# purplequeenvt's 2014 Lambing Thread



## purplequeenvt (Jan 26, 2014)

I wasn't sure if I was going to do a lambing thread this year, but I guess I will. 

First up are the rams....

Wilson is our old man. He only got one ewe, our old girl, Galadriel. We aren't sure that she is bred, but if not, that's ok. He's a registered Border Leicester.






Elmer is also a registered Border Leicester. We sold him after breeding season.





Alfonso (registered Border Leicester) is a fall (2012) ram. 





Sebastian - registered Border Leicester





Eugene - registered Shetland





I borrowed Christopher (registered Shetland) from a friend.


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## purplequeenvt (Jan 26, 2014)

We bred 23 ewes.

_Lucie_ (Sebastian), BL - possibly due 2/4
_Maud_ (Alfonso), BL - possibly due 2/8
_Anita_ (Sebastian), X-bred - due 2/11
_Izzy_ (Sebastian), X-bred - due 2/13
_Sally_ (Alfonso), BL - possibly due 2/14
_Squoze_ (Alfonso), X-bred - due 2/16
_Cami_ (Sebastian), BL - due 2/22
_Valerie_(Elmer), X-bred - due 2/22
_Penny_ (Elmer), BL - due 2/23 *OR *2/4
_Amelia_ (Elmer), BL - due 2/23 - *LAMBED 2/1 - ram/ewe (stillborn)*
_Jazmin_ (Sebastian), BL - due 2/23
_Cleo_ (Sebastian), BL - due 2/24
_Hera_ (Elmer), BL - due 2/24
_Galadriel_ (Wilson), BL - due sometime between 1/30 and 3/9
_Steve_ (Alfonso), BL - due sometime between 1/30 and 3/9
_Rebecca_ (Alfonso), BL - due sometime between 1/30 and 3/9
_Cynthia_ (Alfonso), BL - due sometime between 1/30 and 3/9
_Bridget_ (Eugene), Shetland - due 3/15
_Celia_ (Alfonso), BL - due 3/19
_Eloise_ (Christopher), Shetland - due 3/24
_Eden_ (Christopher), Shetland - due 3/24
_Fae_ (Christopher), Shetland - due 3/26
_Ingrid_ (Christopher), Shetland - due 3/27


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## BrownSheep (Jan 26, 2014)

Yay! I always look forward to your babies


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 1, 2014)

First lambs this morning. Unfortunately they were stillborn. Ram/ewe twins, beautiful white Border Leicesters. Doesn't look like they even took a breath. The mom didn't have much of an udder so I think they were early and quite possibly dead before they were born. 

My sister is pretty upset about it. She was looking for to this ewes lambs. Last year she had a gorgeous (completely dumb - think blonde in sheep form) daughter. We bred the ewe back to the same ram (who we sold after breeding) and we've been talking about selling the ewe this year. She's 6 and we need to make room for better/younger girls.


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## BrownSheep (Feb 1, 2014)

Sorry to hear that. It always seem like the ones who you have high hopes for. 

Any thought as to why. I see you didn't expect her for another 3 weeks.


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 1, 2014)

I just found her placenta and there was a 3rd long dead lamb inside. I guess that explains the situation.


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 1, 2014)

As for the lambing date....I have written down that she was bred for 2/23 and my sister has written down that she was in heat and, if bred on that heat, would be due the 4th. So she was either due now or not due for another few weeks. Now that I know that she was pregnant with triplets, that would explain the size of the lambs.


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## HeatherL (Feb 1, 2014)

So sorry


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## Womwotai (Feb 1, 2014)

Oh no, so sorry to hear of your loss.


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## Goat Whisperer (Feb 1, 2014)

So sorry.


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## norseofcourse (Feb 2, 2014)

I'm so sorry about your loss


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 13, 2014)

I'm in NYC for a few days, but I just got a report from home saying that lambs are on the way!


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 13, 2014)

Just heard she had 2 boys. The babies are 1/8 Friesian, 1/8 Shetland, 1/8 Dorper, 5/8 Border Leicester.


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 15, 2014)

Here are the boys born on Thursday. They were 9 lbs each.







I got home from NYC late last night. No new lambs, but there should be more coming very soon.


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## norseofcourse (Feb 15, 2014)

Wow, they look huge!  Congrats, nice looking lambs.


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## Pioneer Chicken (Feb 15, 2014)

They are so cute! That's a really nice photo, too!


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## BrownSheep (Feb 15, 2014)

So I'll be PM'ing with my address....I expect them within 1-2 business days.


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## Pioneer Chicken (Feb 15, 2014)

BrownSheep said:


> So I'll be PM'ing with my address....I expect them within 1-2 business days.


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 17, 2014)

More babies this morning!

