# 2014 Lambing Stories



## AriesX (Mar 30, 2014)

I'm new here and I see there are other threads about lambing but I thought I'd start one for anyone to post on.  As a newbie this year, I feel like I'm really get a trial by fire with this whole lambing thing.   We have 14 yearling ewes - all could be pregnant but we believe one or two aren't.  7 have already lambed since March 9th - 5 in the last week, 3 sets of twins, two lambs that we tube-fed, one that spent a night in our bathtub, one mama with mastitis, one sick lamb and 5-7 more to go!  Whew.

I have way more questions than I could post but hoping to learn a lot here and ask some along the way.   

So far, one of our biggest problems has been making sure the lambs get their first feeding within the first hour or two of birth.  Many of the ewes haven't understood that the lambs need to eat and walk away from them just as they get positioned to nurse.   Some we have forced to stand still with grain and literally latched the lambs on ourselves.  We were up last night for two hours just getting both twins to nurse.  The ewe had a tough labor and was exhausted.


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## Parsnip (Mar 30, 2014)

With both my ewes, I had to basically pin them against the wall, then grab the lamb and force it to nurse!
BOTH TIMES WERE EXHAUSTING.
Especially the first lambing.
It was a 2 year old, and her udder was SO big, it must have hurt a lot when the babies tried to nurse.
It took me and two of my neighbors to hold her down.

Luckily, this ewe's daughter, who was 11 months when she lambed, I only had to grab her back fleece and hold her still for a little bit. 
Haha, I remember staying up late both nights.
(BOTH WHICH WERE SCHOOL NIGHTS)
But it was worth it. I have two sets of healthy twins!


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## AriesX (Mar 30, 2014)

I realized I didn't post a lambing story so here goes our most recent:  Last night, hubby went to check the flock at about 10:30 and found a lamb already up and trying to nurse in the main barn with the flock.   He came in to get me so I got out of my PJs and into my bibs and boots.  It was pouring.  All our lambing jugs were full so he just took the ewe and her lamb out into a section of the barn where we store things, next to the main pen and one of the jugs.   When I got outside, the ewe was on her side straining.  She was obviously still in labor and unable to really care for her firstborn ram lamb at the same time.  We watched concerned and checked the clock -11:06.  She had been straining for awhile with no progress so hubby put on gloves and lube just in case (not that he really knows what to do).  Thankfully she stood up and after a few pushes we saw hooves.  We decided to give her more time since she was making progress albeit slow.   By 11:15 the breech lamb was delivered without intervention but the ewe was exhausted.  She wouldn't stand up to feed her lambs.   We toweled off the second lamb a bit since Mama couldn't reach to lick her without moving and then placed the lamb near the ewe's nose.  She went to work licking both lambs but wouldn't get up.  Soon both lambs were crying.  I brought her a bucket of warm water with molasses and put it right next to her head and she drank almost a gallon I'd say.  Then hubby gave her some nurtri-drench.   As we were discussing what we should do and whether or not to start bottle feeding the lambs, she finally perked up a bit and we got her on her feet.  Hubby had to lift her onto her feet.  I checked the teats for milk and then ran in the house to get a container, a funnel, and a bottle.  After trying to get the lambs to nurse, I milked a couple of ounces out and put in the bottle just in case.   

The ram lamb was more vigorous - he may have gotten his first feeding before his sister was born and he got the hang of the nursing easier.  The ewe lamb was much weaker from the long delivery and the lack of immediate mama love.  She was interested in nursing but didn't seem to understand about latching onto the teat.  It didn't help that the mother has double nipples on each side - only one of which has milk.  I didn't want to take any chances so I took her aside and tried to bottle-feed her.   I put my finger in her mouth to check her suck reflex and then put the teat in.   I tried to be careful not to pour the milk into her mouth too quick but also tilted it enough so she could get some.  She drank about an ounce and then she seemed to want to be closer to mom so I brought her back to the teat.  Meanwhile, hubby took out the clippers to trim some of the long locks around the ewe's udders so we could see better.   Somehow during all this we also managed to put a little fleece jacket on each one to help keep them warm.  

By 12:30 both lambs seemed OK and had at least nursed a little plus the little one had some from the bottle.   We moved another ewe and her lamb (born Friday evening) into the nursery pen with two other ewes and their lambs and put the newest mama into the lambing jug - gave her some more water and some nice fresh hay and left them alone for an hour or so.  

At 1:30 we went to check on them.  We weighed them, clipped their umbilical cords, dipped in iodine and helped them both to eat one more time before going to bed.   The ram lamb weighed 8.4 lbs and the ewe lamb 7.3 lbs.  We hoped that they would gain over the night and thankfully they did.   

By noon today they had both gained nearly half a pound.  I didn't get a chance to take a picture yet.  

Can't wait to hear other stories.


