Monthly Archives: March 2013

Since we’re thrown headfirst into lambing, I thought I’d answer some questions that typically come up each year. Some of these are pulled from old blog posts or from the ravelry thread, so if you’re a longtime reader, some of these might feel familiar!

What are all the terms I need to know?
Ewe – female sheep
Nanny – female goat
Buck – male of either species.
Ram – male sheep
Wether – male sheep or goat that has been castrated
Lamb – baby sheep
Kid – baby goat
Doeling – female lamb/kid
Buckling – male lamb/kid
Yearling – a lamb or kid between one and two years of age. We don’t breed our Yearlings.

Who is pregnant this year? We do not breed all the ewes and nannies each year. I decide who to breed based on a number of factors but the most important one is the condition of the ewe going into breeding season.

Who sired the ewes and nannies? Because so much of the flock is closely related, it’s important to bring in new blood. This year we rented a buck so the gene pool will widen.

Is the flock getting bigger? Not really. We giveaway a number of sheep every year to maintain a flock of about the same size. Total animals on this property hovers around 100.

What are the signs of labor? There are lots of signs that a ewe is in labor, which gives you lots of opportunities to notice. A ewe in labor may paw at the ground (called nesting), make a knickering noise that is usual for her, turn her head and talk directly to her belly, look around for her lamb (even though it hasn’t come out yet), run around the paddock smelling other ewes’s lambs, and get up and lay down repeatedly in an effort to find a comfortable position. All of these things can go on for hours, but I find that when they start making the face above, they are usually pretty far along and are starting to push.

Can you tell us more about the need for the shot of selenium? The farm is in a low-selenium area. We have always given every new lamb and kid an oral dose of selenium but this year our ewes are definitely deficient, so we have moved to a 1 cc injection at birth, to be one the safe side. A selenium deficiency leads to White Muscle Disease.

Why do we put coats on newborn lambs? One of two reasons- the first is that it’s cold and the forecast calls for hard frost. As of Friday night, we were still having hard frosts a couple times a week. I think they’re probably over now, but you never know. The other reason to coat a lamb is that they are shivering and don’t seem to be warming up quickly. In that case, we go back and take the coat off within an hour or so once they’ve warmed up.

I see the little lambie tails wagging around, and they are adorable. Do you ever dock the sheep’s tails? We do. The reason why is because of fly strike. You can read about how my thoughts on docking tails evolved here.

I was wondering…when twins are born, are they identical twins? Some twins are identical, according to everything I’ve read, but I’m not sure I can tell which ones are and which aren’t.

I am curious to know if there is a reason why some of the lambs have their left ear tagged versus their right ear? Girls are tagged in the left hear and boys are tagged on the right. Just like women’s shirts have buttons on the left and men’s on the right.

Do you have a burning question about lambing? You can post them here and I’ll try to answer them.