Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Lambs!



I came home from school,  first day back to work after winter vacation, and went about my business taking care of dogs, watering the sheep and bunnies, building up the wood stove, and  putting dinner in the oven to help heat up the house.  Little did I know lambs were about to drop in the way back of the barn.  I had finished chores around nine o'clock when I heard that little meep-meep.  There they were...ewe twins!  We got them in the pens we built the day before.   Took quite a bit of doing with mom reluctant to follow and us unable to catch her.  I put sweaters on the lambs straight away.  Good thing...it's minus 20 this morning, still and very cold.  Mom has only one working udder and the stronger twin is keeping it all to herself.  I nursed out colostrum for the weaker twin and will supplement her with a bottle until she is able to get her share of the milk.  No doubt more twins will be dropping as many of my ewes have swollen udders.  Here's hoping for milder temps and bountiful mother's milk.

2 comments:

English sheep gal said...

Congrats Maggie on your first lambs, how exciting to have ewe lambs right away too. Looking forward to more photos, hopefully the weather will warm up soon. Been below freezing almost all month here nr Buffalo too, still the straw, and heat from the adult sheep should help keep the lambs warm - and their cute little jackets too!

The socklady said...

Glad you had small sweaters available. Good luck on the rest of the lamb season.