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## BrownSheep (Mar 30, 2014)

I think this is our 8th year raising sheep. We've raise butcher lambs once or twin in the past before though.
Our year has been kind of 50/50. 50 percent absolute crap and 50 percent awesome.

We had a set of twins and a singleton whose mothers didn't out right reject them ( no butting or kicking) they would sniff at them every once and a while. They basically never stood still to nurse and just ignored them. Both of them experienced good mamas. Despite being bottle fed both sets of babies died around 4 days old with no sign of any problems. This happened about 5 weeks apart and the best I can guess there was something inherently off about them that the mothers sensed.

Had one ewe give birth to twins only for her to give birth a still born and two underdeveloped lambs the next night. Her sister gave birth to two live and two still borns in the rain while every one was gone. One of the live ones became chilled and died.

Had a ewe reject one her twins. He was later kicked in the head ( we think) while out with group and died. If we have only one bottle baby we try to keep them with the group as they tend to do better.

Had a ewe have one lamb dead in the sack while its twin was very healthy.

Upside

We have 28/27 ( I cant remember which) healthy bouncing lambs. All of our first time moms took good care of their babies ( despite a few being jumpy in the lambing area).
All are growing well.
I got 8 black lambs which is wonderful since I am trying to add a bit of color.


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## SheepGirl (Mar 30, 2014)

I had six ewes lamb this year.

First ewe is a 2006 ewe who had triplets this year. SUCH a surprise because she had twins May 25, 2012 and triplets March 7, 2013 and then went and had triplets again February 15, 2014. That's three pregnancies and eight babies in 25 months! Unfortunately the smallest triplet was rammed into (I have a feeling it was one of my yearling ewes) and was injured and he ended up dying 1-2 hours after I had found him.

Second ewe was the yearling I thought killed the triplet. Her lamb was huge and she was straining to push him out. His head started swelling so I pulled him. She started prolapsing but it went in on its own. She is a very protective mother.

Third ewe was another yearling who was in labor when I came home from work at 3:30/4 in the morning. I at first wasn't going to go out and check but I'm glad I did. The lamb's head was swollen to 3x its normal size and his front legs were straight down. Vet was called because I couldn't pull him out and poor girl was grinding her teeth and panting. She kind of wanted him but after a couple of hours she was headbutting him so he came inside and became a bottle baby. We had to tube feed him for his first 12 hours because his head was so swollen.

Fourth ewe, a 2 yr old, lambed the same night of the morning the third ewe lambed. She was in labor for 1.5 hours not making any progress so I caught her and checked things out. Lamb was trying to come out but she was so tight/not dilated. I pulled the lamb to get him out. Poor ewe was so tight she wasn't happy with me. She didn't want anything to do with him so he became a bottle baby.

Fifth ewe, a 2009 ewe, had twins. I had just gotten home from college and it was a very windy day and the ewe lamb was fine but the ram lamb was on the ground, limp, and on his way out. I brought him inside and warmed him up and he came to. I took him back out to his mom but again, she didn't want him. He also became a bottle baby.

Sixth ewe, a 2 yr old, also had twins. They were all dried and fed when I found them. They were even outside in the wind and completely okay! (We live on a hill with no trees so we get the full force of the wind.)

And then I got a free Cheviot ewe lamb from a shepherd who lives three minutes from my house. They are literally on the other side of the woods way behind my house and I had no idea lol. She was dried off and nursed by her mom but her mom died while giving birth to her twin. She survived the night and I picked her up and she is my fourth bottle baby.


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## AriesX (Apr 1, 2014)

We had another lamb born yesterday.  The mother is very skittish so it has been hard to help her.  Because she won't let us get near her, we can't help the lamb latch and he doesn't seem to do it on his own so he's been a bottle lamb since about 2 hours after birth.  This evening he actually latched on with help for the first time.   She was distracted eating so I was able to help him latch and he actually did it!

We've been milking her by hand with my husband pinning her against the wall while she eats and me milking as best I can while she tries to kick me.  It's quite comical.   Thankfully we were able to get plenty of milk from her and give her lamb the right amount of colostrum in his first 24 hours.  He was fine with eating from the bottle but in between feedings would cry and cry at his mother.  

I really hope we can help him latch on a few more times and the two of them will get the hang of it.  Anyone else had experience getting a lamb back to nursing after being bottle fed for the first day?


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## AriesX (Apr 6, 2014)

Our lamb learned to latch after a day on the bottle and is now doing great.  We had two more ewes lamb this morning with two more ram lambs.  I'm hoping our next few lambs are ewes so we'll get to keep them.


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## bonbean01 (Apr 6, 2014)

Congrats!!!  New baby lambs and the little one latching on...I had our last lamb born just before a storm last Thursday.  Mama was acting ticklish when baby tried to nurse...ended up pinning her to a wall twice to be sure she nursed.  Funny, but once mama passed the placenta, she was fine with baby nursing and no problems since.  Not sure what that was all about...but glad she is letting baby nurse whenever she wants


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