Della

One morning last week when I went out to feed I fed Clementine in her pen with her two lambs, went outside to feed the other ewes and lambs and did a double take. I couldn't figure out how Clementine's ram lamb got outside so fast. When I picked up the lamb it was wet! Della had her lamb and never made a peep. She was eating away happily with her ewe pals while her lamb was wandering around. Into a jug went Della and her beautiful little all black lamb, a ewe! She'll be staying in our flock!

We think we'll call her Delia.

Clementine

Clementine was the first of our yearlings to lamb this year. She is daughter to Chloe and sister of Clara. And like her mom and her sister she is an easy lamber and had twins as a yearling!

I knew she carried color genetics but I am super happy to have two more black lambs, and one is a ewe lamb. Clementine is half Royal White hair sheep and half Coopworth and her fleece was pretty nice considering. Her lambs are 75% Coopworth and the ewe lamb's fleece feels like a nice Coopworth fleece. The ram lamb's fleece feels more like our mixed lamb fleece. I was hoping to get at least one ewe lamb from this year's crop to keep. Hopefully this little ewe lamb will continue to grow into a good replacement sheep for us. We'll see what the last two yearlings give us in the coming weeks.

Way To Go Hazel!

I was so worried about Hazel's lambing after the mess with Ruthie. Thankfully, she did it all on her own about 10 minutes before I went out Tuesday morning to give the bottle lambs their 5AM feeding.

 Two beautiful ram lambs! Apart from the white on the tips of their ears and a little on their faces they are completely black. Such beautiful fleeces they will have. But what to do with all these boys!

Ruthie

This post about Ruthie's lambing has taken me a while to write. I feel such a sense of failure and questioning after her ordeal. I have no idea when she began labor or when her water broke. Her 150 day mark was on Feb 16th, but she showed no signs of anything until she began having occasional dripping from her back end around day 155. She was huge and the fluid was clear and I thought she must be a little incontinent of urine since she was acting normally and eating well. But by day 157 she was only nibbling at food and seemed listless. She drank a bucket of warm molasses water and would eat grain if I hand fed her. Her temp was normal. On a vaginal exam I could feel a lamb nose but there was a rather thickish membranous something stopping my fingers from going into the lamb's mouth. I have often felt a very thin lower uterine segment that it was possible to feel baby parts through in laboring women. Was this Ruthie's lower uterine segment or very thin cervix I was feeling? Since nothing seemed to be changing I called the vet to come out and help me figure out what was going on.

The vet arrived about an hour and a half later and found Ruthie to be fully dilated with a dead lamb presenting with nose forward but legs back. This lamb had stopped everything. As the vet was getting the first lamb out I saw the membrane that I had felt. At first I thought the cervix was coming out with the lamb but then I realized it was a thicker than usual and opaque membrane. Had I realized what I was feeling would I have been able to save this lamb? The second lamb was also born dead but thankfully we were able to revive the third lamb. Triplets again. But only one ram lamb living. At least Ruthie has a lamb to mother. Judging from the smell of the lambs Ruthie must have had her water break at least a day or two prior.

The other lambs, a ewe and ram lamb, looked just like this little guy. All the lambs weighed between 9 and 10 pounds. These were the first full blood Coopworth lambs we had from our newer ram Mercer.  I always learn when the vet comes out and this time was no exception. I can't be afraid to do a vaginal exam if I am not certain of something. Can a sheep even be incontinent of urine? I am petrified I will have similar problems with Hazel, who is right now at day 148. She at least loves my attention and is enjoying all the scratches and rubs.

Chloe Had Triplets Too!

Good ole Chloe. She is such an easy birther. I went out to feed Tuesday morning and saw a sac coming out. By the time I went back to the house to get my daughter and some towels, she had already pushed out the first lamb and was busy cleaning her up. Next came a little ram lamb, followed by another ewe lamb. She is nursing all of the lambs and everyone is doing well.

They are quite vocal, but then so is Chloe's first daughter Clara who delivered on Saturday. Like mother like daughter they both are super moms!

Clara's Twins

After Mama Sadie's delivery I had a stern conversation with the remaining pregnant ewes. I told them they needed to stop this mixed up, malpresentation stuff for their deliveries and start having nice easy and uncomplicated births. Apparently, Clara was listening.

Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day, sunny with temps in the low 60s. We were cleaning out the stalls, getting ready to move Moose and her lambs into a nursery stall with Mama Sadie and her triplets when Clara began acting like she was in labor, lots of pawing at the ground, sniffing her back side, arching her back, etc. We kept checking on her while mucking out and I nearly missed her delivery. She plopped out a lamb as I was walking out to check on her. Her second lamb was born a few minutes later. The other sheep watched from afar but our wether Hiram seems to love lambs and came over to check out the new arrivals.

Mama Sadie's Triplets

Mama Sadie went into labor late Thursday evening.  She had triplets last year and was looking as large again this year. I missed her delivery last year by about a half an hour and one of her lambs was stillborn, so I was glad we caught her going into labor.
Her first lamb was coming out with just the nose, no feet. So, gloving up again, I had to bring the lambs legs around to come out with the head. Once everything was in position she delivered quickly. A nice ram lamb. She has previously refused to nurse her ram lambs so I was happy to see how attentive she was to this lamb. She readily let him nurse too. The second and third lambs came out easily and my daughter took care of their deliveries. Final tally, two ram lambs and a ewe lamb. And she will only let the firstborn lamb nurse. It wasn't ram lambs she wouldn't let nurse, it's that she will only let her firstborn nurse. Last year we went out to the barn day and night to hold her still so the lamb she wouldn't let nurse could eat. Not this year! Now that they have had their colostrum we are beginning to bottlefeed them.

We will try to sell the bottle lambs so someone else can take over that chore.

Lambing Has Begun!

Moose kicked off lambing in her very Moosey way. She never does this easily! She had a bag of water hanging out on Feb 14th around 2:30 in the afternoon. By 3:30 she had two water bags hanging out and was intermittently bearing down. By 4:00 there was no obvious progress. Since Moose has needed much assistance with her other deliveries I decided to check things out sooner rather than later. She was fully dilated but two heads and three legs were all vying to come first. Moose has a very small pelvis so it took a while to figure out which two legs went with which head. The first lamb was finally born at 4:20 and took a good bit of pulling once everything was lined up. The second lamb wasn't born until nearly 5:30. That lamb had moved into the birth canal but Moose was showing no signs of trying to push out another lamb. So that lamb got pulled as well. That lamb wasn't breathing and had an irregular heart beat. Lots of stimulation and swinging got the lamb going. The first lamb was prancing around and eating with no help by the time the second lamb was born. Two ram lambs. The first lamb weighed 13 pounds and the second lamb weighed 11 pounds. Much smaller than her 15 and 17 pound lambs last year, thank goodness.

I should have given her prophylactic antibiotics since I was in her uterus for quite a while trying to sort things out. By the next afternoon Moose was feeling poorly, had a temp of 105 and was breathing rapidly. I gave her IM and SQ penicillin and then aspirin after talking to the vet. This morning she is feeling much better. She is eating well and breathing normally. And her temp is down. The lambs have done great throughout all of this.

The other ewes are patiently awaiting their turn at lambing. Ruthie should be next, maybe later today or tomorrow.

Followed closely by Mama Sadie and Clara this weekend.

Hopefully the most complicated delivery is now out of the way and the rest of the lambs will come easily.

Last But Certainly Not Least

Ruthie finally lambed just after midnight this morning. As she was pushing I saw little black feet and got excited that we might finally have a lamb that wasn't white. Then she pushed out this extremely adorable little fellow.

(Apparently "red eye reduction" doesn't work if the reflection is green.)
He looks more light gray on his neck and belly. Ruthie was very attentive and could not leave him alone. He nursed well and has a fat little belly this morning.
Now it's time to tally up all the lambing stats and start sleeping through the night again!

A Surprise From Hazel

Alan got home from work last evening in time to find Hazel cleaning off her new ram lamb. By my accounting she wasn't due for at least another 2 weeks, but I guess she knew better. Our first Coopworth lamb, bred and born on our farm!

He is nearly 10 pounds and she is very attentive. Looking for names beginning with the letter "H." She was hiding this pregnancy very well, partly because of her sheep coat, but she wasn't any where near as big as the other sheep just before they delivered. Even Ruthie looks bigger. Could she be having twins? I would really love a Coopworth ewe lamb.

