Ohiogoatgirl's Escapades & Adventures- Pulse check! pg14

ohiogoatgirl

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Slowly working on making friends with the bucket lambs. They are coming up to weaning before too long.
Technically I could wean them now, today is a month old for the youngest of them. But I have another bag of replacer already bought and it will only be about 10 more days worth for them. I'm hoping tomorrow to move the milk setup to the other shed in a creep area. Get them over there and make sure they know where it is. Then let them go out and integrate with the flock and get them onto grazing. They've had some hay they only nibbled at. And the feed I put down for them did not disappear nearly as fast as I'd have liked. So I think this 10 days will be good to see them learning to really be sheep. And hoping that integrating them = more active = eat more = transition from replacer to grazing and creep. We'll see.

5/22 Finally! 80 lambed a nice ewe lamb. 7.3#

Lamb antics and chin scritches. 93 is the tiny ewe lamb, 2.23# birth weight. She's growing well and is quite spunky! You can see in maybe the third clip she comes right back to the other lambs and butts and shoves and bosses her way, if not more so than the rest. Ha!

5/23 Mary lambed! Ewe 8.9# and Ram 9.5# Whole lot of baby she been carrying around. After I took this I had to carry the lambs to the shed, where the lamb kit is, to get my records noted etc. Well these two have very healthy lungs!! They were the loudest lambs I've ever had! The whole flock got in a kerfluffle and I had every sheep gathered around me, talking back after every single lamb cry. Followed me all the way to the shed. I had to kick them out and lure Mary back in so I didn't get overrun while trying to do weights and all.

5/24, 79 had a ewe lamb sometime early this morning. 5.8#
This makes for 7 ewes left to go and 6 days maximum they can hold out!
 

ohiogoatgirl

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5/25 Kitty was cleaning a lamb when I came out. After finishing chores I came back to tail & tag and she popped out a twin. Ram lambs 7.9# and 7#

By the time I wrapped up with those Midget was in labor at 9am. Having just started I went to get some breakfast and come back. No progress. Went and fiddled with some other things. No progress. I did a minor check and there was nothing coming, she didn't have almost anything for discharge, and I never saw water bag or signs of anything else. It was almost 4pm when the vet got here. He said she either wasn't in labor yet (she definitely was though) or ring womb/failure to dilate because she was not dilated. Decided to do a C-section because she was definitely in labor and she's never had problems before. If I left her to see if she'd progress on her own I'd probably end up with another dead ewe and lamb. Ended up with twin rams and Midget is taking good care of them and seems to be recovering well. 7.8# and 7.2# She'll stay on as a fiber pet. She was one of my original sheep.

5/26- 72 had the water bag passed and was nesting and laboring at 8:45pm. Hooves presenting at 9:15. She was doing good and the head and hooves were coming and she seemed to be stalled so at 9:45 I did a minor assist and pulled the legs some and out it came. I think it had gotten elbow locked. Ram lamb 8.15#

5/29- 89 had a ram lamb 7.2# in the pasture and was all cleaned and fed when I came out

5/25 I also put the early ram lambs in with Chonk and 88. They are nice and big. I also remembered to get a close up of their fleece.

Technically if they got bred at the last minute they could hold out until the 4th but they don't look bred. Ayr, 74, and 84 didn't lamb. Annoying because they are of the better ewes by body type. 89 lambed days after her birthday and 74 and 84 are two months older. Ayr, I'm wondering if it's because she's of the tallest and using ram lambs for breeding.
 

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That they are Bruce! As much as I want more ewe lambs to keep, it's not such a bad thing because I need to sell as many as possible also so that I can keep going. About half of the ram lambs look so good right now I'd love to hold on to them and see how they fill out but I just can't afford it. I've got the pasture, it's the rest of the materials and keeping going that needs paid for. Plus the c-section set me back about $500.

Just some pics of sheep..

These two are usually my shadow.. and the reason chores takes so long..

Some more sheep..

Two clips of lambs from the 3/4 shetland 1/4 cheviot ewes. I'm surprised how well they are filling out already.

The "what breeds do I actually have" game

The "how many pullets did I actually end up with" game
 

ohiogoatgirl

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Lordy lordy! I got a new phone and my laptop went on the fritz and I only just got back to checking in here.

I won't do an exhaustive catch up because most of it is just shenanigans of me trying to keep up on everything.

The rams in July.

I had a bunch of pumpkins grow wild where I had fed some out last winter.

Preparing to weave

Weaving

More weaving

Putting the rams in with the ewes!

