purplequeenvt - Ivy Knoll Farm

[purplequeenvt]

Arghhh! I am still waiting for the next batch of ewes to go. It has been 56 days since the first lambs were born and 15 days since the last were born.

It has been raining all week. I've had to scrape the ewes pen a couple times to get all the muck out so they weren't swimming.

Now that we have grass, we are going to take the sheep that aren't pregnant/raising lambs and get them out of the paddock, so yesterday afternoon we dewormed and trimmed feet on 16 sheep that we are going to be putting out on pasture (today, if I can work up the courage to set up the fence....). Some of the yearlings were on my watch list because there was a chance that they had been bred by the Shetland ram. Thankfully no one is bred!

I started working at my summer job again this week. I worked at an organic veggie farm (we do a CSA and farmers' markets) last year and I was asked to come back this year. My schedule can be pretty flexible which is nice if there is an animal emergency that I have to deal with.

 

[purplequeenvt]

Buttercup had a beautiful baby girl this evening! She wasn't even on my "watch list". Her udder had doubled or tripled in size since 5 pm.

Anyway, I was kind of hoping for a boy so I could name him Wesley, but a girl is awesome too. Especially because she is black and white!

Here she is!

Her mom, Buttercup is either full or mostly Friesian and her dad, Benjamin (my spotted ram) is a Border Leicester/Dorper cross.

Yay! I'm happy now!

 

[Mamaboid]

What a cutie. Mom is gorgeous too. Congrats!!

 

[purplequeenvt]

The new baby's name is Waverly. The name comes from the never finished/never published/possibly fictitious sequel to The Princess Bride called Buttercup's Baby. The baby was a girl named Waverly. I thought it was perfect!

The new calf, Roger, has been sick (hence the lack of pictures), but he is feeling better since I switched him from a bottle to a bucket. Roger is my sister and brother-in-law's calf that we are raising for them. I named him though. They sometimes pick......interesting names. They named their rabbit "Hasenpfeffer" and they were talking about calling poor, innocent Roger, "Lekker"

I'm staying home from church this morning because there is suspicious activity out in the barnyard.

 

[elevan]

Oh my goodness, but Waverly is too stinkin cute!

 

[purplequeenvt]

We noticed yesterday that Waverly's eyes were really weepy, so we checked her for inverted eyelids. They weren't inverted, but we discovered that her upper eyelids were split. She had a little "island" of lashes in the center of the split area and they were rubbing her eyeballs.

I took her to the vet this morning to have the problem corrected. The vet put Waverly under and sliced out the troublesome section of lashes and the stitched her eyelids back correctly. Unfortunately, this means I won't be able to keep Waverly in the flock since we don't know whether it is a genetic issue or a fluke, but I think I might have a pet home for her when she is weaned.

This is one of her eyes before the surgery. Pardon the blurry spot in the picture, Waverly had stuck her nose in the camera a few seconds before and I didn't notice that she left a smudge.

After.

Since Buttercup and Babette (Buttercup's mother) are both Friesian (do purebred Friesians come in black and black w/ white markings??) and we have 2 other Friesian/Texel/Shetland ewes (with HUGE udders) I think I am going to try milking sheep. I had a cow (Hereford/Holstein) a few years ago that I milked for a few weeks. I gave up after she adopted a 2nd calf, too much competition! I've also milked a few sheep temporarily (a week or less) when they lost lambs or had too much milk. This will be my first time really milking. I've got the stand covered - I'm picking one up this week, but if anyone has interesting or helpful tips...... I did milk Buttercup yesterday to get some colostrum (2 cups without even trying!). She was really good. I had my sister hold the halter, but she ended up pretty much dropping it because Buttercup wasn't going anywhere.

Roger the calf is all better now! The switch from bottle to bucket seems to have been the ticket. He is so noisy! He moos whenever he sees me and tries to climb through the fence to get to me.

 

[BrownSheep]

That should be fun!...I tried one of my ewes milk last year. It tasted fine if not a little sweeter than cows milk. I would suggest investing in some Bag Balm.

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

Awwww!
It is too bad you won't be able to keep Waverly! She is such a little cutie!
I have always wanted to try milking some of my sheep, but have never done it yet. One of these days I will!

 

[purplequeenvt]

Yay!! My favorite Shetland ewe, Bridget, lambed this morning. I'm slightly bummed because she only had one, but at least it's a gorgeous little girl!

She was born underneath the stairs/ramp that we put in for the lambs to play on. It has been a popular hangout spot for the Shetlands so I am not surprised.

 

[redtailgal]

That first pic is just too cute.........she's like "HOLY COW! You are one funny looking.........wait! What exactly ARE you?"




COngratulations!