Ohiogoatgirl's 2018 Lambing thread

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The way you've been "talking" (posting) I was under the impression you were already "on watch"? Either way, best wishes for success and lots of ewe lambs.
 

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The way you've been "talking" (posting) I was under the impression you were already "on watch"? Either way, best wishes for success and lots of ewe lambs.


I am keeping an eye on them but I won't be doing morning/night checks or morning/lunch/night checks until at least the 21st or 22nd.
 

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I've been keeping up with you on insta, Im quite excited to see what your ladies produce :D

Thanks! My phone screen is cracked and recently started really messing up so I haven't been able to post much this week or so. Hopefully getting a new phone on pay day and get more posting done.
 

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Got the new phone! So I will have no excuses for no pics when the lambs start!

With the boys separate now I have upped the feed a tiny bit. Only because they are all looking so big and with less than a week until the first possible due date they will be working on building up those udders!

Speaking of.. This morning I checked Midget and her udder has grown significantly! It will be interesting to see what order they lamb in and who shows an udder sooner or closer to lambing. I am trying to remember to take notes on all of this for future years.

I talked to Hairy's previous owner and last year she lambed late February with a very big single ewe. Said she was big as a bus. I told her she's been big as a bus since December! :eek: So I am really hoping for twins rather than a huge single. Although I think with the katahdin in her she will probably tend to throw bigger birth weight lambs.


Also thinking about when is the best time to put in ear tags and band tails. I want to wait a couple days at least for the tags because it seems like their ears are too delicate right after birth.

THREE DAYS until serious lamb watch begins!
 

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HAIRY HAS UDDER DEVELOPMENT :weee
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfYyNexnZAg/?taken-by=girlwalkswithgoats

The shetland ewe. Her belly is the most obviously round (after hairy) apart from her small frame. There was a bit of late flirting from Fitz with her and the black cross ewe so they may go about the same time as the others or a while later.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfYy1FtnWQy/?taken-by=girlwalkswithgoats

Hungry boys. They were not happy about the rain.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfY1lYEHW5C/?taken-by=girlwalkswithgoats
 

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With the white ewes I am considering possibly options if they lamb close together. As the ewes do not have tags or any notable differentiation other than the younger looking two and the older looking two. I was really hit with this when I wormed them and had to have hands on the next ewe as not to double dose any of the white ewes...
Thinking that I will be banding tails will help. If one lambs in the morning I will hopefully have checked them and banded tails, taken weights, etc. before the next one goes. So the newer lambs won't have tails banded yet.

However after the first couple days if I end up with many white lambs I will have to rely on the lambs going to the correct ewes. I was planning to put in ear tags at a couple days old because newborn lamb ears are just so.. new and soft and tiny.. I hate the idea of putting tags in their tiny ears and having one rip out :hit I know that may happen but I want to try and avoid it.

I hate marking crayons but I was thinking if I got one I could do something like mark the first set with crayon mark on top of the head, then the next mark on the tails, the next on front legs, the next on back legs,... And I would make note of it in my notebook I have added to the lambing kit bin. This will help me to keep track of the lambs until I tag ears and then I can keep sort of track of the white ewes that way too. In case any have any sort of problem I can mark it as whichever number lambs mom. That will also be good to watch for in keeper ewes if any have problems I will know which ewe line is culprit.

Am I a little overboard with the ear tagging? I was thinking definitely before a week old.
 
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