Crystal's Twins

I was wrong again! After watching Crystal act normal yesterday, I decided last night that she was going to wait until mid-week to lamb. When I went to the barn this morning there were two ewes in the large pen and no Crystal in sight. I heard the classic mother nickering from behind the mid-stall door and a lamb cry out. Yes, Crystal had lambed.

Here is ram #1 weighing 7.6 lbs. He's very tall like his mom.

Here's ram #2 weighing 6 lbs.

The happy family.

Mom and twins are settled into their nursery. Clover and her lamb were evicted to make room for the newest lambs. At four days old this ram is ready to join the other pregnant ewes under the watchful eye of his mom.

Two ewes to go. Neither ewe looks like they'll go for a few days to a week.

We have had the exact lambing sequence as we did last year: one ram, ram and ewe twins, and twin rams. Since we only bred three ewes last year, I'm really hoping we'll get some more ewes this time!

Mocha's a Mom!

This morning's sequence of events:
4 am - Barn check
5:00 - Mocha's water breaks
6:30 - No lambs
6:45 - Put on a glove and feel for progress...nose and hooves!
7:00 - Do I need to assist?
7:10 - First lamb out
7:30 - Second lamb out

Mocha finally pushed out a ram and then a ewe just after 7 this morning. By 10 o'clock everyone was settled and ready to be relocated to the nursery.


Mocha and her twins. The ewe is in the back with white markings on her head. The ram is in front.

Here's our newest addition to the flock. She's still a little wobbly.

Update (3/26 PM): The lambs are certainly larger this year than last. The ewe weighed in at 7 lbs and her brother at 7.8 lbs. Both lambs are jumping around and keeping warm in this seasonally cool weather. Mocha is being a very attentive and affectionate first-time mother.

Four to go...soon?

Day 172 - Fat, friendly, and full.

Mocha

Crystal

Poa

Kira

George Returns...

What a surprise it was this morning to find Clover hiding in between our two stalls with a lamb! At first I thought she had stolen one from Crystal or Mocha, but neither one seemed interested in the lamb. When I turned on the light I could see it looked just like Clover, a katmoget. Clover was cooing at it and looking ever so nervously and trying to conceal it. I finally got a chance to pick it up and check its sex - a ram.

I ran down the yard and into the house shouting "Lambies!" Gus was quite excited and began jumping in circles around me.

We grabbed the supplies and hurried back out to the barn. Within 15 minutes Clover and the lamb were moved and the umbilical cord snipped and disinfected. I was finally able to take some photos before heading off to work!






Last year Clover also had a katmoget ram lamb, which we foolishly named George. We had considered keeping him but decided to put him in the freezer due to his aggressive nature. We joked this morning that perhaps he decided to return. Maybe this year he'll be here to stay.

Update: After looking at pictures of last year's lamb this one is HUGE! I weighed him tonight (36 hours post birth) and he was 8.6 lbs! Last year's ram lamb from Clover was just under 5 lbs.

Don't Get Your Hopes Up

Things here at the farm have quieted. Since Crystal's tease on Thursday nothing has changed with any of the ewes. Even Crystal seems as calm as she was last week. Perhaps the ewes have decided they will hold on to their lambs until better weather arrives. Snow flurries and single-digit forecasts are not ideal lambing conditions, so I suppose I should be relieved that the lambs are staying snuggled inside the ewes.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they haven't lambed yet. Based on my predictions regarding Hops' freshening (when our goat had kids), I'd say the sheep probably still have at least a week to go. A full 10 days before Hops freshened I was convinced the kids were in position and she was in labor. We even slept in the barn that night, not wanting to miss the event, only to wake up to a normal Hops.

So maybe it will be 10 days before lambs arrive, maybe it will be sooner. I guess I'll just have to keep coming to the barn and settle with being surprised.

Really Waiting

Signs of labor have begun! I got to the barn around 5 this evening, went to check on my girls, and saw Crystal acting peculiar. She was holding her tail up and walking around looking at her back end. She did eat her dinner with great enthusiasm, but I think we'll have lambs soon. During the day she was observed squatting and crying, so I'm hopeful that we'll have lambs, at least by Sunday!