Izzy had twin white girls at 6:30 am. Izz was looking close last night so I checked her at 5 am. She wasn't obviously in labor, but I suspected she was so I went back out at 6:30 just in time for the 2nd lamb to be born. They are 1/4 Romney, 3/4 Border Leicester and weighed in at 8.5 and 8 lbs.






Our theme this year for the Border Leicesters and crossbreds is going to be the periodic table.  The boys from last week are Hydrogen and Helium and these new girls are Lithium and Beryllium.


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## Pioneer Chicken (Feb 17, 2014)

Cute! Congrats on the lambs! Like the periodic table names, too; how creative!


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 23, 2014)

Unfortunately we lost Beryllium yesterday. She was having trouble since day one and we did the best we could to treat her, but she passed away in my little sister's arms at 1 am. I did a necropsy on her and she appeared to have infection in her intestines.  Her sister is doing well and growing nicely.

No one else has lambed yet, but there are a couple that are getting quite close.


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 23, 2014)

Like mother, like daughter! Galadriel, 9 yo (on left), and her daughter Lucie, 6 yo (right).


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 24, 2014)

New baby girl! Purebred Border Leicester. She was born to a young first time mother who has no milk. It was a hard, traumatic birth and the mom has no interest in baby so I guess we have a bottle lamb. Not ideal, but at least it's a girl. She's very lively and smart and took to the bottle right away.


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## Ruus (Feb 24, 2014)

Such a sweet face!


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 26, 2014)

We lost the little girl's mother to prolapse yesterday, so baby is truly an orphan.


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 26, 2014)

In better news, we had two healthy boys born this morning. They are Shetland/Friesian/Dorper/Border Leicester crosses. 7 and 7.5 lbs, born to a great first time mom.


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## Queen Mum (Feb 26, 2014)

What lovely babies.  I had no idea that lambs are so small.


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 26, 2014)

It all depends on the breed. Our average lambs weight last year was about 12 lbs. This year the weights are less, but we are having more multiple births than last year.


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 26, 2014)

I think our only goat may kid today.


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 26, 2014)

Surprise! In the 30 minutes between when we went inside after feeding and came back out to check the goat....Maud (1st time Border Leicester) had a black girl. She has some very interesting markings on her.
#1407 Nitrogen or "Nitra" - 8.5 lbs





Shortly after Nitra was born, the goat gave birth! We got two kids - one girl, one boy. They are mainly Alpine with just a touch of Nubian.
#1 Girl





#2 Boy


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## purplequeenvt (Mar 1, 2014)

13 lambs and 2 kids born in the past 3 days. My little sister have been going pretty much non-stop since 6 am on Wednesday. So tired.  Not everything has gone smoothly, but so far we haven't lost any lambs besides Beryllium.

Summing up the week.....

Valerie started us off on Wednesday morning with twin boys (pictures up there ^ somewhere). She's been an excellent first time mother and is taking great care of her boys.

Maud surprised us with her black ewe lamb Wednesday afternoon (also shown above). She is also a first time mom and has been wonderful with her baby.

Hetty, the goat, had her girl and boy shortly after Maud had her girl (also shown above). We took her babies away right off as we are going to be milking her. She's been great at the whole milking thing and her babies are thriving.

Thursday afternoon Jazmin had two gorgeous black lambs, a boy and a girl. They are purebred Border Leicester, but are not registered, unfortunately. That is a huge bummer as the ram is perfect. Jazmin had no milk and paid absolutely no attention to her babies. They moved inside with the goat kids and the orphan lamb, Esmeralda.

Oxygen and Fluorine






Penny lambed Thursday evening with twin girls, one white and one black. We've had some trouble with her, she didn't like her black (she had one white lamb last year). She wasn't being aggressive towards it, but she wouldn't let her nurse. We've gotten that problem fixed, but now she seems to be low on milk so we are supplementing the babies.

Neon and Sodium (AKA Anchovy)





10 pm Friday evening, our old lady Galadriel popped out a 14 lb white ewe lamb. Galadriel is an old pro and got her baby up and going right away.

This morning is when the real craziness began. I went out to check everyone around midnight and found Rebecca, our ewe that keeps prolapsing, was in labor. Thankfully we got the baby out alive and her uterus stayed where it was supposed to. We left them in peace to do their bonding thing. We went back out 30 minutes later to check on them. Rebecca was being dumb and not her nurse, so we left them together for another 45 minutes to let them figure things out. When we checked again, Rebecca was laying on her lamb. Another 5 or 10 minutes and she would have been dead. At this point Rebecca was smashing her lamb into the wall and was trying to kill her so we pulled the lamb. Rebecca has made the Sausage List. Prolapsing and then rejecting her lamb....bad sheep!

My sis and I continued our hourly barn checks because we had several ewes really close to lambing and lambs that needed close attention and we are in the middle of another brutally cold spell.