Happy Lambs

We spent yesterday grooming the new pasture area, planting seed, and raking. The weather is forecasting rain tonight and tomorrow morning so I really wanted to get this seeding done. After hours of back breaking work we rested and let the ewes with the older lambs out to play. And play they did (well the lambs did!)

We had issues with videos but I think we have it figured out now. Hopefully, better videos to come.

Clara-Our First Ewe Lamb

I was the most anxious about Clara lambing. I was there when she was born the end of January 2015. She is not quite 14 months old and was pregnant for the first time. Her due date based on a 145 day pregnancy was yesterday, but all of our ewes have been lambing 3-4 days after that date. So we really didn't think any thing would happen for a couple more days. Well, Clara surprised me with twin ram lambs this morning. They were up walking, nursing and were mostly dry when I found them. She is such a good mom! Her mother Chloe has been the easiest ewe to lamb and I was hoping Clara would take after her.

She had two nice size ram lambs, one 8 1/2 pounds and the other 9 pounds. Way to go Clara for your first lambing!

Beyla

Beyla's original due date was February 29th. But after a week passed I figured she was not bred on her first mating and somehow the blue crayon didn't mark her (there were a few days when Elwood was sitting in dirt and the crayon became caked with dirt and little stones and wasn't marking.) So I expected her to lamb about 17 days later. On March 9th my husband called me at work and said Beyla was in labor. When I got home she looked fine other than trying to have a small vaginal prolapse with a lot of bearing down. But she was not dilated at all. On the 10th she was stable. On the morning of the 11th my daughter texted me that Beyla was passing a lot of mucus, but otherwise acting fine. At noon she had two bags of fluid hanging out of her vagina and was contracting about every 15 min. When nothing had changed by 2 PM I left work because I was worried that she might have a malpresentation because she had been pretty immobile for the past month or so because of her sore foot. Of course she slid a lamb out while I was walking out of work, but still had the two sacs hanging from her vagina.

Then, for two hours nothing happened. Beyla was very attentive to her little ewe lamb and the lamb was nursing well. A quick exploration found a lamb not far from the birth canal and in the proper position but slightly rotated. He came right out with a little help. While Beyla was cleaning the ram lamb she began pushing again. I was really hoping she was passing her placenta as I didn't think she could handle triplets. But out popped another ewe lamb.

Everyone was up moving around and nursing well. Their little bleats were absolutely adorable. I don't know if Beyla delivered early or late or if I had her due date completely wrong. I only know when she was marked the one and only time.
Just as I was figuring out how to go about supplementing triplet lambs Beyla sat on her third lamb and suffocated her. I had been out in the barn and they were all nursing last night around 7:20. When my daughter went out around 7:40 the lamb was under Beyla and had no heart beat. I think Beyla just sat down on her while the lamb was trying to nurse.  At least now I don't have to worry about Beyla not being able to nurse triplets, but poor little thing.
Next up is Clara. She is due on the 25th of this month.

Chloe: Before and After

Here is a picture of Chloe, heavily pregnant, yesterday afternoon.

Everyone was fine at the 9PM check, but when I went out at 11:30 to check on the ewes I was greeted walking up to the barn by one very vocal barn cat. Then I heard Clara making a ton of noise. When I walked into the barn Chloe was cleaning off her two newborn lambs. Leave it to Chloe to make this all look so easy. And after the last two births I was ready for easy. She passed the placenta without issue and was already nursing one lamb when I walked into the barn. A cursory drying and clipping/dipping the cords and moving them into a jug and we could go to bed!
And the after shot:

Chloe has the prettiest face of all our hair sheep. She had a ram lamb and a ewe lamb, same as last year. But this year's lambs weighed more since she was probably in better condition when she bred and throughout the pregnancy. The ewe lamb was 11 pounds and the ram lamb was 11 1/2 pounds.

Moose's Story (or Why Aren't We Having Fun Yet?)

