Off to a Rough Start

To recap on my last lambing post we left off with Lily, Jacob's black Suffolk ewe having two lambs with only one surviving. This was on the first of February.  I am happy to say that lamb is doing great.

Lily's 2013  ram lamb

 Well, here it is the 23rd and a lot has happened but, not all for the positive. Like any lambing operation you are going to have your good years and your rough. I just did not think we would start out ours on the rough side first.

We have lost # 2 one of our Horned Dorset ewes and her lamb due to a ruptured vaginal prolapse. A vaginal prolapse can be corrected (but the ewe is usually no longer any good for a breeding ewe) and we tried but if it ruptures there is nothing you can do, except put the ewe down.  As we had to do in this case. This is a part of the Shepherds job that I don't like.


Along with this and during the same time we had two more of our Horned Dorset ewes, # 3 & # 6 abort their lambs.  Both were carrying twins. We are not sure at this time if the reason this happened was true for both ewes. We checked the barn and the hay and feel there is nothing wrong with either one of them. So next would be if there was something wrong with the ram. The ram the horned ewes were put in with was different then that of the polled ewes. So I called the breeder who owns the ram and he has not had any problems so far. Now we play a waiting game till our next Horned ewe goes into labor.

I was starting to get pretty down in the dumps when one of the Polled ewes, # 7 went into labor. She delivered twins. The first one did not survive, it had breathed in meconium. But, the second one did and even though he is a little guy only weighing in at 4.5 pounds at birth, he is prefect!

# 7's 2013 ram lamb aka "Pee Wee"

Jasmine, Tanner's Hampshire ewe did not want to be left out of the loop so she decided to deliver triplets for us. One female and two male lambs. Remember how big she was getting well this is why, the lambs weighed in at 13.5 lbs, 12.5 lbs, and 11 lbs. You'd look like a side of a barn if you were carrying all that too.

Jasmine's 2013 lambs and Tanner playing with the babies

Not long after that # 12 another Polled ewe, also gave birth to a whopping 13.5 lb baby boy lamb. Who because of his big head and markings looks like a donkey. So that is what we have been calling him.

# 12's 2013 ram lamb, aka "Donkey"

While trying to keep her lambs warm, Jasmine accidently laid on one of the triplets and he did not survive. We had provided  heat lamps with  guards for the lambs to get under but, the lamb tried laying to close to his mother. The other two are doing fine.

We have two more ewes looking very close to lambing so there has been a lot of praying, crossing of fingers, knocking on wood, and wishes being made around here. Along with lack of sleep and traveling back and forth to the Sheep Camp.

The count at this time is 5 new baby lambs all doing well  with lots of  Sweet Baaing going on at the Sheep Camp and 7 ewes left to deliver soon.

OH! I have come up with something I'd like to add to my wish list ... a "Lamby Cam". You know like a nanny cam but for sheep. It would so save on miles and sleep when I have to check on laboring ewes. You think OWNER would go for it?