8:30 this morning Hera had twins. A white boy and a black girl. They are doing ok, but mom is having udder trouble - wondering if maybe she had an injury last year that went unnoticed.  Those babies are getting supplemented too.

Right as I was getting Hera settled and was milking Rebecca (if she's not going to care for her baby, the least she can do is give some milk to help out), Steve decided it was the right moment to pop out twin girls. She was the picture perfect mother and all in that family are doing well.

We are half way through lambing and have another couple ewes in the first group to go. Then we have a small break and the next wave goes. Hopefully not as problematically as the first group.

My sister and I are hoping to get a good nights sleep tonight after all the insanity of the last few days. The bottle baby count is up to 4 lambs and 2 kids.


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## Four Winds Ranch (Mar 1, 2014)

Lol, love your lamb names!!!!!  Thanks for the pics!!!


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## purplequeenvt (Mar 3, 2014)

We are up to 5 bottle lambs. Our oldest, most experienced ewe decided that she didn't want her lamb (born on 2/28). I am so heart broken over this one. Her beautiful girl will be fine, thankfully, but we almost lost her. We were so busy with all the other problems last week that we didn't notice that Galadriel wasn't feeding her lamb. Whenever we were out there they were cuddled up under the heat lamp, so we assumed that all was well. It wasn't until Sunday (3/2) that we discovered what was going on. 

I was out trying to get pictures of the babies that I had missed due to the stress, baby Magnesium (Maggie) included. When I got to her jug, I picked her up and set her on the far side of the pen to get a picture of her. She stood there all hunched up and empty looking and the stumbled back to her mother. I brought her inside and took her temperature - it was 91.2. We got her on the bricks next to the woodstove and let her warm up. After a while she was a little perkier and wandering around the room with the other bottle babies. We gave her a bottle which she sucked right down. We had to go to church at this point (3:30 pm) so we put her in a crate in the entry room with a buddy to finish warming up. When we got home about 7 pm, she was back up to temp and hungry so we brought her back out to mom (keep in mind this a ewe that has lambed 8 times and has raised many singles, twins, and triplets). Her mom got up and sniffed her, but then proceeded to kick her in the head every time Maggie tried to nurse. It took both me and my sister holding the ewe up to get her to nurse her lamb without kicking her or falling on top of us. Maggie moved inside with all the other bottle babies.

My sister and I are now milking 1 goat and two sheep (Galadriel and Rebecca, the ewe that prolapsed and then rejected) 3 times a day to feed everyone. We are trying to sell the two goat kids and Jazmin's twins.

Aluminum (Minnie), Rebecca's ewe lamb.





Esmeralda (AKA Princess)





Penny's girls:

Neon





Sodium (Anchovy)





Hera stepped on and killed her ewe lamb yesterday morning. This is her boy, Silicon.





Steve's girls, Sulfur and Chlorine





Chlorine





Jazmin's ewe lamb, Fluorine (Flori)





Galadriel's girl, Magnesium (Maggie)





Sleeping Beauties





One of these things is not like the others.....





Lucie (Border Leicester) is looking very close to lambing. Her belly and udder are larger than I've ever seen them before. She could easily have triplets.


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## Queen Mum (Mar 10, 2014)

So cute!


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## purplequeenvt (Mar 17, 2014)

I've been horrible at keeping this updated. It's been a very discouraging season. 

Lucie had twin boys 3/4, Sally had one boy also on 3/4, and Cami had one boy on 3/14. 

Cami's baby was extra special because she was supposed to be bred to our ram Sebastian and, shortly after being removed from the breeding groups, Cami got attacked by an unknown dog and had her face torn up a bit. Nothing life-threatening, but enough to potential cause an abortion. In December a couple rams broke in with the ewes and they were following Cami around as if she were in heat. We figured that she lost her lamb and was now bred to either a Shetland or a Border Leicester for May. I've been telling my sister for about a month that there was no way that she was going to wait until May and then a few days ago she had a gorgeous white ram who is obviously out of the correct ram.

Lucie's boys:

Argon





Potassium (Tater)





Sally's boy, Calcium





Cami's boy, Scandium





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We traded two of the bottle lambs for a 2nd dairy goat.

This is Skeptical Anne. She's a really sweet girl.





We added another bottle lamb. Her mother laid on one of her babies and killed her and, when we weighed the remaining baby, she hadn't gained any weight since she was born (10 days at that point). She's our sweet Baby Anchovy (actually named Sodium). 





My sister bought a buckling that we will breed our two does to this fall. This is Theodore, a registered Alpine.





These are our bottle babies right now.




Maggie (front), Gamgee (next to Maggie), Theodore (behind Maggie), Esme (white lamb under heat lamp), Minnie (next to Esme), Anchovy (walking away/squatting to pee), Mrs. Jones (goat in back).

Steve and her girls.





