# Yay for "Farmer-Sense"



## boothcreek (Mar 6, 2012)

I couldn't sleep last night, had a weird nagging feeling so got up and started checking the animals(I only get this weird nagging when something is wrong/happening outside) and lo and behold one of my ewes had lambed and dropped a beauty set of twins in the snow instead of in the lean-to with all that fresh straw.
Freshly born, not even standing or cleaned yet! 

After drying them and having them rest in the straw of the hut I chose to move them inside the horsebarn, there I can hang a heatlight if the temps get too cold. Whiped out twice on the ice while cradling the lil ones(luckily momma wasn't deterred from following her babies despite me spooking her with falling on my rear repeatedly.....)












The ewe lamb-





The ram lamb-






These were a test cross between my American Black Belly ewe, that throws the odd coloured lamb here and there, and my purebred European Mouflon Ram. I think this was a successful experiment, they are so cute, look so different then what i am use to, no blackbelly markings on them.

I gotta say I love "Farmer-sense"! It hasn't failed me yet, been there for every birth to date wether its horse, cow or sheep because i get that weird feeling in the middle of the night and go check!


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## Remuda1 (Mar 6, 2012)

Beautiful lambs  . Congratulations!!


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## bonbean01 (Mar 6, 2012)

Congratulations on those cuties and for listening to your famer sense  Hope you didn't hurt yourself falling...ouch!


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## boothcreek (Mar 6, 2012)

bonbean01 said:
			
		

> Hope you didn't hurt yourself falling...ouch!


2 scratches that almost goes the whole lenght of my back and a bruised tail bone is all.  Fell about 3 more times today.... I am so sick of ice.....


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## Queen Mum (Mar 6, 2012)

OMG,  they are so pretty.  I want American Black belly sheep SO BAD.  And those lambs are gorgeous!  Just Gorgeous!  I love the ewe lamb.  And that Ram lamb is to die for.


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## SheepGirl (Mar 6, 2012)

Congrats on your lambs  I really like the one with the white back.

But I have the same thing...it's happened twice. There was a ewe lamb a couple years ago...I remember thinking "she's gonna die tomorrow." I was actually shocked right after I thought that! I never did see anything wrong with her but lo and behold the next day I found her in the barn dead.

The second time, I was thinking about my _favorite_ ewe--she's gonna die tomorrow. The next day I never did go down to the barn (had an orthodontist appt and my neighbor had already taken care of them). He called my mom to tell her my ewe died. She was truly an awesome sheep--every time I called her name she baaed at me 

It's crazy. So now I know that every time (in the future) that I think that...I need to call the vet.

But my "farmer sense" hasn't been as positive as yours!! I'm jealous


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## boothcreek (Mar 6, 2012)

> Congrats on your lambs  I really like the one with the white back.
> 
> But I have the same thing...it's happened twice. There was a ewe lamb a couple years ago...I remember thinking "she's gonna die tomorrow." I was actually shocked right after I thought that! I never did see anything wrong with her but lo and behold the next day I found her in the barn dead.
> 
> ...


But your "farmer-sense" seems more specific, I just feel like something is off and get restless without knowing why and I cannot sleep until I check on everything. The times I ignore it and don't go check and battle with trying to sleep thru, thats usually when I find something terrible in the morning(one evening I felt the need to check on our cows but dismissed it since they were in the back pasture and I will not walk thru the woods in my PJs in the dark..... next morning found my favorit cow with a dead calf and her very sick), so now I check when I have even the slightest uneasy feeling.



> OMG,  they are so pretty.  I want American Black belly sheep SO BAD.  And those lambs are gorgeous!  Just Gorgeous!  I love the ewe lamb.  And that Ram lamb is to die for.