Moose came to us in late 2014 already bred. She delivered a 13 pound ram lamb in Late Jan. 2015. That ram lamb died when he was about one month old. The vets could never figure out why.
Fast forward to this year's lambing season. Moose was due on 2/28. Finally on the evening of March 2nd she went into labor and delivered a large ewe lamb, 12 pounds, with a little pulling help from me. (She also needed a bit of help pulling out her lamb in 2015.) Mama Sadie was still not letting her ram lamb nurse so we tried grafting him onto Moose after her ewe lamb was born. Moose seemed very excited to have two lambs at first and even let him nurse. But then she decided she had enough and wanted nothing more to do with him. I even tried putting my hand in her vagina to stimulate the pressure of giving birth but she would not have it. By now a couple hours had passed and Moose showed no more signs of having anymore lambs. The quick check when I had my hand in her vagina felt like a cavernous nothing. She was nursing her ewe lamb well and drinking water and eating hay. I was disappointed Moose only had one lamb, she was huge and I thought she would have at least twins, but at least she was healthy. I moved the ram lamb back in with his family and took a couple steps backwards with Mama Sadie accepting him since he now smelled like Moose and her ewe lamb.

At the overnight checks Moose and her ewe lamb were doing fine and Mama Sadie was getting better with letting her ram lamb nurse. It wasn't until around 1PM, over 14 hours from the time she delivered her ewe lamb, I noticed that Moose looked like she was pushing. She still had placenta hanging from her vulva so I figured she was just trying to pass that. I gloved up to see what was going on an found a lamb lying with its back towards Moose's belly way down in her uteruss, but head and front legs pointing towards the way out. Lambs don't bend that way and need to have their backs aligned with the ewe's back for delivery. I attempted to spin the lamb so its back was in the proper alignment but it would not budge. I also thought it had died since I had a finger in its mouth and felt no movement. After only attempting for a brief minute or two I figured I needed to have the vet on his way since I didn't think I would be able to get this lamb out. Moose also felt very warm inside so would need antibiotics and oxytocin.
Dr Dickerson got to the farm in just under half and hour. Even he had a good bit of trouble getting this lamb rotated and out. Even the hips got stuck. It was a 15 pound ram lamb and he did not respond to any resuscitation efforts.
Dr Dickerson gave Moose antibiotics, oxytocin, some vitamins and steroids and banamine for pain. She was having rasping breathing by now and looked exhausted. In the evening she developed a nasty cough along with her raspy breathing and I feared she was getting pneumonia. Thankfully, by 3AM her breathing sounded much better and she was coughing only occasionally. This morning she looks a lot better, still tired, but has a perkier look about her.  So now I need to figure out Moose's future. She is a good mom once she is delivered but she has never delivered unassisted. And now I know I need to take the plunge and explore the uterus more fully if I think there is a chance there could be another lamb.

And the Fun Has Begun!

Mama Sadie spent a good part of yesterday standing around and rocking back and forth on her hind legs. At 10PM last night more of the same. At 12:30 she looked a little wet on her vulva but was acting totally  normal, and she tends to get everything wet when she pees. So I went to check her again a little after 3AM. As I walked up to the barn I could hear that sweet nickering sound that new moms make to their newborns. Sure enough there were two wet lambs struggling to get up and placenta hanging out. I ran back to the house to get my lambing kit and towels and when I returned I saw a third lamb lying very still in the hay. I tried to resuscitate it to no avail. There was a little meconium on it and not so much on the other lambs, but Mama was doing a fine job licking her lambs so I don't know how much meconium there really was. I don't think the lamb ever took a breath since amniotic fluid poured slowly from its mouth.
Mama was very intent on cleaning off her babies, but not so much on letting them nurse. Each time a lamb would move towards her udder Mama would bat them away with her head. After the lambs attempted many times I finally haltered Mama and let the lambs get their colostrum. They were so happy to nurse and their little tails went crazy.
Once the lambs had nursed I needed to move the new family into a jug since where they were now was the section of pen I was going to fence off for my third jug and I have two other ewes who should be lambing any hour now. Mama wanted no part in following her lambs and just kept looking for them in the pen. I tried bribing her with some grain and that didn't work. Finally, with one lamb in my arms and the feed scoop, Mama saw a barn cat come into the barn and followed us with no problem. Did she feel threatened by the cat and moved to protect her lamb?

