Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Twins!

I did my usual check on the sheep when I got home from work last night, around 10:45PM, and heard two baby lamb bleats. One sounded like ram 3 but the other was from a much smaller lamb. There was Chloe licking off a lamb who looked to be about 5 minutes old. The lamb was still very damp and trying to stand. The two ewes and ram 3 were milling about trying to check out the new arrival. Luckily Alan had followed me up to the barn and he ran back to the house for all the lambing supplies and a stack of clean towels while I set up the temporary pen for the new mom and her lamb. Soon after Alan arrived back up to the barn I saw another set of very slippery looking legs behind Chloe.  She spun around and I watched as her second lamb slid out. These lambs were half the size of ram 3 when he was born!
I dried them a well as I could (who knew their hair holds onto so much moisture!) Then treated their cords with iodine. They both were up and moving around relatively quickly and after a few false starts both got the hang of nursing.
A ram lamb was born first (ram 4) and then we finally had a ewe lamb born! Now to pick a name for her. Something that starts with a hard C as we want to have all the maternal lines begin with the same letter as the original ewe.
Here are a few pictures of all the cuteness.
Chloe is proving to be a very attentive mother.

There were a few "face plants" as we figured out how to walk.
Ram 3 is nursing on the left. He is only 6 days older than the new twins but looks a month older.
It is so cold out (teens last night) that the lambs were put into their jackets. I am glad they figured out it is warm under the heat lamp!


No comments:

Post a Comment