Tag Archives: lambing

Willoughby is a Mama!

Posted on April 10, 2012 by | Comments Off on Willoughby is a Mama!

Willoughby gave birth to a tiny baby girl this afternoon, around 5 pounds. She wasn’t doing well at all when she was born. She was chilled and weak, and floppy.

I was a little concerned we might lose her, so I tube fed her to get a bit of warm milk and colostrum into her belly for energy and warmth. She was still chilled, so Caroline and I quickly constructed a warming box–  shipping box + blowdryer = warming box –and try to warm her for the better part of an hour.

Once we’d done everything we could, I came in to write a blog post but the internet wasn’t working properly at the moment, so I decided to check the mail while I waited. Much to my surprise, Willoughby had produced a twin in the meantime, an 8 pound ram lamb!

Both twins are doing well now and we’ve named them Earhart and Lindberg, in the adventurers convention you all voted on.

This is little Earhart. She’s doing better but she still needs your good mojo, so keep her in your thoughts.

We moved the family into the stall with lambcam 3. You can watch their antics there.

Comments Off on Willoughby is a Mama!

Tagged ,

Hello, Alexander!

Posted on April 10, 2012 by | Comments Off on Hello, Alexander!

Because Alexander is a conscientious lamb, he waited until the middle of breakfast to be born. We were talking and laughing over coffee when Zac, who was watching the lambcam, ran in and shouted, “Someone’s in labor!”

We dropped our mugs, grabbed cameras and the lambing kit, and ran.

Bingley, one of our first-time mamas, was making a heck of a fuss, and her water had broken.

As you can see, she was one of our green-nosed girls, so our system didn’t quite work. However, since Bingley is a first-time mom, she didn’t quite exhibit the udder development that’s characteristic of impending labor.

I’m so happy that our shepherding-camp attendees got to watch the whole delivery!

Here are his front hooves and little nose (it’s super-wrinkly, just like his dad’s!).

Bingley had been laboring for quite a while, and hadn’t been able to get past her lamb’s forehead.

So Susan reached in, pulled out his front legs, and got him out.

He was a giant single ram lamb– 10 and 1/2 pounds, sturdy, and healthy. We haven’t quite decided yet, but Alexander (the Great) might get to be our ram in the future. We’ll keep you posted.

Bingley turned right around and licked him all over.

We were a little nervous that she might not understand what had happened– that she’d reject him. First-time moms sometimes don’t understand what’s happening to them, and don’t understand what their lamb is (“This thing wants to nurse from me?” or, “But I’m a lamb!” Etc.).

We’re lucky, because, when it came to Bingley and Alexander, we had nothing to worry about.

I could just watch this all day long.

We’re absolutely smitten with him already.

Here’s hoping we have a few more lambs this afternoon– stay tuned!

Comments Off on Hello, Alexander!

Tagged , ,

Still Waiting

Posted on April 9, 2012 by | Comments Off on Still Waiting

Waiting for sheep to start giving birth leaves you with a lot of time to think of what you’ll do differently next lambing season. And sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you get an idea that you can employ this lambing season. Today was one of those days.

First, we had a round bale delivered into the little paddock that’s attached to the barn. Then we moved in all the bred ewes. Zac and I spent half an hour evaluating each girl and determining who looked liked they were closest to lambing and who looked like they were a couple weeks away.

We marked those closest to lambing with a red stripe and those that were further away with a green stripe. Red = Ready.  (Yeah.  green means go and we should have done it the other way, but we didn’t think of that, so Red = Ready.)

Now when we check for signs of lambing, we can concentrate our efforts on the most likely candidates.

 

We are going to try to leave the bred girls in the little paddock until they lamb, but we’ll see what happens. The good news for you is that the little paddock is almost entirely viewable on Lambcam 2. YAY! Y’all may know that a ewe is in labor even before we do!

 

Comments Off on Still Waiting

Tagged ,

Watching and Waiting

Posted on March 31, 2012 by | Comments Off on Watching and Waiting

We are now officially in the lambing and kidding window, which means that there are at least three frustrated people at the farm at all times. This happens every year, so I expected it’s arrival and I know that it will end, but it’s still my least favorite part of lambing.

We only bred 13 (I think) sheep this year, and I think there is a strong possibility that one of the colored yearlings didn’t get caught, as they say. We know that she was bred by Aldo, the ram we rented, but she may not have actually gotten pregnant. I hope I’m wrong, but she doesn’t look bred to me and she has none of the udder development we expect to see in a sheep this far along. So we are waiting for 12 sheep to lamb, and maybe one will surprise me.

Of course we also bred two of our dairy goats, Sam and Bertie, and they both look like they could go at any time. And the geese are sitting on 9 or 10 eggs that should be getting close to hatching.

So we wait. And while we wait, we find other things to do that have needed doing for a while. Fixing fences. Cleaning out stalls. Clearing away the cobwebs of winter.(I mean that one both literally and figuratively- you would BELIVE the cobwebs in out run in shed! Like something from a horror movie.)

Today we have dedicated to the kitchen gardens. Zac is outside tilling as I write this and Caroline is tending her precious seedlings, preparing them for the journey from the greenhouse to the garden beds. We have some lovely guests right now and my sister and Aunt Ann will be arriving in a couple of hours for a few days at the farm, and we plan to put them all to work.

So it’s not that we have nothing to do while we wait for lambs. Far from it. But the waiting itself gets exhausting very quickly.

The bright spot in all of this, of course, is that we have little Camembert to entertain us while we wait. He’s a bit of a cheat, since we bought him, but he is a delicious cheat.

My friends Jen and Tessa were here earlier in the week and Jen took loads of cute pics of the peanut. Here are a couple of my favorites.

We are also eagerly awaiting our T-1 line’s arrival. All of the equipment has been installed and now they just need to turn on the tap, as it were. We were promised it would be operational by April 1st, but I don’t think that’s likely at this point. I will let you know when it’s in, so that you can turn on the lambcams and wait with us.

Comments Off on Watching and Waiting

Tagged , , , ,

In the Family Way

Posted on March 21, 2012 by | Comments Off on In the Family Way

If my math is right (and that’s a mighty big if) Miss Sam should be the first of our bred sheep and goats to give birth. She’s due any moment now, but the kid (or kids) hasn’t dropped yet, so I’d say we’re a few days away. Actually, I expect her to be born at noon on Saturday when Zac (who will be experiencing kidding and lambing for the first time this year) is home alone (Caroline will be at Shearing School and I’ll be in New Jersey for a shop visit).

The good news is that Sam is reported to be an easy kidder and that Zac will only be home alone for about 24 hours. The bad news? Murphy’s Law.

So, just in a nick of time, I present to you this year’s naming conventions. As a reminder, these names were nominated and voted on by you, so no bellyaching, please!

The goat kids will be named for…Cheeses! I am so excited about this one. Well done!

The lambs will be names for…Adventurers! Another great pick. Seriously, y’all could go pro.

Now we play the waiting game…

While we’re waiting, we’ve extended the deadline for entering our 2012 Flock Giveaway, so get those videos in!

Comments Off on In the Family Way

Tagged ,