The Third Annual Lambing Games

It's that time of year, and I'm just about to kick off our third annual lambing games on Ravelry! If you're a member, make sure you check out my group and get in on the fun (there are prizes!!).

Take a look at who's pregnant this year! We're going to be blessed with a lot of lambs soon!

. . . and a few more!

Sparkles couldn't be outdone, so she got busy and had a set of twin rams at 10:30 this morning.

The white ram is Ash and the brown ram is Hickory. 

We've named Emerald's girls Violet (left) and Lily (right). Here's an updated pic of them as well.

Now we just have Peridot to go! Well, and June if she's pregnant. That one will be a while though. I would expect a lamb from her at the end of April if she's going to have one.

First Lambs of the Season!

That change in Emerald's belly sure was a sign of impending labor!

Emerald had twin ewes early this morning! What a great way to start the lambing season.

Kat had come into our room around 4:15 am, and since I was up, I decided to check the lamb cam. Everyone was peacefully laying down, but I decided to do another sweep around the barn. On the second pass, Emerald was standing and pawing the ground. Good sign of labor! When she layed down and did this:

I knew it was active labor. That photo doesn't look very dramatic, but she was raising her head up and back, and one point looking directly into the camera. Sheep don't generally look up that high. Her odd position and the fact that she was up and down were all indicators of what was going on.

So I made myself a cup of coffee, suited up in my winter working gear, grabbed two towels and the medical kit, and headed out. I made myself comfortable to watch, and within an hour she was pushing. 

When the first lamb was born, she was so tiny, I knew there had to be a second one. Well, I hoped there was a second one or else something was really wrong. 

I grabbed the towel just to clear her face, and Emerald was doing a good job licking her off. Within 3 minutes or so, the second lamb was born. I didn't really realize Emerald was pushing again so soon until I looked up, saw the lamb dangling and heard a "plop." The bag hadn't been broken around her face, so I went to her pretty fast to clear the fluid and get her breathing.

I have the birth of the first twin on video, and I had to put the camera down to clean babies up, so I don't have many photos until after both were born. 

Sparkles and Peridot (though in this photo it's Sparkles and June) went to the lambs pretty quickly and helped clean them off. I thought this was a beautiful, natural thing, and good since these were Emeralds first twin and she may have needed help. Also, they came so close together that she didn't have time to get #1 dry before #2 was born.

I didn't factor in their mothering instincts. Sparkles and Peridot are GREAT moms, so great that they wanted to mother these two. Sparkles started pushing Emerald away from the babies, so I scooped them both up and put them in the lambing jug.

Sparkles and Peridot followed so closely that Emerald couldn't get into the jug! I had to put the lambs down and bodily drag the other ewes out, then try to get Emerald in. It was a mess.

Then I was stuck. We don't have a gate on the jug yet, and the pallet that we were going to use to slide in front of the opening was outside! I gave Emerald  a few minutes then had to leave my post. When I got in, we had the same situation all over again. 

I pulled and dragged (I think I may have pulled out handfuls of wool!) and finally got everyone where they were suppose to be. And slid the pallet in place.

I watched for a while, but Emerald was too busy eating to really pay much attention to the lambs, and I was tired. So I went in, gave them each a good rub down, removed the waxy plug from both teats, and even milked a little syringe-full of colostrum. This is a trick I learned from another blog: feed the lambs an ounce or so of colostrum and it's enough of a boost to get them up and nursing faster. Not exactly the most natural way to do things, but it lets you go back to bed sooner!

Here they are finally separated into their own jug:

Two nice gray Katmulgets ewes, one with some fun spotting on her head. There's a slight chance that the one laying down is fawn, but I'll have to wait until all the goo is off and the sun is out to really tell.

At two hours old now, they're both popping around and nursing well!

My prediction is that Sparkles and Peridot will both lamb within the next 24 hours.

Lamb-Watch 2013 begins

I'm not all that great with surprises. I love them, but my anxiety levels increase and I become a little obsessive. When I was little, I always went looking for my Christmas presents; OK, even now I do it! Mike has to hide things at his parent's house if he really wants to surprise me. 

That being said, lambing season is agony for me! When will the ewes go into labor? Will they have singles or twins? Will they be boys or girls? 

And don't get me started on the colors and markings predictions!

In my Ravelry group, everyone is making predictions about when the ladies will lamb. It's a lot of fun, but it has be staring at the lamb cam all the time.

When I check in on the animals today via the lamb cam, I actually noticed something different about Emerald that I don't think is my imagination! As labor gets closer, the lambs will drop and the ewes will show a hollow beneath their tailbones.

Here was Emerald yesterday:

And today:

Of course, maybe she just hadn't had breakfast yet, but I'd like to take it as a sign of impending labor!!

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!