We are down to the last 6 ewes. One is a Border Leicester and the other 5 are Shetlands. They are all due any day, but the Shetlands look like they might drag things out a while. We also have Fern, the Jersey cow, due really soon ("due date" was 3/15).


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## norseofcourse (Mar 17, 2014)

OK, I like sheep, but... Theodore is adorable!!


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## purplequeenvt (Mar 17, 2014)

It's a boy! Fern had her baby at 9pm tonight.


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## newgirl97 (Mar 17, 2014)

I've been loving reading your thread... I love the lambies!!!

And i hope your last few will give you an easy time and be good mummies!


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## purplequeenvt (Mar 30, 2014)

We are done to one last ewe. Of the 5 Shetlands, the first - the oldest ewe who was the only one bred to my ram, Eugene - had a stillborn girl. Moorit, spots, pattern (katmoget, if you know any Shetland patterns), and female. EVERYTHING that I was wanting. I was so upset. I don't know if she was born dead or was born still in the sack or what.

The 3 first timers have all gone as off 3:30 this afternoon. Eden started us off at 3 am on Friday morning with a spotted moorit girl, Eloise had a black gulmoget ram at 3 pm on Friday, and Fae had a black gulmoget ewe at 3:30 pm today. All nice babies. We are still waiting on Ingrid. She will most likely have twins. I'm hoping for at least one girl from her to fill out my show flock. If she has 2 girls, she will continue the pattern of the past 2 lambings of all girls except one.

Eden's ewe








Eloise's ram (Fae's girl looks just like him)


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## purplequeenvt (Apr 1, 2014)

A few lamb pictures from today.

The bottle lambs:

*Minnie* - 4 weeks




*Maggie *- 4 weeks




*Anchovy* - 4 weeks




*Esme* - 5 weeks




Some of the other lambs:

*Nitra* (5 weeks) and her mom, Maud




One of Steve's girls, *Chlorine* (4 weeks)




*Scandium* (2.5 weeks)




He knows he's good looking




Celia's Little Frogs, *Titanium* and *Vanadium* (AKA *Kermit*) - 1.5 weeks




*Kermit* 




I sheared 3 of the Shetlands today. *Freyja *is so little and cute!


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## BrownSheep (Apr 1, 2014)

I think it must be the ears but your 4 wk olds look so grown up!


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## happy acres (Apr 2, 2014)

What breed is Celia and her lambs? I ask because they look like my girls, and I don't know what breed mine are.


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## purplequeenvt (Apr 2, 2014)

happy acres said:


> What breed is Celia and her lambs? I ask because they look like my girls, and I don't know what breed mine are.



They are Border Leicesters. Can you post a picture of your girls?


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## happy acres (Apr 2, 2014)

I'll try to post a pic Saturday. That's my next off day. I only have my cell, so it may or may not work.


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## purplequeenvt (Apr 2, 2014)

The last ewe is in labor!


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## happy acres (Apr 2, 2014)

Can hardly wait! (Biting nails! )


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## purplequeenvt (Apr 2, 2014)

She only had one, but it's a girl so I'm happy! This is the 3rd year in a row that the Shetlands have had ONE boy and the rest were girls. I only have 4 surviving Shetland lambs, but that's ok. I have the 3 (2 girls and a boy) that I need for showing and the 1st spotted girl possibly has a home along with her mother.

Here's the new girl




And now we are done with lambing for the year! We have 23 surviving lambs, 13 girls and 10 boys.


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## BrownSheep (Apr 2, 2014)

Would you come give my sheep a pep talk about getting their business done nice and speedy like yours. I think this is week nine and we still have at least one that can go.


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## happy acres (Apr 5, 2014)

Ok here's a pictures, I hope!


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## purplequeenvt (Apr 5, 2014)

They look like Katahdins to me.


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## happy acres (Apr 5, 2014)

Is that good? About how old do you think they are?


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## purplequeenvt (Apr 5, 2014)

Katahdins are a hair sheep so there will be no tail docking or shearing required. Age is hard to determine from the picture, but I'd guess around 3 months.


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## happy acres (Apr 5, 2014)

A hair sheep? But I wanted the wool for spinning. If they are bred to woolly rams, will the offspring be one or the other, or somewhere in between?


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## happy acres (Apr 5, 2014)

Ok, did some research. Found out about my lambs. Guess I'll be raising meaties instead of woolies.


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## purplequeenvt (Apr 6, 2014)

My only personal experience with hair sheep was a Dorper/Border Leicester ram that we bought. He had wool, but it was very short and not very usable. He was bred to Border Leicesters, BL/Romney, Friesians, and Friesian/Shetland crosses. All had wool, but again, not very nice. One of his daughters that we kept, sheds all the wool on her neck and belly, but keeps the rest.

If you are hoping for wool sheep, I'd recommend getting something with nice wool sheep instead of breeding these two with a wool breed and hoping for semi-usable wool.


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