SheepGirl's 2014 Lambing Thread

[SheepGirl]

@ThreeBoysChicks omg yes!! Way too much snow.

And also i will be getting new pics tomorrow when they're all fluffed and dried out.

my parents bought them a heat lamp because they felt bad for the lambs being born in feb. So my mom and i just set that up.

 

[SheepGirl]

Wow I just realized Ciqala had only been on grain for one day (1/4 lb) when I started flushing when she got bred, so it didn't really have an effect except maybe embryo survival rate. I should rename Ciqala to fertile myrtle lol

 

[bonbean01]

Fertile Myrtle...LOL! Can't wait for more pics!

 

[SheepGirl]

I took photos this am and I will upload them after I get off work.

 

[SheepGirl]

BIRTH PHOTOS - May be a little graphic. I didn't see the first one born, but he had just been born as I got out there. The second one, obviously I saw, I have a photo of it And the third was assisted so I didn't get any photos.

Baby #1 (Ram - 7.0 lbs)

Here comes Baby #2 (Ewe - 8.2 lbs)

Of course she decided to lay right up against the wall to have the lamb.

Momma with her first two babies.

No newborn photos of Baby #3 (Ram - 7.6 lbs)

And here are photos from this morning.

This is Baby #3

All three babies in front of Momma.

Baby #1

Baby #2's patch! How cool! I've never seen a lamb with that in my flock (or my neighbor's) so either it's been buried deep in my flock's genes or it came from Hank. Bella, this lamb's full sister is bred to Hank, their sire, so maybe I will get a spotted lamb from her, too?

Her face

I'm not going to name any of them until everybody is on the ground so I can pick a theme and then names for each one. A coworker spent like a half hour figuring out different themes and then names for each theme. I have that list in my purse so I will have to pull it out and look at it. But now that I'm thinking about it I might do candy bars... We'll see what I'm in the mood for a month from now

 

[bonbean01]

awwwwwwwwwww....they are so adorable!!!! Thank you for the pics!!!!! What terribly sweet faces!!!

 

[SheepGirl]

Wanted to add - the little ewe lamb is thick and stocky like Rosie was as a newborn. I hope she ends up having the body type/muscling Rosie does! That would just be perfect... great muscling, out of a prolific dam, and spots!

 

[SheepGirl]

Lambs are doing good. I tagged & docked them today. Except I think I messed up on the little guy's ear tags. The ends of his ears are all wrinkled. It's pretty cute, but I can't figure out why or how that happened. I hope he grows out of it. I'll take a picture of it.

But I also started giving him a bottle last night. The two larger lambs are nursing off just one side on Ciqala and not the other, so the one side is always dry and the other side is engorged. And the smallest lil fella is being beat out by the other two and the other side has an engorged teat that his mouth is too small for. (But if the other lambs would drink from that side we'd be okay.) So I'm supplementing him with a bottle until I can get the lambs to nurse off the other side so that way her udder evens out and the lil guy has a chance at getting some of his own milk. At least I know Ciqala can feed two lambs off one half of her udder! They already look much larger than the lil guy (the first born).

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

Love your lambs!!! Hope the little guy can figure out how to get his momma's milk before his brothers beat him to it!!!

 

[SheepGirl]

Well I finally had help (my parents don't like going outside to do "sheep stuff" when it's dark), my show sheep friend came over last night and helped me milk out Ciqala's engorged side. So the babies were able to latch right onto it last night. I haven't checked/fed them yet this am because it's raining and I don't want to put hay outside while it's raining because then they won't eat it after about an hour.

She fell in love with my babies She's so used to her blackface lambs, it was like the first time she's seen a whiteface lamb haha. But she just kept commenting like "oh wow you're actually a real sheep farmer" (she's seen my sheep, but she hasn't been here before when I feed/take care of them) and I was like lol because she just kept saying how her sheep are so pampered, they lamb in their own pens and stay there until they run out of room or the lambs are 1-2 wks old, they have their pens cleaned out every day (they go through 2 bales of straw a day), the lactating ewes and lambs are separated from the bred ewes (she was like "your other ewes are ok with the lambs?"), etc. She was just so in shock of how little I do for my sheep in comparison to high maintenance hers are.