Blessedfarmgirl's 2025 lambing/kidding journal

[fuzzi]

Watch out for herding breeds - some of them are so herding oriented genetically that they will move the sheep and goats back and forth all day. I knew a woman that had Border Collies that she trained for herding and showed in trials. She also raised sheep and had to kennel the Border Collies or they would herdher sheep around all day!

When I was about 9 I saw a book at the public library with a black and white dog on the cover. It was in the adult section but I borrowed it for the dog cover. The story was about farmers and small holders in the Lake District in northwest England. And inside the story I was introduced to the Border Collie, and its incessant drive to herd, anything. One of the puppies tries to herd stones in the yard, he's that driven. The book is Rex by Joyce Stranger if any of you are interested.

 

[blessedfarmgirl]

More pictures of Daphne!

Ok, maybe that was too many. And here's a couple more of her brother.

 

[blessedfarmgirl]

And here's what last night looked like for us! Lucy (Lulu) everyone's favorite and the sweetest ewe ever had ram/ewe twins. Of course she had an audience, no one wanted to miss her birth!

Something pretty special happened as well. My 11 year old sister has watched me pull many lambs and goats over the past few years, and last night when she ran inside and told me a lamb was stuck, she was prepared to watch again and help how she could. "I'll hold her head!" She offered. And I said "No, I'll hold her head."
And I guided her through it. She waited for the contraction, then pulled firmly and steadily and the lamb slid out after some effort from both of them. It was such a cool moment for all of us. The poor ewe got help with a giant-headed ewe lamb and my sister and I had a special moment where I got to teach her how to help a lamb into the world. I am so proud of her. These life skills and lessons will stay with her for the rest of her life.

Gemma and Steve, welcome to the world!
(My dad named Steve. )

 

[canesisters]

But I want a dog, too. One that can work with livestock.
View attachment 116748
Several years ago I fell in love with this breed, Lancashire Heeler. They're described as cattle dogs. I've been in contact with a breeder here in NC. She will watch for a puppy or juvenile that isn't good enough for breeding, will let me buy cheap.

And yes, they "do" sheep. And goats.

Lancashire Heeler Introduction

Adorable!!!!!

 

[Baymule]

Beautiful spotty lambs! I’m delighted for you.

Congratulations on the hard delivery and saving lambs and the mom. Having met your little sister, this was a golden moment for her. She’s all about the animals and this was a special occasion for her to learn valuable skills in animal husbandry. Well done little sister!

 

[SageHill]

Wow! That is really special. And a memory forever as it is one of the "firsts".

 

[blessedfarmgirl]

I had a very busy weekend with a bunch of baking for my booth at our local poultry trades day, plus one of my goats started to have mastitis symptoms all while I'm dealing with mites in the entire goat herd. Naturally, my last three pregnant sheep decided my life was not chaotic enough and decided to ALL deliver their lambs in one night! I'm sad it's over, but also relieved. It's been a crazy season and now I can relax and focus on care rather than baby watching.

First, Heidi tried to deliver a huge ram lamb sometime in the night. He ended up being stuck and was dead by the time I found him. Thankfully she was ok and did not get paralyzed like my last ewe that had a lamb stuck in her for hours. She had a slight vaginal prolapse, but it didn't seem to get any worse and she's doing ok now with some pain meds. I weighed the ram lamb, he was 11 pounds! Thankfully I didn't like her that much and was already planning on calling her after her lamb was weaned, now she'll just get taken to auction sooner.

Then Butterfly, my second generation recorded ewe from Baymule, had beautiful ram/ewe twins! I was so happy I got a ewe from her, she will be my first registerable ewe lamb if her sure passes his hair coat inspection this spring. The ram lamb is all white, but the ewe lamb has one adorable brown ear. They were hard to get pics of since I had such a busy weekend and wasn't able to imprint on them as much as I wanted to the first couple days. Hopefully they'll come around! We'll see how the ram lamb grows out. If he impresses me enough he may get to keep his family jewels.

Little brown ear is named Freya.

Next, Phoebe had lovely pure white ram/ewe twins. Phoebe is my other cull ewe for various reasons, but she is doing better this year, so I may keep her ewe lamb and see if I can get improvement. Nice, easy birth and we got to watch. She was the last ewe of the year to lamb.
Again, hard to get pics and they are all white so very hard to tell apart. Thankfully a good portion of the rest have spots so I can usually tell very quickly who's who.

Pink nose in the foreground is ewe lamb Pearl, second pic curly haired one is her brother.

All in all it was a very successful lambing and kidding season! It was a little exhausting, but well worth it. I could just stand out there for hours watching all those lambs run around. It's amazing! God is so good.

Our final count of sheep born for the year is 18. 1 loss and 2 bottle babies. I sold one bottle baby ram and kept the bottle baby ewe lamb. She's gaining weight fast! On pasture with their moms are 15 lambs total. That's 3 times what I had last year. I'm going to have a very hard time picking which older ewes to cull since I want to keep aaaallll of the ewe lambs. We had 10 ram lambs and 7 ewe lambs.

 

[Baymule]

Beautiful lambs! I’m so happy you got a ewe from Butterfly. She’s adorable with that one brown ear.
You have had a great lambing, 18 lambs! Boys go to auction, money for things you need for the sheep and goats. Or they make wethers and get to go to that fabulous resort for lambs, Freezer Camp!

 

[SageHill]

Congrats on all the lambs! They look great.

 

[blessedfarmgirl]

Beautiful lambs! I’m so happy you got a ewe from Butterfly. She’s adorable with that one brown ear.
You have had a great lambing, 18 lambs! Boys go to auction, money for things you need for the sheep and goats. Or they make wethers and get to go to that fabulous resort for lambs, Freezer Camp!

Yes! We are not going to have empty freezers this fall and winter, that's for sure. We may even try to sell some lamb shares.

Congrats on all the lambs! They look great.

Thank you!