In the jug, a smaller space I was hoping would work better for nursing, Mama still would not let her lambs nurse. Out came the halter again. Mama had a nice drink of warm molasses water and some grain and hay and everyone was tucked in. The lambs found the heat lamp right away.
When I went back two hours later to check on everyone Mama had delivered the rest of her huge placenta and was laying in it. The lambs were crying to eat and I could not get Mama to get up no matter what. Back into the house worrying about milk fever. Grabbing the calcium gluconate and needles and syringes I ran back up to the barn to see Mama Sadie standing there looking at me like nothing had ever been wrong. Still she wouldn't let the lambs nurse so it was back to the halter. The lambs, a ram and a ewe, nursed for a good 10-15 minutes without much direction. Once their bellies were full the halter came off and the lambs went back under the heat lamp. I hope Mama figures out how to let her lambs nurse, she has had at least one other pregnancy and raised up two good sized lambs when we purchased her. So I know she can nurse.  
 Triplets explains why Mama Sadie was so big. She had 33 pounds of lambs inside. The ram lamb weighed 12 pounds and both ewe lambs weighed 10.5 pounds (yes I weighed the stillborn lamb.) 

When...

Tomorrow is three days before the first ewe's due date of February 27th. Everything I have read says ewes will lamb anywhere between three days before and three days after their due date. This is the first time I actually know when the sheep were bred so I don't know if the same date spread works for Royal Whites. Mama Sadie is the first due and she is huge.

She is already the largest ewe we own and she is even as large as our largest ram, Mercer.

Moose is due on the 28th and is quite large herself.

She is a much more compact ewe than Mama Sadie. All the sheep due in the next week do a lot of sitting around looking uncomfortable and groaning. Yesterday afternoon when I went to check on them everyone had no desire to get up. And if you saw how hard it was to get up you could see why they won't get up as often.

Everything is ready and waiting. Last Friday I cleaned out half the stalls and on Saturday, with Alan's help, we got the other half of the stalls cleaned out and the outdoor paddock area. The lambing jugs are ready, extension cords and warming lights in place, extra feeders and buckets for water clean and ready to go. We spent Sunday morning doing fence maintenance. The nearly two and a half feet of snow we had broke a bunch of insulators and the fences through the woods needed a bit of tending to. Everything is back up to 8000 volts and ready for grazing. Next up is pasture maintenance and seeding. But first, who's going to lamb first????

Getting Ready for Lambing

Our second season of lambing feels so much more prepared than our first lambing season. First off I actually know when the ewes were bred therefore I can calculate due dates. Once I have due dates I can plan for all those things a shepherd does before lambing; like worming, booster vaccines, etc. The older hair sheep are all due from Feb 27th to March 5th. Clara, our hair sheep yearling is due March 23rd and our Coopworth yearling ewes are due the second half of April, if they are pregnant.

The hair sheep are all looking very pregnant and their udders are beginning to swell.

Mama Sadie, our hair sheep cross, is absolutely HUGE! She came with two-month old twin lambs when we bought her so we never saw her pregnant. She has to have at least twins in there now.

From left to right above: Mama Sadie, Clara and Chloe (Clara's mother.)


The older ewes received their CDT booster vaccines last week and had FAMACHA and body condition scores this morning. All the hair sheeps' FAMACHA scores ranged from 3-4. Chloe was nearly perfect with a FAMACHA score of 4 and a body condition score of 3.5. Lucky girl got a pass on the worming. The other hair sheep had either a 3 for their FAMACHA score or were a little low on the condition score so were dosed with levamisole.  Poor Clara got both the wormer and the CDT booster. 

Last year I could not have imagined doing all this work by myself.  But the sheep have become more used to me and I have gotten so much better with handling them. They, and I, are getting used to using halters. Most of the sheep stand still and put their heads down as soon as they feel the halter going on. All the conferences and classes are starting to paying off. 

The Coopworth sheep have an appointment with the shearer in March and will have their booster vaccines, FAMACHA and body condition scores, and hoof trimming done at that time. It will be nice to compare my scores to the shearer's to see how I am doing with my accuracy. Still so much to learn!

The lambing tray is getting restocked, out dated items thrown away and replaced, and everything organized. I have a huge pile of old towels from cleaning out my husband's aunt's condo. The last thing we need to do now is set up a couple lambing jugs and wait.