's lamb last year (Felicity). The father of all the lambs this year is Twist, a white boy who will hopefully throw some white lambs, but he seems to be only throwing his hidden pattern of Katmoget. We'll see because I'm expecting up to 20 lambs.

Naming the lambs: The first year I had lambs, they had the same letter as the moms. The 2nd year, they had the next letter in the alphabet to their mom and this year, the lambs will be named for the 2nd alphabetical letter of the mother's name. I may have to change my strategy the following because its going to get confusing.

I managed to leave mom and lamb for the night. The lamb seemed to get lots of opportunity for drinking milk. I tried to dry her off some and trimmed her cord and dipped it in iodine. Gypsy was not pleased with my meddling. Emma will be a good mom. All the other girls were at the gate trying to get a look at the lamb, their maternal instincts kicking in, each thinking it was their own baby, since they are all due very shortly. I'm expecting things to be hopping in the next few days.

Shearing has started

Shearing has started slowly here. I am using a combination of handshears, electric shears and scissors. I've done 2 little rams (Ferris & Benjamin) this past weekend and Quinn who rooed earlier this winter are done except their britch wool on their upper legs. Here they are sporting their new haircuts. They have been put in a pen together away from my bigger rams, so I can feed them some extra food. Being smaller they don't get enough food with the bigger rams.




Benjamin (spotted white and grey fleece), very nice and soft.







There was some fighting when I put Quinn (who convalesced his broken front leg in the sheep barn with the girls) in with the other 2 boys. Ferris was fighting him for 2nd position, Benjamin being more dominant in 1st place in the group. Ferris wouldn't give up and neither would Quinn. Bloody heads and horns. First I made them silly little visors out of stiff felt tied around their horns with ribbons. That sort of worked for a day, but they would still butt heads when they went askew. The next day, I tied up Ferris with a dog collar and leash and eventually he calmed down and accepted Quinn into the group. They will occasionally butt heads "just for fun or show", but it doesn't get nasty. Its just to maintain order. Now they are all getting more food and access to grass in the backyard.

Quinn (left) and Ferris (right)
Quinn is a White Katmoget with slight fawn/brown spotting. Ferris is a light Moorit with little or no spotting.

Spring Preparations

Spring is here and it looks like its here to stay. We've been making changes to the farm in preparation for the 13-20 lambs which are expected officially by April 25th. A quick check this morning showed me a few girl's udders are starting to fill up, with Meg looking like she'll be first, Annie and Dot close behind. I'm quite sure I'll have lambs within a week. My 7 ewe lambs from last year have been put in with my 9 breeding ewes in a large area taking up 2/3 of my sheep barn with a small pasture. The other 1/3 of the sheep barn has now been cleaned up. I will be setting up 2 lambing pens inside and another spare one outside. The pasture associated with the lambing pens has been leveled with soil and overseeded. The sheep will be off of that pasture hopefully for a few weeks, so that the grass can come in. We finally had some great rain last night and this morning, but I'm still doing the rain dance!

Monica the Silver Appleyard Duck's house has been moved out of the sheep's pasture and closer to the house in the "Orchard". She was getting harassed by the sheep. A few young girls, mostly Morgan and Peaches, kept busting through her fencing and squeezing through her little duck door to get inside at her food. I would see Monica quacking about in the sheep pasture and go looking only to find a silly ewe stuck inside her house, because as she'd squeeze through the little door, it would get knocked and drop down closed behind her. Earlier in the spring, we have a low area in the front yard that stays wet for a while, making a pond. One day I carried Monica to the pond and let her play and eat the grass in the pond. She was so happy, making gentle duck noises. I watched her for a while to make sure she was OK, then I went to bring the garbage down to the roadside. She saw me walking away from her and she cut across the yard to follow me. I walked her back to the pond and when it was time to go back to her house, she followed me all the way back to her house in the sheep pasture. I had no idea she was so sweet and bonded to me. I did that several times while the pond still had water. With the recent "summer spell" we had over Easter, the pond dried up, but that's what made me decide to move her closer to the pond. The rain has filled it up again and I've left her fencing open today, so she is wandering about the yard, unhassled by sheep, happily eating grass and occasionally taking a walk down to the pond, but mostly she sticks close to her duck house where she feels safe.

Ellie

Ellie, the matriarch of my Shetland flock died yesterday. She was almost 14 years old. I found her this morning in a little hut next to the sheep shed towards the back surrounded by a few flakes of some very nice green hay. She must have died sometime yesterday, because she never made it back into the shed last night when Aidan brings them in with some grain. That was her favourite thing and she'd never miss her few mouthfuls of grain. She came from my friend Anna's farm along with the rest of my flock in September 2007. Among the flock was her single ewe lamb from that year, that I named Annie, and another daughter born a few years earlier named Meg. She was starting to show her age when she came to my farm. She developed pregnancy toxemia prior to lambing that first spring and I thought for sure she would lose her lambs and die, but I managed to nurse her back to health. Ever since then, she knew I was a friend and would let me approach her without running away.

She was in the shed with her daughter Annie when my very first lamb was born. She helped Annie clean off the lamb and showed what a wonderful mothering instinct she had, so much so, that I had to separate her away from Annie so that she wouldn't steal the lamb away from her. That year, she went on to have her own twin lambs, a ewe named Emma and a ram lamb that died within 18 hours.




