shepherdO
Loving the herd life
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2018
- Messages
- 127
- Reaction score
- 129
- Points
- 106
- Location
- Okanagan area of British Columbia
Well, Lambing has officially begun 
I have 8 ewes due to lamb this year (my first real lambing), and Tammy the beach ball was due yesterday, Sunday Feb 24th. My wife and I had to go off to a speaking engagement and were gone the entire weekend. However, my 10 year old son, with the help of my parents, were charged with holding down the 'farm' while we were away, including twice daily visits for feeding the sheep, collecting the eggs, etc.
I had a feeling Tammy would lamb early, so on Friday evening I called my son and told him to lock her inside the sheep lambing shed that night - it was probably between minus -15-20 degrees C at our place, and it's often quite windy.
Anyhoo, it was a good 'hunch', as when my son came back Saturday morning to feed the animals, Tammy had given birth to triplets, with the third still very wet. Over the course of the weekend, while we were still away, I received little bits of information basically along the lines that the two ram lambs were doing well, but that Tammy (3rd lambing, twins and trips in the past, apparently) had rejected the third, a eweling.
After numerous attempts by my parents (my mum was a midwife and experimented with sheep-raising for a couple years when i was very young) to bond them, they ended up bringing the ewe back to their place, keeping it in their room in a Rubbermaid bin, and bottlefeeding it. They were careful to milk out as much colostrum from the ewe as possible, and have been feeding her milk, cream and egg homemade replacer.
It appears that she has an issue with her left rear leg - it's hyperextended, bending forward now and then. It's not too bad, I don't think, as it' stay smostly vertical. My dad's a retired physiotherapist and he was talking muscles and rehabilitation stuff - but I'm hoping it's just one of those things that fixes itself. I've done some reading and it seems that this is often/usually the case. I'm considering getting some selenium injection from the feed store today, although I'm not sure if it's white muscle disease, or just from being cramped in the womb. Anyhoo, I think this is probably why the mum rejected it, as well as perhaps the fact that it was born a while after the others - not sure.
Well, I wasn't even there for the first lambing, something I've been preparing for for so long, reading and researching 'being dilligent to now the state/face of my flocks', as Proverbs 27:23 says. But I'm pretty happy I wasn't there in the end, and that it all seems to have gone well. We'll be bringing the little one back home today, and I guess I'll have to get used to little sleep for the next while... my four human kids are all long past that stage, so we'll see how it goes!
I had my students predict the date, number and sex of Tammy's lambs, and allowed the winner to pick the names. The ewe is 'Tim-Tam', and the rams are 'Timbit' (Canadian name for Donut Holes) and 'Filmore' (not sure where that came from.'
Anyhoo, they are SUPER cute. The ewe is a lovely dusty colour, resembling her father (shrophsire-texel cross), similar to the brown smaller ram. The other ram lamb is white, with gingery-coloured lower legs and head/forelock, and he has enormous ears! Not sure where that came from.
I have another lamb due in a couple days, but I think I mixed up the dates between my two black ewes, b/c the one that's supposedly due soon doesn't look ready, and the one with 2 weeks to go looks ready to pop! They're both in the pre-lambing pen, and we'll see what happens!
Pics are below:
Above and below are the two ram lambs. Very different in appearance, beyond colour even.
Below is Tim-Tam, the ewe. She looks very shropshire - her head, at least, and based on the little I know
I have 8 ewes due to lamb this year (my first real lambing), and Tammy the beach ball was due yesterday, Sunday Feb 24th. My wife and I had to go off to a speaking engagement and were gone the entire weekend. However, my 10 year old son, with the help of my parents, were charged with holding down the 'farm' while we were away, including twice daily visits for feeding the sheep, collecting the eggs, etc.I had a feeling Tammy would lamb early, so on Friday evening I called my son and told him to lock her inside the sheep lambing shed that night - it was probably between minus -15-20 degrees C at our place, and it's often quite windy.
Anyhoo, it was a good 'hunch', as when my son came back Saturday morning to feed the animals, Tammy had given birth to triplets, with the third still very wet. Over the course of the weekend, while we were still away, I received little bits of information basically along the lines that the two ram lambs were doing well, but that Tammy (3rd lambing, twins and trips in the past, apparently) had rejected the third, a eweling.
After numerous attempts by my parents (my mum was a midwife and experimented with sheep-raising for a couple years when i was very young) to bond them, they ended up bringing the ewe back to their place, keeping it in their room in a Rubbermaid bin, and bottlefeeding it. They were careful to milk out as much colostrum from the ewe as possible, and have been feeding her milk, cream and egg homemade replacer.
It appears that she has an issue with her left rear leg - it's hyperextended, bending forward now and then. It's not too bad, I don't think, as it' stay smostly vertical. My dad's a retired physiotherapist and he was talking muscles and rehabilitation stuff - but I'm hoping it's just one of those things that fixes itself. I've done some reading and it seems that this is often/usually the case. I'm considering getting some selenium injection from the feed store today, although I'm not sure if it's white muscle disease, or just from being cramped in the womb. Anyhoo, I think this is probably why the mum rejected it, as well as perhaps the fact that it was born a while after the others - not sure.
Well, I wasn't even there for the first lambing, something I've been preparing for for so long, reading and researching 'being dilligent to now the state/face of my flocks', as Proverbs 27:23 says. But I'm pretty happy I wasn't there in the end, and that it all seems to have gone well. We'll be bringing the little one back home today, and I guess I'll have to get used to little sleep for the next while... my four human kids are all long past that stage, so we'll see how it goes!
I had my students predict the date, number and sex of Tammy's lambs, and allowed the winner to pick the names. The ewe is 'Tim-Tam', and the rams are 'Timbit' (Canadian name for Donut Holes) and 'Filmore' (not sure where that came from.'
Anyhoo, they are SUPER cute. The ewe is a lovely dusty colour, resembling her father (shrophsire-texel cross), similar to the brown smaller ram. The other ram lamb is white, with gingery-coloured lower legs and head/forelock, and he has enormous ears! Not sure where that came from.
I have another lamb due in a couple days, but I think I mixed up the dates between my two black ewes, b/c the one that's supposedly due soon doesn't look ready, and the one with 2 weeks to go looks ready to pop! They're both in the pre-lambing pen, and we'll see what happens!
Pics are below:
Above and below are the two ram lambs. Very different in appearance, beyond colour even.
Below is Tim-Tam, the ewe. She looks very shropshire - her head, at least, and based on the little I know
