SageHill Ranch Journal

[farmerjan]

DS no longer raises any bottle babies.,...unless it is out of a very special ewe for some reason... he finds someone that wants to raise a lamb or it goes to the stockyard... You are right, more in them than they are worth nowadays... Used to be I'd get 5-10 and raise up on a gang bucket.... nipples all around a 4 gal bucket and pour the milk in a couple times a day... they did pretty good if you watched so no one got too much or too little... they learned quick to come to bucket when you took milk out...had the cow to use as a milk source after they were 1-2 weeks old... But you can't make it pencil out now...

 

[Baymule]

I have 2 more weeks………FREEDOM!

 

[Ridgetop]

I had seen that multiples are *seemingly* preferred when lambing but I agree about the singles. They have such a great head start. We're raising ours for meat so we're looking for a bigger carcass.

The saying is "One for the bank, one for the shepherd". It takes twins to make it work financially - or used to. Not much makes farming work financially these days.

 

[SageHill]

Soooooooooo -- you all know how I was thinking that singles and rams would be good for lambs.
Welllllllllllllllllllllll - God is playing a joke on me (or something like that)
Just got back in.
One of my ewes - "Cap" the black one with a white spot on her head had a new lamb when it was time to put sheep in the barn.......... a stinkin' adorable ewe lamb (a keeper).

Got her up to the barn and in a stall with no problem. Cap is a good mama - and up to now has
singled or twinned..............
So she's in the stall - and before getting in the stall she had someone else thinking of joining the flock.
Because it's that time to put sheep away, Obi was with me. He totally adores baby lambs.

And ---- another one joins the flock ----
another stinkin' cute ewe lamb.......

Watched for awhile and another starts thinking of joining the flock..................
YUP -- if you're following the thought from above, another stinkin' cute ewe lamb!

TRIPLETS when I was talking singles and selling for freezers I get adorable triplet ewe lambs.
He has plans other than I had. Guess I'll roll with it.

Better pics tomorrow.
Birth weights on the first two 7.6 and 8.2 didn't get the third mama Cap was still cleaning her. But she looked to be a similar size to her sisters. And --- these are the first lambs from my St Croix ram.

 

[drstratton]

Soooooooooo -- you all know how I was thinking that singles and rams would be good for lambs.
Welllllllllllllllllllllll - God is playing a joke on me (or something like that)
Just got back in.
One of my ewes - "Cap" the black one with a white spot on her head had a new lamb when it was time to put sheep in the barn.......... a stinkin' adorable ewe lamb (a keeper).
View attachment 125455

Got her up to the barn and in a stall with no problem. Cap is a good mama - and up to now has
singled or twinned..............
So she's in the stall - and before getting in the stall she had someone else thinking of joining the flock.
Because it's that time to put sheep away, Obi was with me. He totally adores baby lambs.

View attachment 125456

And ---- another one joins the flock ----
another stinkin' cute ewe lamb.......
View attachment 125457
Watched for awhile and another starts thinking of joining the flock..................
YUP -- if you're following the thought from above, another stinkin' cute ewe lamb!
View attachment 125458

TRIPLETS when I was talking singles and selling for freezers I get adorable triplet ewe lambs.
He has plans other than I had. Guess I'll roll with it.

Better pics tomorrow.
Birth weights on the first two 7.6 and 8.2 didn't get the third mama Cap was still cleaning her. But she looked to be a similar size to her sisters. And --- these are the first lambs from my St Croix ram.

That's so exciting. Congratulations, they're adorable!

 

[farmerjan]

Look at the color !!!!!..... and evenly sized is great.... you'll have to feed her extra to make enough milk or try to bottle supplement ... which they won't like if they get used to momma... they ought to want to start eating feed at a younger age too...
You were not totally happy with the red ones... so replacements to allow you to sell them if you still are not 100% sold on keeping them.... or cull out some other less than cooperative ewe....