Rams in, cont'd

More cont'd

Last one cont'd

The freedom ranger pullets

Obligatory sheep scritches
 

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With the chickens I ended up with 26 pullets and 2 cockerels, a new Hampshire and a Bielefelder. Mid February is the very earliest I can set eggs. I want to be able to get the chicks outside as soon as possible and that seems the best timeline for our usual weather. I also want to build an outside brooder for them, ideally before setting the incubator. I hate having to rush building things at the last minute.
Of the pullets, 10 are freedom rangers. Even with having restricted their feed I'm worried that they are getting really fat, internally. The first batch in the incubator will be all or primarily their eggs. I want to phase them out and they'll be good fat stew hens.
I had wanted to separate them but I'm probably not. I want to build trap nests to track who is actually laying well. I'll just mark the eggs. I'm also not worried about the dad because any sired by the Bielefelder will be barred, any sired by the new Hampshire won't be.
I have more long term plans for the chickens but I'll leave that for another post.
 

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Mid February is the very earliest I can set eggs. I want to be able to get the chicks outside as soon as possible and that seems the best timeline for our usual weather.
Beginning of April is warm enough for 4 week chicks outside there?
 

ohiogoatgirl

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Beginning of April is warm enough for 4 week chicks outside there?
No. I'm going to build a big brooder in the barn and I'll be able to keep them til 6wks. Which puts them at mid April. And an intermediate pen I'll build to acclimatize them from brooder to all outside.
I would like to push it out later but the freedom ranger pullets I'm worried about them getting alot of fat internally. I want to hatch from them before they get too fat and quit or need culled.
 

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Ok.. sheep..
I took lambs to the auction when I weaned. Well, they get separate and loaded into the truck. I didn't have things setup to wean and feed lambs then go to the auction. I kept the ewe lambs, except one who was clearly the lesser looking. And Midget went too. She was losing condition and wouldn't have been able to breed her anymore, it just doesn't work. So I had 17 ewes and 7 ewe lambs.
Lost Mary's ewe lamb to worm load. Lost Lydia, suspected worm load. Sold Ayrshire, 75, and 100 to someone just starting with sheep. I've texted her lots of information and resources. I hope they keep in touch.

Breeding was Sept 25 to Oct 25. I don't know what was going on but I messed up because the rams were supposed to stay in til Nov 4 but oh well, I didn't catch it until that weekend so it is what it is. Due 2/18-3/21. I didn't want to plan for lambs in April or later so I bumped it ahead. We'll see how it goes. And I had some CIDRs left so proven ewes were done and if they didn't lamb before then they didn't get one. It actually worked out exactly how many I had. Ewe lambs did not go in, they were all late born and definitely didn't want them bred so young.
Right before breeding groups went in 92 got weird and lost condition and just downhill. Lost him, he was son of Lydia/Chonk.
I decided to just put in one group. Chonk, 88, and 91 went in with all the breeding ewes. 3 rams to 14 ewes, average 4.67 ewes per ram, so any who didn't get bred it's not for want of rams. I saw all three going for it with ewes.

I'm really looking at cutting back. I want to buy a border Cheviot ram, and ewe also if I can swing it. So only ewes who have proven themselves will stay. I'm giving everyone marks of any problems or really good traits.
184 and 185 are staying. And Chonk, mini Cheviot ram.
95 is 185's daughter and looks to be sired by Chonk.
79 is daughter of 99/Chonk, so she's half shetland, half mini Cheviot. She's up for consideration.
269 looks pretty good, she's one of the 1/4 border Cheviot 3/4 shetland I bought. She's up for consideration. She was a triplet.

Kitty had twins but she really lost condition.
72 is ok, her lamb was a bit elbow locked and I did a minor assist. Nothing notable.
80 started to prolapse that last bit before she lambed. But other than that I really like her. She's also friendly.
89 lambed on her own and has no outstanding marks against her. But she's Mary's daughter and Pigpigs grand daughter, which seem to be of the worst for worms. So she's on watch list.
74 and 84 did not take/lamb this spring. I'm really bummed because they are of the better ones for the build I'm working toward but not if they don't breed. If they don't lamb again they'll be gone. Really going to suck because 84 is Midget's daughter and looks really Cheviot and is really really what I'm working towards.
Mary lost alot of condition. She also was pretty pale eyelids and had a swollen up neck earlier in the season. She was wormed with valbazen and prohibit. She went with the ewe lambs and not breeding. She's definitely going.
228 had the tiny ewe lamb. If she has a tiny lamb again I'd be seriously worried about breeding her to a bigger ram.
229 assisted lambing but I think just because it was a decent size lamb and she's a small ewe.
230 lambed on her own.
231 lambed on her own but found dead lamb. Unknown if she just took too long or what exactly happened. She's on the watch list for possibly issues this time.
88 is definitely going. He has a really nice fleece but he is just a tall shetland in build and it seems like his lambs are the same. I don't need that.
91 seems ok. Son of 184/Chonk. Not nearly as nice as Chonk but better than the basically shetland type.
 
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