The Games Continue with No Winner Yet!

The girls are getting bigger and bigger and have all been going to the beauty shop for their annual haircut, but no babies yet!

In the past, the rams have lived with the girls and I didn't know exactly when things happened, so due dates were hard to estimate. I thought I'd be smart this year and separate the ram out in August and put him back in at the end of November. Lambs are due April 21. That was easy enough. 

Apparently, our ram took his sweet time getting to everyone though. Peridot looks to go any moment now; seriously, I don't think she'll make it to tomorrow without babies. June seems to be about a week or so out. EmmyLou, Rose and Buttercup all seem to be even with smaller bags starting to develop--two weeks? Sparkles, though huge, doesn't have a bag at all! All that said, bagging up isn't an exact science, so they could be fooling me. But Sparkles is usually engorged just before she delivers. 

I'm throwing my hands up in the air in defeat . . . . it seems I have no idea when they're coming, and we'll be in lamb-watch mode for the next two weeks at least.

Here's an update of the "business" end of things:

The rump in the middle is Sparkles, with no udder at all, but she may be the widest ewe at the moment.

Here's June getting started. This is about where Peridot was 7 days ago.

EmmyLou is starting to "show." Side note: she was the easiest to shear; can you tell?!

Rose is hard to see because of her coloring, but by feel, she and EmmyLou are close. The part hanging down that you want to think is an udder is really just her belly.

And I've saved the best for last:

THAT's what a ready-to-deliver ewe should look like! Full bag, swollen girly bits and indentations on either side of her tail as the babies move into position. Any moment now, Peridot!

Buttercup is also due around the same time, but without a haircut yet, you really can't see anything. She's about equal to EmmyLou right now.

Violet and Lily were held back for another month before breeding, so they really don't have anything to show. They're due around May 18.

Ewe's Fat!

I can't believe we don't have lambs yet. Sparkles, poor thing, just keeps getting bigger and bigger. But when I put hay out or their nightly ration of pellets, she comes running. Yes, running.

Here's a shot of her in the barn from our web cam:

Of course, she's laying down, but that is one big Shetland. And I'm pretty sure she's only having twins. I'll be surprised if she has triplets--they don't really run in her blood line.

Peridot's no waif, either:

Emerald is still small, but just starting to bag up, so at least I know she's pregnant.

Here's where the ladies stood a week ago as far as their udders go:

Emerald 3/23/12

Peridot 3/23/12Sparkles 3/23/12As of today, Sparkles and Peridot are neck and neck for winning the largest udder contest. I'd take more pictures, but every time I'm out there taking snap shots of sheep butts, Starr gives me really weird looks. I'm sure she thinks I'm a weirdy.

Can't really blame her; I never thought I'd be this fascinated with sheep udders either!

Beginner's Mistakes

I'm reading the books, scanning the blogs and staring at my sheep a lot, but still, it seems I have much to learn.

It was January, we were in the midst of winter, yet many shepherd are talking of lambing. I chalked it up to warmer climates, most of them being in the South or West, but that made me wonder . . . "when will my lambs be here?"

My brilliant idea was to check on Whispering Pines' blog to see when  their lambs started arriving last year. Logic told me that since these sheep came from them, they'll continue to follow close to the same schedule. After a quick look, I started planning for the beginning of April. Mike and I decided to build lambing pens and give shots about the middle of March.

THEN, a few weeks later, barely into February, a local friend of mine asked if I had lambs yet. What? Lambs in February? No . . . we're planning for April. 

And as soon as that thought crossed my mind, I realized the fault in my logic. Sheltering Pines actually plans their breedings. We've just allowed Knox to enjoy his harem at will. I have no idea when the ewes became pregnant.

Panic quickly set it, and Mike and I cleared our schedules one weekend last month and built lambing pens.

We now have two nice-sized pens for ewes and lambies.

And then we had to figure out what to do about shearing. It was too cold to shear last month, but I really couldn't tell what was going on back there. So my friend Sue (she owns The Critter Ranch AND provided me with the llamas) came over and we crotched the girls.

Crotching is when you shear just the back-end and udder areas so that birthing is cleaner and lambs can easily find their milk supply. The ladies were so humiliated.

After getting through that day, though, I was more relieved about the imminent birthing process. Mainly, because none of the girls had really started bagging up too much, and bellies weren't quite as big as they look with all that wool on them.

We're now half-way through March, and we're ready whenever they decide to come. I've been watching udders fill, but nobody is huge. However, I've read over and over that bagging up isn't a reliable way to predict due date. It's still fun to see the progress though.

This was Sparkles two days ago. Today, when I checked, Peridot is in the lead. I'll keep everyone posted!