Ellie & Annie cleaning Anakin (lamb)






I debated whether I would allow her to breed again that year, but my facilities didn't allow me to keep her separate, so she was bred again. I thought she must be carrying twins because she was extremely thin and somehow lopsided despite abundant food. Last April, I entered the sheep shed to see she had given birth to a tiny stillborn ewe lamb. My sadness quickly vanished when I realized she had another lamb to give birth to, but she seemed very weak. I helped her deliver a tiny healthy brown ram lamb named Ferris. This little guy was feisty, but I decided to supplement him since he seemed to be crying all the time. He would nurse very briefly on mom and then seem unsatisfied. Ellie continued to care for him and nurse him. After a while I realized that she must have a tumour somewhere in her abdomenal cavity. I decided to leave her be since she didn't seem to be in any pain and continued to eat and do all the regular things a sheep does.





Ellie & Ferris at 1 day






This year, I was able to separate the sheep better and put Ellie in the non-breeding group with my young ewe lambs. She seemed happy and content there. In the last few months, she limped along, her wool was sparse, and she'd occasionally get knocked down in a lamb stampede, but generally, she'd know when to get out of the way. When I went into the sheep pasture, she would follow me around, hoping to be the first to get the good stuff. Until the very last day, she would run up with the other girls to get her grain at the end of the day and follow the shepherd into the shed to be tucked away safely for the night. She was a sweet, feisty ewe, that had a long productive life and I vowed that she'd get to live out her days on my farm.








Ellie's daughter Meg and granddaughter's Natasha & Nadia











On the left: Ellie's daughter Annie and grandson Benjamin.
On the right: Ellie's daughter Emma with granddaughter Felicity











Ellie's granddaughter Morgan with great-granddaughter Nessa Rose

Quinn's new coat

Quinn, the ram lamb, is now sporting a lovely emerald green 100% wool sweater to keep him warm for the impending cold weather that's sure to come again soon. I managed to remove the rest of his fleece, but I let him keep his belly wool (which isn't prime wool anyway) to keep him warm underneath and his britch wool which doesn't seem inclined to roo. I'll keep an eye on it to see if it is trying to shed, then I can collect it later. The other lambs were quite curious about the new emerald green lamb and would come up to him and sniff and give him a shove. In case you are concerned about Quinn, he'll be fine. When I took off the initial wool a couple of days ago, he came out of his shelter and I thought what a silly ram he was, but then I saw him jump in the air and kick up his heels just like all the other healthy lambs do. Its something he hadn't done since before he was hurt by the other rams. He's a hardy, resilient little lamb that's typical of this breed of sheep....Shetland.

The "girls" on the other side getting to know the "new" guy!

Rooing

My morning chores out to the sheep shed turned up something different this morning. Quinn, the little ram lamb had some loose fleece on his shoulder, so after giving them their hay and water, I grabbed him for a closer look. Where the fleece was loose, I found a bare patch on his skin. I kept looking and realized that his fleece was coming off cleanly. He's rooing! Shetland sheep are known for this phenomena. They are a primitive breed of sheep originally from the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland and that is how the people of Shetland would get their fibre. It has happened to a lesser degree for me the first year I had Shetlands when their fleeces felted right on their backs over the winter and with a few of them I could just peel the whole thing off. Unfortunately because of the felting, I lost their fleeces. I know that several other shepherds have had this happen to their sheep but it isn't common. I'm not sure its at the right time either, because right now we are in the dead of winter...too cold to be losing your wool coat. I was planning to shear them late March to make sure I didn't get any natural rooing which would cause a break in the fleece.

Being a fibre person, I couldn't let Quinn go and hope for the best come shearing time. The way it was coming off, it would be ruined and matted in no time...and it is soo beautiful and white and crimpy fine with a stunning lustre that comes from his mom Peaches and his grandmom Pearl who is no longer here. I had no choice, but to "roo" it off. He wasn't happy because I was interrupting his breakfast. The blanket fleece came off easily, with the britch (back) and neck staying put for now. He looks horrible and I'll have to make him a blanket so he doesn't freeze for the next little while until he gets a bit of wool growing back.

I'm not convinced that this is a "natural rooing" for Quinn. A fleece will create a break at a certain point throughout the fleece in cases of stress (moving, lambing, illness, inadequate feed). Quinn was hurt quit badly several times in late fall and early winter by tangling with the bigger rams during breeding season. Initially, he was caught in the middle of Twist and Bok Choy, my 2 breeding rams, during a battle. I found him against the fence on his back with a broken front leg. I moved him to safety in the pen with my little ewe lambs (that I didn't want to breed this year) and splinted his leg. He seemed to recover from that although my splint didn't make his leg heal straight. Then, when things were better, Twist, the breeding ram from the adjacent pen decided that the little ewes in Quinn's pen smelled nice, so he busted through the gate overnight twice. In the morning I found poor little Quinn beaten up against the wall. He stopped eating and didn't look well and I thought for sure he wouldn't make it. He looked broken. Inside the sheep shed, I boarded up the gate and eliminated any visual contact between the 2 interior pens. Quinn got better and seems recovered from his trauma and eats constantly now. It is more likely that the stress has caused a significant break to occur in his fleece, hence the rooing. Today is a warm winter day +2ºC. He sure picked his day to start "rooing". Now he has to deal with the stress of staying warm, but luckily, he has a nice warm shed to sleep in and he doesn't have to go outside if he doesn't want to. And he's a tough little guy.