Lambs Doing Well

Lucinda and her twins are doing fine, along with the lamb stolen from Shavaun, who I named "Dot" because of the black circle on her side. Lucinda's twins are bigger and stronger, and eager to nurse. Little Dot kind of dances around the teat, poking at it with her nose. When the other lambs see this they dive right in and knock Dot out of the way. For this reason I bring a bottle of lamb milk replacer to the field with me and give Dot a drink from the bottle. One might think that this would turn her off on the teat, but that is not the case. After a few swallows of milk replacer, Dot goes right for the teat. I have heard the milk replacer referred to as "cheap insurance." A weak lethargic lamb cannot compete with other strong lambs for their mother's milk.

While on patrol around the pasture on Saturday I found Lilly in the lean-to with a very large newborn ewe lamb. If I had taken my walk five minutes earlier I would have seen the birth. I have been luck to witness a few in the past couple of years...and I highly recommend it. If everyone could observe how hard it is for some of the moms to squeeze out their lambs, they might have more respect for them.
Lilly is a second time mom and one of my favorite sheep. She is so proud of her girl, who I named "Ivy" and has her nose on the baby almost all the time. The sun was shining and the freakish heat of the March afternoon made me dizzy. I laid down on the hay in the lean-to and listened to the sounds of newborn suckling and motherly snorting. Sheep talk to their lambs while in the womb, that way when the lambs are born they recognize their mother's voices in a huge flock.

No more lambs born since Ivy on Saturday. Matt was 50 on Sunday. I invited his brother and sister-in-law to dinner and had to do a frantic clean up Sunday morning. Luckily Mia came to help me. She is bogged down with nursing school and took valuable time to come and see us for Mattie's big day. With lambing going on I knew better than to plan anything big. It was a quiet but pleasant day. We brought the company to the field and showed off the newborns. They stood incredulous as we brought the sheep in for feeding in their pen, and the goats in their pen. It is a bit like a rodeo.