A New Creep

Alan built a creep the first year we had lambs, but we rapidly outgrew its approximately 12 square feet size. Last year I used the long side of the creep in front of the door to the smaller stall. That worked great, but we lambed nearly a month later and it never got too cold at night necessitating the doors needing to be closed. This year we have had some frigid nights in the teens with the winds blowing right in the doors. We needed to come up with a creep plan that would allow the doors to be closed and still let the lambs come and go in the creep.

We were able to use some of the support structure on the barn wall from the old creep set up, a gate that I needed to move anyway, and the end panel for the original creep. The lambs are figuring it out. The older ones are happy to be able to eat grain without having to jostle with the big ewes.The lambs now have 32 square feet to get away from the commotion of the ewes and eat in peace.

121 Hay Bales

This is what 121 hay bales dumped into your driveway look like.

We are blessed to have a hay auction less than 5 miles from our farm. We were running low on hay and Saturday was a frigid, blustery day, perfect for the auction. Our last adventure at the auction was in a small snow storm and the prices were good. Saturday was equally good. The only buyers were serious and people, like me, with small stock and deep wallets were mostly missing. We bought a beautiful load of 2nd cutting mixed grass hay that the sheep love. And it came out to $3.50 a bale. I can't touch this kind of hay in the retail market for under $5.50 to $6. Hopefully this load will last us until we can start grazing.

Getting Ready for Lambing

It won't be long.

Poor Chloe is patiently waiting. Everyone due this month is getting big. We've done the big clean out of the stalls, set up the first lambing jug and have a quick set up for two more. The heat lamps are ready to go, and there are extra bulbs in the cabinet. The lamb coats are ready. And so is the lambing kit. And I have a week's vacation scheduled in the thick of lambing.

Mama Sadie, the sheep with the red stain on her rump from the marking crayon, would not let her ram lambs nurse the other two times she lambed, she loves her ewe lambs though. I missed her delivery by about a half hour last year so I am hoping if I am there when she lambs I can get her started with both her lambs.

NY Sheep and Wool Festival

My daughter and I went to the NY Sheep and Wool Festival on Sunday. Last year I wasn't able to get there but this year we were successful. The three hour ride was uneventful and the long lines to park that I had been worried about did not materialize, thankfully. My first impression was how uncrowded it was. The MD Sheep and Wool festival has always been packed when I have been there. I did hear that the crowds on Saturday were much bigger. The weather forecast for Sunday was a little iffy so that may have had something to do with the lack of crowds. This was also the first year for the equipment auction on Saturday so that may have also had an impact on which day people decided to attend.
I had three goals for the festival. The first was to not buy any fiber! And I succeeded. The second was to get a pair of combs, and there I also succeeded. I also wanted to get some Kookaburra wool wash but I found no dealer. My only impulse buy was some natural dyeing materials- logwood, weld and cochineal.
I had been told that the MD festival was more about sheep and the NY festival was a little more about fiber. I think the focus was pretty similar between the two festivals but the NY festival seemed smaller. I really missed the lamb kebobs!
But we did see lots of sheep!

And alpacas!

The weaving demo was impressive too!

I learned a lot and have a better understanding of what I need to do to sell with my Coopworth group at the festival next year.

Sheep Updates

Lots of sheepy updates from the past couple days. Saturday morning I found Moose in with the rams. She went through two sets of electric fence and a stream to get there. She looked very happy and Elwood had definitely claimed her.
Sunday we took Rufus up to his new home so we moved everybody around. Moose went into a breeding group with Mercer, Mama and Ruthie. And Elwood's new girlfriends are Hazel, Clara and Chloe. Rufus and Clementine were put into a small stall together (Clementine would ride up with Rufus for company and then be the quarantine buddy for the new ewe lamb we swapped for Rufus.) That left Salem and Hiram to hang out in the barn. I decided to keep the young ones away from the commotion of breeding.  I am pretty certain that Elwood bred Moose on Saturday and Ruth was marked by Mercer's red crayon this morning. It's hard to believe that lambing will be coming around before we know it.

So here is our new ewe lamb, Della.

She has lovely fleece, just need to get a coat on her! She is adjusting well and getting along just fine with Clementine. She has been sniffing my hand and doesn't run away from me when I am feeding her. She will let me pick hay off her fleece while she is eating.

The Rams Meet Matilda

The rams are sporting their new Matilda sheep coats.