Still Watching and Waiting - Day 160

Well, no lambs yet. The ram was introduced 160 days ago, and since the average gestation time for ewes is 150 days, I can only conclude that Xavier missed the ewes' first heat. According to the ewe gestation calculator, if our ram missed the first heat cycle and bred them on their second cycle, they should lamb from now through the 31st.

The good news is that all five ewes have become extremely affectionate. Even Poa and Kira who were still running from me last week are coming to me asking for chin scratches. If I start scratching two ewes, two more come over and start rubbing their heads into me. You might even say they've become aggressively affectionate.

Here are Kira and Poa enjoying last night's dinner.

And here's Mocha. I'm not quite sure if she's dropped or if I'm just seeing an illusion caused by the photo's angle.
And again, from a more flattering angle.
Hopefully my next post will include lambs!

Watching and Waiting

After the shearer came I promised myself I would only take pictures once a week until the ewes showed signs that they were very close to lambing. I just can't seem to make it to the seventh day, so here come the three week post-shearing pictures. I realize these don't look that different from last week's, and it may seem like I'm trying to make a flip book of enlarging sheep bellies and udders, but I really am just trying to document for future reference.

Feeding sheep bellies. Here are Crystal, Clover, and Mocha.


And here is Kira.

Poa always likes to hoard one flake to herself. She's not been a social eater like the rest.

Now for your favorite udder shots...

Crystal seems to be progressing, although nothing too large yet. Maybe I'll have lambs by this weekend?

Mocha's been slow and steady. She always seems to be hungry. I can't wait until that meal when she refuses to eat, then I'll know lambs are soon. I did get the stare-at-my-belly-and-space-out look from her today. This could be a sign that things are progressing.

And for comparison, here is Clover today...

and two weeks before she had twins last year. Maybe she's 2 1/2 weeks away? This would be March 26, exactly 5 months from when she was bred.

And now for some non-bellied sheep. Here are the non-breeders, as we here on the farm call them, enjoying dinner this evening. From left to right: Little Maggie, Lwaxanna, Wynona, and Mac.

Gus asks, "Are there any pictures of the chickens?"

"Sorry Gus, no chickens this time."

As for chickens, we did just order two batches of 60 meat birds and 10 New Hampshire Red layers. The first batch of meat birds and layers will arrive the first week of June, and the second batch is scheduled for mid-July. Gus will certainly have his fill of chickens this summer!

Are ewe pregnant?

I'm pretty sure all these ewes are pregnant. 

Crystal is especially willing to let you feel for a kick, especially if she gets some neck scratching afterwards. 

Here are the pictures I took yesterday afternoon.

Ewe 1. Clover twinned last year, but her ewe lamb was found dead when I arrived at the barn at 5 am. Her ram had similar markings to Clover and extra soft fleece. This is approximately what she looked like three weeks before lambing last year.

Ewe 2. Poa also twinned last year - two rams. This is a particularly bad angle for judging how far she is, but she's particularly hard to keep still when you're approaching her from behind. I think she and Clover will lamb close together.
Ewe 3. Crystal is a first-timer. I'm hoping for HST ewes, but I'll have to take what she gives.
Ewe 4. Kira is also a first-timer. While she doesn't look as large as the others, I did feel lamb(s) moving last week.
Ewe 5. Mocha. She's having mood swings - one minute she wants a scratch, the next minute she's running away - and she's been grunting.  Two days ago she and Clover where battling head-to-head and this morning they were cuddled together in a corner of the stall. Oh hormones!
Hopefully in a month we'll have green grass, or at least some grass, and lots of lambs.

If you want to guess lambing dates or number of lambs, or if you'd just like to comment on any aspect of lambing, please leave a post.

The Ewes are Due

Lambing time is getting close, and I'm getting very anxious about our new arrivals. After viewing several pictures of pre-lambing ewes and taking several photos myself, I'm predicting the first lambs will arrive early next week.  I am also predicting that two ewes will lamb next week, two more will lamb around the 20th, and one will lamb the last week of March. 

This year we have three first-time moms in the group and two who each twinned last year. I am a little nervous because the largest ewes who seem like they'll lamb first are inexperienced. Our experienced moms seem like they'll lamb after mid-March. We have one ewe who is round and pregnant (confirmed by lots of lamb kicks) but barely has an udder; she's probably not lambing until late March. 

I'll post pictures soon. My camera battery just died after taking photos of the girls.