Last little lamb

Emma with Felicity

Emma finally had her little lamb. It was in the barn surprising me when I got there this morning. It was wobbly, but fairly dry. Another Katmoget lamb from my white ram Twist. He hasn't thrown his dominant white gene at all this time. Emma's lamb is a sweet tiny 2.1kg ewe lamb named Felicity.

Felicity

Cheeky lambs

The little lamb in the front, making a face at me is Elphaba, Dot's little twin ewe. The lambs like to hang around this spot...a lamb playground. Nessa Rose (Morgan's ewe lamb) is behind Elphaba, Natasha (Meg's ewe lamb) is on the left. At the back left is Una (Tess' ewe lamb) and Quinn (Peaches' ram lamb) on the back right.


This is Meg the other day with her black twin ewe lambs: Nadia (right) and Natasha (left). Natasha has more white on her face. These ewe lambs have gorgeous little faces. Meg is a fantastic mom and her daughter from last year is Morgan (see below).


Meg's lambs hanging out at the lamb playground. Nadia is in the front with Natasha in the back.


Morgan with her ewe lamb Nessa Rose. This little lamb has so many colours happening. Her legs are black and brown and her body is brown spotting on mainly a light grey body. Her head has brown, grey and black.

Nessa Rose closer up. She is out of Willowgarden Twist, my white ram.

I'm still waiting for Emma to have her lamb. She is the last girl left to go. I'm hoping this lamb will be white.

Morgan has a little lamb

I'm leaving for Alliston, ON tomorrow for the Ontario Handweavers' & Spinners' conference where I will partake in workshops, vendor shopping, a banquet and meet up with my classmates in the OHS spinning certificate course where we will have our graduation ceremony. In setting everything up for Hugh to take over for 3 days, I noticed Morgan was in labour. I rearranged the girls again and put her and Emma (still waiting) in the lambing pen. I closed off the old pasture and cleaned out the other end of the pen in the shed. I've only got the center part to clean up now from the long winter.

Morgan was not a happy girl. Her lamb was not presenting normally. Only 1 front foot and the head. The other foot was bent. I read up what I had to do and got ready. She was not cooperating. She would barely let me touch her. Eventually the head and foot were fully presenting by then and there was no way to get her other leg forward. After trying to help Morgan to no avail, I gave in and ran for my neighbour Pam, but she wasn't home. I went back to the shed panicking a bit and trying to figure out what I should do. Finally I pinned Morgan to the wall with my knee and pulled and jiggled that lamb out as gently but forcefully as I could on each contraction. She thankfully tumbled out. I thought she'd by dead by now, but no, once the umbilical cord was severed, she started to try breathing. Another beautiful ewe lamb with the same Katmoget pattern as my 2 other lambs out of Twist (Una & Quinn). Funny thing is that Twist is white and white is dominant over all other pattern genes, but he also carries the Katmoget pattern and that is the gene he is throwing to all his lambs, not the white.....yet. I still have Emma left and she is my last hope to get a cute little white lamb. I haven't taken a picture yet, nor named the ewe lamb, but she weighed 3.1 kg.

A little break...and then 3 more!

This morning I arrived at the sheep shed to let the girls "in waiting" out (sheep that haven't had their lambs yet) and saw 2 little lambs all by their lonesome, that looked very similar to Una and would definitely be Twist babies. The strange thing is that any sheep bred to Twist is only expected to have 1, not twins. Turns out one was Una. She had snuck through the feeder to the other pen and the other one was a little ram lamb belonging to Peaches. He weighed in at 2.85 kg and since moving to a lambing pen with his mom, she seems to be taking good care of him.

Peaches with ram lamb Quinn

While waiting for more lambs to come, I've had to manage a few lamb issues. Ellie's little boy Ferris seems lazy and won't drink much from mom. He cries often and doesn't seem to have a full tummy. I've checked mom and she has lots of milk, but he doesn't seem to know how to stay on. I spent a lot of time getting him latched on without much success. Mom is too busy eating all she can and doesn't seem to pay him much attention, so I made the decision to supplement him by feeding him lamb milk replacer. Now he follows me everywhere calling for me. He is still very small and gets pick on by some of the other moms (mostly the young ones). He's been pretty beaten up by them and I've had to rescue him. I've kept him isolated with his mother in a lambing pen. Its been a good thing that I haven't had any other lambs until now.