I love my ABBs, but these lambs are ABB crossed with Mouflon. In Canada we don't really have many painted deserts, ABBs are my main breed I keep but I do play with making PDs on the side esspecially since one of my ABB ewes has a gene for colour hidden in her. My gene pool with the PDs is kinda limited tho so this was a cross away from the coloured ABB look.
I just wished that Ram lamb would retain that colour, but he is similarly coloured like a Mouf so I think he will change colour when older.
Both will be keepers I think tho (oh boy, like I need more sheep... ) 

I got some names picked out for these guys, let me know what you think, I was thinking her name will be Sky and he will be Valkerie.


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## fortheloveofgoats (Mar 6, 2012)

Congrats, they are beautiful! Good job with your farmer-sense.


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## Cornish Heritage (Mar 6, 2012)

Oh my! What absolutely adorable lambs  Glad they are doing well. 

Liz


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## Queen Mum (Mar 6, 2012)

I have animal sense.  And it drives me nuts sometimes.  It's like farmer sense.  I sense why the animal is acting "that way".  Handy sometimes and annoying to people the rest of the time.   I always know when they will have a baby, why the are freaking out,  all that kind of stuff.  It sure helps me get along with my animals and know what they need.  I wish I had farmer sense though.  Cause I miss the "I need to go out to the barn now stuff."  

As for the ram lamb, and the colored babies.  I love the cross babies.  You always get pleasant surprises.  Even if they change colors when they are older, I think sometimes a good cross breed gives you the best of both breeds.  That ram lamb is just HANDSOME.  Not just his color.  He has a lovely bearing about him.  He seems to stand tall and regal.


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## bonbean01 (Mar 6, 2012)

Sorry about the slip and fall ice!  I see that you are from BC...and you have ICE????  Are you in northern BC?


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## boothcreek (Mar 6, 2012)

> Sorry about the slip and fall ice!  I see that you are from BC...and you have ICE????  Are you in northern BC?


Nope, south east BC, 45 min from the Idaho Border. Been the warmest, crappiest winter on record. Very little snow and that would partially thaw for a week or so with above 0 temps and then we get hit with a week or two of -20 to make that semi-melted snow into ice.....  I honestly rather have crisp -15 with 5 ft of powder and sunshine then this dreary slushy mess they call winter... 
We almost had a snowless christmas this year, I think we finally got snow 3 days before. I have never seen this, being in a prime alpine region we have some sort of powder by halloween.



> As for the ram lamb, and the colored babies.  I love the cross babies.  You always get pleasant surprises.  Even if they change colors when they are older, I think sometimes a good cross breed gives you the best of both breeds.  That ram lamb is just HANDSOME.  Not just his color.  He has a lovely bearing about him.  He seems to stand tall and regal.


For personal curiosity I love crosses, and with the PD project the mixed heritage doesn't matter as long as it has the right body type, colour and horns and no woolly or polled ancestor. So its much easier to justify a couple crossbreedings  
He is a handsome boy thats for sure. Seeing him in the gloomy light of a flashlight around midnight in my PJs I knew its a ram just by how he carried himself. The Name Valkerie popped in my head first time I picked him up. His sister is quite bold and comes to say hi to me already, he hides behind mommy  and cries terribly when i pick him up. So much for regal


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## aggieterpkatie (Mar 7, 2012)

Great job and congrats!  What a neat looking ewe lamb!


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## jodief100 (Mar 7, 2012)

boothcreek said:
			
		

> He is a handsome boy thats for sure. Seeing him in the gloomy light of a flashlight around midnight in my PJs I knew its a ram just by how he carried himself. The Name Valkerie popped in my head first time I picked him up.


The Valkeries are female.    You may want to stick with Vick.  

I just LOVE your sheep and if I was anywhere nearby you might wake up and find those little lambs have been lamb-napped!  If I ever get sheep  I will have to get the Blackbelly Sheep.  How are they with breeding ease?  How prolific are they?  Desease and parasite resistance?  I adore the Scottish Blackface but I don't want to deal with shearing.


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## neener92 (Mar 7, 2012)

Cute


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