SheepGirl's 2013 Lambing Thread - Update - July 2013

[SheepGirl]

Lambs are doing good. The two triplets though, they are like having bottle lambs. Ciqala's teats are big and are long, and the lambs have trouble finding the end of them because they are low to the ground. They always want to look higher up. Once I lift the teat up for the lambs to find it, they suck away with no problem. Her teats do get smaller the more the lambs nurse. I don't think they're nursing when I'm not out there, because when I do go out there 2-3x/day, the lambs have sunken in bellies. So I catch Ciqala (which lately hasn't been hard to do since she is limping badly and has trouble moving fast lol) and let the lambs nurse until their bellies are full, which is usually when I can squish their bellies and they're relatively firm. So essentially they are 'bottle' lambs but instead of giving them access to a bottle, I give them access to their mother's teat

I'm trying to teach the lambs to kneel down so they can find the end of the teats. But the lambs are dumb so they don't catch on quickly! lol

And the single ewe lamb, who've I decided I'm going to name Rosalie (Rosie for short) is a little meat monster. She is wide and flat topped and has big leg muscles. And her legs all look pretty correct, too! I don't care much for leg structure selection, but 'correct' legs sure do make her look stockier haha Her front legs may change though. And hopefully her tail falls off here in the next couple of days.

Haven't banded or tagged the two triplets yet, though. I think I will at least band them tomorrow. I don't think I will tag them tomorrow. I may wait until they're a week or two old to do that.

 

[SheepGirl]

The two triplets are so hard to photograph. They always walk right into the camera so all I get is blurry photos of their noses

Ciqala and her two day old lambs.

The new feed shack.

And these are all photos of little Rosie, taken when she was 8-10 days old.

Dad & daughter

Here's the flock. Don't know where little Rosie was in this photo. I am 90% sure that the ram is in the front. Only way I can tell them a part from a distance is the ewe has rounded ears and the ram has pointy elf ears. So I'm going off that lol

And the little surviving triplet ewe lamb

 

[elevan]

Rosie seems like a curious soul

 

[bonbean01]

Love the photos...but then your lambies are too precious!!!!

I must have Rosie!!! She has stolen my heart

 

[SheepGirl]

Thanks I love Rosie myself, too. She is very impressive, even at 10 days old. Unfortunately she was a single from a three year old ewe who was flushed during breeding season, so I will give her a couple breeding seasons to see how prolific she is.

And remember how about a week ago I was trying to upload the video on how to process lambs? Well apparently it was 513 MB, when the max for PhotoBucket is 500 MB. It didn't tell me what the max was, so I am disappointed that I just wasted 4 hrs trying to upload it again. I only found out it was too big when I went to google to try and figure out why it kept failing on me.

So I compressed the file so it is now 135 MB and has been uploading for 20 minutes and is already at 36% So it should be up in the next hour I'm hoping.

 

[SheepGirl]

ugghh! This is so frustrating. It got to 100% and sat there for like 5 min so I came back to BYH to try to pass the time and I go back over to the PhotoBucket tab and the dumb thing started uploading all over again!

I want to go to bed now, so I will try again in the morning. Now that I know it only takes 55 min to upload I am more willing to try to upload it again haha

ETA: JK! Just checked my uploads and it worked!!!

 

[SheepGirl]

Video's FINALLY up!

But here's the link to my tagging and docking video -- http://twinwillowacres.webs.com/basic-shepherding

Okay, sorry you can't hear me for a second or two in some parts. It was windy and I guess I wasn't talking very loud lol Also I think it is so weird how much she reacts to the scrapie tags compared to the farm tags. I guess she knew what was coming! haha

I'm going to feel so bad when I wean her. She will be by herself for a couple days, unless I put all the weaned lambs in with Hank. I was originally going to build a pen for Hank and a pen for the lambs, but being as the first born is a single, I don't know... I have 50 days to figure everything out so I won't worry about it now.

 

[bonbean01]

Ahhhh...I remember that about photobucket when I used it on my old computer...took me so many tries before I figured that out about maximum size too!!!

You know...most people cull ewes that don't produce twins...but we don't...sometimes we figure being a small farm and golden oldies...one healthy lamb is better than twins or triplets that are too small or weak...but we're old timers compared to you and have limited space....plus we are such softies...couldn't cull a friend for having singles...so far since we've started in sheep we've only had one set of twins...but the new ram we bought this winter is a twin and so are two of our ewes, so who knows?

Other sheep breeders in our area think it funny how much we coddle and spoil our sheep...ehhhh...we enjoy it...and I am known as ...women who pets and cuddles her sheep too much...

Your breed look like such cuddly teddy bears and those lambs are just too adorable...sometimes they are sooooo CUTE that they look fake...and that is a compliment

 

[bonbean01]

Just watched the video of you giving Hank his shot...good video and helpful!!! Thanks for posting

 

[Bridgemoof]

Bon and I will be fighting over Rosie, because she has stolen my heart, too! She is too precious. I guess she looks like Lady Gaga and Kate Perry when they were younger, right? She is going to be as cute as them I think, very expressive face. The others are adorable too, but they just don't have that chunky cuteness that Rosie has. Speaking of Lady Gaga and Kate Perry, they were bred, too, right? When are they due, May? That will be fun to see what they bring on!

I haven't watched the video yet. I hate tagging. I won't tag my lambs until I sell them. We tagged all the baby goats though and believe me, they screamed bloody murder, but only for a second. One baby goat already got his ear tag stuck in the fence, but I don't think he ripped it out fortunately.