This summer I bought a few Matilda coats and liked them a lot, so I bought more. Mercer hasn't had a coat all summer because the only one I had that fit him was black. The poor guy would have been way too hot in a black coat with the record high temps we had this summer. The Matilda coats are a shiny almost reflective silver nylon that seems much better in heat. Hazel is always warm and has been much more comfortable in her silver coat.
Of course now the rams have to check each other out and have been slightly working out their dominance issues again. Thankfully they are just pushing against each other and licking their tongues at each other. They have been smelling the ewes and are getting anxious to start breeding. Soon guys, soon.

Tough Grazing

The lack of rain this summer has been rough on the pastures. July was a very dry month. The beginning of August saw nearly daily rain for about two weeks and the pastures nearly recovered, but now it's been quite a while without rain and the pastures are starting to suffer again. Add to the lack of rain the high temperatures we have been having and I feel very sorry for the pastures and the sheep. We've had to feed more hay than I ever wanted to, but the sheep are happy.
I have been roping off sections of the yard for the sheep to graze and they had been very well behaved, until today.

I had them in area bordered by the stream and the raspberries. After they had been out for about an hour I looked out the window and saw them wandering around the blueberry bushes, definitely not in their little paddock. When I went out to try to get them back inside I saw all the rope down on the ground and the sheep had other ideas rather than going back into their pasture.
As I kept calling them to come back to the barn, they were exploring around the house, towards the road. By the time I got a scoop of feed (as a bribe) they were very close to the road along side the driveway. As I was moving up to them I heard a car coming and I was imagining the worst. Luckily, the driver had spotted the sheep and was going very slowly. The sheep saw the car and freaked and came running towards me so we all sprinted to the barn. The sheep were happy because they got a midday snack and I was happy they were all okay and back behind sturdy fencing.

Finally, Skirting the Fleeces

I have vacation this week and next and a long list of things to get done. Number one on the list is getting the fleeces skirted and taken to the mill. The fleeces were skirted yesterday and today and we have an appointment for Wednesday at the mill. I am really looking forward to the consultation part of the fiber drop off.
My make-do skirting table worked fine. Alan has two 36 inch high saw horses and I placed a 4X7 sheep and goat panel on top then a hog panel on top of the sheep panel. The sheep panel has 4x4 openings so the hog panel just made the openings a bit smaller. Other then sagging a little in the middle this set up got the job done.

Above is Hazel's fleece. After skirting her fleece weighed 5 pounds. Now here is Mercer's fleece below:

His fleece covered every bit of my skirting table and I could have used a little more room. After skirting his fleece weighed 11 pounds! Mercer's fleece has the tightest crimp but Elwood has the prettiest color. Just look at those locks:

All this sheep wool feeling had me wanting to watch the sheep shearing episode of Tales From the Green Valley. After shearing they mention cleaning the odd bits and using them to stuff pillows. Alan is making a new bed for our reenacting camp, to be more 17th century, and I am making linen sheets. So now we will have real wool-stuffed pillows! The bits I skirted off are now soaking. I'll wash them and pick out as much of the vegetable matter as I can then stuff them into a thick linen cover.

Meanwhile...Back in the Pasture

Just taking a nap.

"What? It's hard work running around after my big brothers and sisters. You know I'm only a week old."

We both have vacation this week and are trying to get some pasture work done between the rain drops. This section of pasture doesn't get much sunlight so we cleared back a bunch of brush.

Looks much better.

And the sheep had fun hanging out with us too.

Oh Mercer!

Poor Mercer got his head stuck in the cattle panel wall of his pen yesterday. I found him being rammed by Elwood while he was trying to get himself free. We got Elwood preoccupied with some hay and tried to get Mercer unstuck, but every time we tried to push his head back he pushed against us. So next we tried giving him some time without Elwood ramming him. After half an hour he had made no progress. All the other sheep have heads small enough to get easily in and out of the cattle panel. Mercer has a much larger head and must have really worked hard to get through. We ended up having to cut the cattle panel to get him out. Then Alan did a nifty job weaving a repair.

As a treat we let the rams out to graze on the lawn today. It was time Elwood was reminded about electric rope and Mercer had never experienced it. They each got a little zap then kept their distance from the rope. They were very well behaved and ate grass for over an hour. But they were still happy to get back in their pen for a grain treat.

Little Sprouts

Earlier this week I took the sheep for a walk to check on the newly seeded area in the upper pasture. The sheep had a blast, especially the lambs.

The lambs took off over the hill and the ewes freaked out a little!

But the clover is starting to sprout. The weather is perfect for new seeds. We've been having nice showers every few days. I can't wait for more green.

Our First Shearing Day

I don't recognize our Coopworths! They look so different! Yesterday was the first time we ever had sheep sheared. The sheep were well behaved, for the most part, and the whole thing only took and hour including set up and clean up. We had moved the rams out of their pasture the day before because of forecasted rain so they were under the barn overhang. The two ewes were already hanging out in the barn with the hair sheep.
When the shearer arrived I took the coats off the ewes and you can really see the difference the coats made.