Aidan bottle feeding Ferris

I've also kept Thelma and her twin ewes in the lambing pen because Uchenna still looks a bit blind. Her sister Ursula is doing great. Uchenna will easily lose her mother and gets disoriented. I've continued giving her vitamin B1 and can happily report that she hasn't succumbed to the sickness I had last year. I've read that it can take a week for the lambs to get better and it is possible that the blindness is irreversible. I haven't heard back from the vet yet.

All the lambs born earlier in the week and their moms had access to the pasture today. It is an adorable sight to see lambs running around across the whole pasture chasing and racing each other. They kick up their heels and do little flips in the air. Later in the afternoon, I noticed that Meg was in labour. So I moved her immediately to the other lambing pen next to Peaches and Quinn. I went inside for 30 minutes and came out to check on her and there were 2 little lambs already standing up. They are all black with varying white on their heads. Another set of twin ewe lambs. If I was planning on growing my flock this year, I'd be jumping for joy at the number of girls I've had. 3 sets of ewe twins. The lamb with the heart shaped white spot on her head is Nadia weighing 3.25 kg and Natasha has more white on her head weighing 3 kg. Mom seems to be in control and she is a very good mom, so I didn't interfere with them tonight. I'll have a better look at them tomorrow.

I had to rearrange the other girls, so I put Ellie and Ferris with the 2 remaining moms in waiting. They are lambs from last year and they get rough with Ferris, but I watched and Ellie stood up for him and let those young girls know that they couldn't mess with her baby, so hopefully things will be OK for him. He found a nice place to sit and fall asleep before nightfall near the feeder where his mom seems parked.

5 lambs today!!!

I went to the sheep shed this morning to bring grain to the girls. After the girls rushed out, the first sight that greeted me was Ellie (my oldest girl at 13 years old) lying next to a little lamb. The little lamb had been cleaned up somewhat and Ellie was "talking" to it, but it was dead. It was a very dark brown little girl lamb with white spotting on her face. She was still warm so she had just been born. Not a good start.

A little bleeting noise drew my attention to another corner. There was the cutest little thing sitting in a warm nest of hay, legs curled up and looking healthy and perky, but no mother. Where did she come from? Was she Ellie's? She got up with a jump and ran outside, but seemed not to know who to go to. Finally she settled on Tess (one of my young girls, a lamb from last year). I couldn't get close to the lamb because she and Tess would run away when I approached. I had to entice them all back into the shed so I could look at her. A gorgeous little ewe lamb weighing 3.1 kg. She must have been born late the night before and obviously had been fed because she was so active. I've named her Una, which means lamb in Irish and one in Latin. This is the first lamb from my new ram Twist.

Tess with Una (left) and Twist her sire (right)

I needed to put Tess and Una into a separate pen because Tess seemed easily separated from her lamb and being a new mom, she needed to bond to ensure the lamb's survival. I ousted Dot and Annie and their 3 lambs from the last 2 days out of the lambing pen and set up Tess and Una.

Now back to Ellie. She wasn't done! She was still in labour and sure enough another lamb came. Ellie was tired and wouldn't stand up. The lamb was coming out with one front leg back. I could see it was breathing but it wasn't progressing out, so I had to pull this little lamb all the way out. I put it in front of Ellie and she immediately started to clean it up and I helped with old towels to make sure the fluid was removed from its airway. A tiny little ram lamb weighing 2.1 kg. I've called him Ferris. His little stillborn sister weighed 1.45 kg. These guys were quite small, likely because Ellie was very thin. Ferris seems to be doing just fine and mama is feeding him as she eats. They got moved into the lambing pen next to Tess & Una.

Ellie and Ferris

I had to leave to volunteer at Aidan & Brianna's school in the morning, but noticed that Thelma (another mom) was looking like she was in labour. When I returned, Thelma was no different. I watched Tess and Ellie to make sure their lambs were OK and feeding from mom. While I was there, Tess jumped to Ellie's side of the pen because Una crawled under the hayrack. Later, Ferris got stuck under the hay rack and was crying for his mom, so Ellie jumped the divider and ended up in Tess's pen. When these things happen, fighting occurs and the other mom will attack the intruder and head butt the lambs to the ground. Teaching them manners I guess, but it seems so nasty.