Hazel went first and as soon as she felt the clippers on her skin she went into a zone and relaxed into the sensation.

And she's showing signs of pregnancy, yay! Ruthie looks pregnant too!
Elwood was the big surprise. His fleece under all that dirt and chaff and his coat was a beautiful silver gray.

Without his wool Elwood is smaller than some of my hair sheep!

Mercer was the most difficult to shear, partly because of his size and partly because he wasn't very happy about the whole process. But his fleece is a lovely cream color with beautiful crimp.

Here's an after shot of Hazel and Ruth.

And one of Elwood and Mercer.

Now it is very apparent how much bigger and more muscular Mercer is than Elwood. The shearer also trimmed all their hooves and did FAMACHA scores. Everyone had great scores so no wormer needed.
Now I need to make a skirting table!

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.

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????

Mutton Ham

When we had Leda, a 2 1/2 year old ewe, butchered last fall I asked the butcher to smoke two hams. They were bigger than I anticipated and I was waiting for a special occasion to serve one. Yesterday, Valentine's Day, was my husband's birthday and he had been wanting to try the mutton ham. We bravely invited six others for dinner (hoping the mutton ham wouldn't leave us all hungry) and cooked a ham.

Most of the recipes online call for boiling, but I just didn't want to do that. I finally found someone stating they just put the ham in a pan, added about an inch of water, then covered the whole thing in foil.
The ham going in:

The six pound ham went into a 350 degree oven for three hours. For the last 20 minutes I removed the foil and coated the ham with a mixture of brown sugar, stone ground mustard, and apple cider vinegar twice.

Everyone loved the ham! It had a different hammy taste but was very good. We will definitely make mutton ham again. Next to try is "macon." It's bacon made from sheep's belly.

Beyla

Beyla came to us in November of 2014 with her two-day old twin ram lambs.

One lamb was very ill and nearly died but was able to be nursed back to health and grew up to be an impressive butcher lamb like his brother. Beyla had horrible feet and had multiple abcesses on her nose last spring. I planned to cull her last fall but then gave her a reprieve, remembering what a great mother she was. It took multiple sessions but her hoofs improved greatly. She still had some cracking in the hooves and limped occasionally though. Her limping became worse over the past month, would improve with treatment with zinc sulfate, then worsen again. Last week her back left hoof was very sore looking, smelled bad, and I feared she was getting hoof rot. It's been really wet first with rain and warm temps then the 2+ feet of snow. All the sheep were moved into the barn, blocking all access to the outside pen, and Beyla was quarantined. I've been treating her hoof with zinc sulfate, a dilute bleach solution, a coating of LA200 (oxytetracycline) and packing it with iodine/sugar soaked gauze. The hoof looks so much better and she is only limping a little. I need her to be able to raise her lamb(s) to weaning then she is off to the butcher. Unfortunately, she is more of a liability than an asset at this point. 

All of the research time I've spent on Beyla has reminded me of the works of Pat Coleby and her mineral supplementation. I have ordered the minerals and need to get some multiple compartment troughs for the barn and something to put the separate containers into in the pasture. Her theory goes something like this: a sheep (or any animal) knows instinctively what minerals they are lacking and will choose the appropriate ones given the choice.  Pat recommends keeping six compartments with a single mineral in each. Copper sulfate, sulfur, seaweed meal, dolomite, salt, and ground limestone are a sheep mineral buffet. I was very interested in reading about sulfur's use in improving skin and fighting lice; maybe it will help Moose's mites and itchy skin.  I am still debating the copper sulfate. The research on copper boluses is encouraging and our Coopworth yearlings, Hazel and Ruth, came from a farm that used the boluses. I haven't yet found any information on offering copper sulfate supplements when using copper boluses, so I don't think I will offer copper as a supplement if the sheep are getting copper wire boluses.

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.

The Meeting of the Rams

Today was a big day for Mercer and Elwood. We've had Mercer now for five weeks and he has been as healthy as a horse. So, quarantine is over and it's time to meet Elwood. First we had to take away his quarantine buddy, Mama Sadie. He was not happy to see her leave! But as soon as we brought Elwood down to his pen he became very quiet and still. And Elwood locked his eyes onto Mercer and stared. It wasn't too difficult to get Elwood into the little pen with Mercer, just a little shoving. For the next day or two they will be confined to the run-in, which is about 5x7 feet. This small space allows for the rams to push and shove each other around but they can't get a running start and really ram the other.

They seemed to be adapting very well. After a few hours they were both just sniffing a lot. Hopefully this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.