Thelma finally had a lamb, and then another. She is about 3 years old and has only had singletons before (Tess is her daughter from last year). She wasn't cleaning off the 2nd lamb and was still only paying attention to the first one, so I picked it up and put it with the other one and then she started cleaning it. I helped and soon they were up. 2 little girls weighing 3.1kg (Ursula) and 2.75 kg (Uchenna, African for God's will).


Thelma with Uchenna and Ursula


Thelma & Ursula (black with lots of white on head, black panda eyes)


Uchenna (chocolate brown with less white on head, brown panda eyes). I'm worried about this lamb, because she appears possibly blind and disoriented at times. I had this happen last year with 2 lambs from different moms. Those lambs died a very sad death within 18 hours of birth. A vet visit last year and necropsy produced no answers. Talking with another shepherd this fall, he suggested that it may have been Polioencephalomalacia which results in a thiamine (vitamin B1 deficiency) which results in brain swelling, etc. One of the causes that might make sense for my situation is excessive amounts of sulphur in drinking water. I've changed my management situation to reduce this risk. Uchenna doesn't seem as bad as last year's lambs were and I've started giving her oral vitamin B1 supplements which may reverse the effects. Time will tell. I'll likely call the same vet for advice and maybe a shot of thiamine if he thinks it will be more effective than oral supplementation.

So if you are keeping track that is 8 lambs in 3 days. Last year, my lambs were born within a span of 2 weeks. I'm not sure what happened this year, but this is intensive for a small farm with only 9 breeding ewes. I'm already more than half done with lambing and I'm still expecting 5 more lambs...stay tuned.

Finally for Dot

Dot was ready!


Dot nursing her twin lambs

Last night, I was heading to bed and through my open window, I could hear one of the girls complaining. So, just to make sure, I headed to the sheep shed at midnight to check on everyone. It was Dot again. Nothing was happening, but she was coming easily to me. Benjamin and his mom Annie were content as could be. Back to bed I went. Just before 5 am this morning I woke up and heard one of the girls...and this time a little baa...another lamb? I quickly got dressed, went outside and plugged in all the lights and by the time I neared the shed, I could hear 2 lambs crying. Dot had twins. They were just trying to get to their feet. I moved them to the lambing pen with Annie. Dot was being very protective of her lambs and kept head butting the now curious little Benjamin, so I put a divider in the lambing pen so each had her area. I helped Dot dry off her lambs with old towels and did a quick check...2 little girls.


Elphaba (white face and panda eyes) and Ebony (small white patch on forehead). Elphaba weighs 2.7 kg and Ebony weighs 3.45 kg. Very good weights for twins. Both are doing very well and neither appears blind (Dot was 1 of 2 moms that had a blind lamb last year that had severe problems and died within 12-18 hours).


On his second day of life, Benjamin is doing very well and I let him and his mom Annie out into the clean grassy pasture for a bit of romping and exploration. He was introduced to the other moms nose to nose through the fence bordering the pastures.

Lambing has started

A quick check this morning out in the sheep shed suprised me with my first lamb of 2009. Annie and Dot were both licking clean a little black and white lamb that had obviously just been born and was already standing up. I didn't know who the mom was. Dot is the first one I've been expecting to have her lamb and she is big enough to have 2, but there was only 1. Annie I wasn't expecting yet. Turns out Annie is the mom, so I tried to move her alone to the lambing pen with her lamb, but Dot thought it was her lamb and wouldn't be separated. I finally got Annie alone with her lamb and Dot has been crying for "her lamb" all day. I had to work downtown today, so I quickly trimmed the umbilical cord and put iodine on it and left thinking it was a sweet little ewe lamb.

Benjamin and his mom Annie.

I got home late afternoon to check on the lamb and new mom and everyone seems content. I got a scale to weigh my lambs this year (thanks Dr. Carl) and the little lamb weighs 3.4 kg (7.5 lbs), but when I turned it over to look at the umbilical cord, I was suprised to see its a little ram lamb and yes, there are little horn buds on top of the head. Brianna has named him Benjamin. Last year, each lamb was named with the first letter of the mother's name. Annie had her very first lamb last year and his name was Anakin. This year, the lambs will be named with the next alphabetical letter of the mother's names.

My sheep are Shetlands. They are a small, hardy, slow growing breed of British sheep mainly prized for their wool. Their wool comes in a variety of colours and a number of patterns. Having Shetland lambs is like opening a present...you never know what you'll get. I have 8 more girls to go with their lambs...feels like Christmas!