T-1 Day...Right on Time

Well, in a first for Old Home Crawford, a lamb actually arrived BEFORE the official due date! Maggie, a first time mom, gave us a dark, solid, single ewe lamb after a very short (1.5 hours) labor this evening. The official ewe due date was tomorrow, so I guess Cedar knew what he was doing.

The play-by-play:

When I came home from work Maggie seemed a bit off, but I didn't actually think she'd lamb tonight. My best guess was within 72 hours. She just wasn't as ravenous as the other ewes, and she certainly seemed sunken in at the groin.

Just after 8 I decided to check on her to see if I wanted to stay the night at the farm. In the corner of the stall was a sizable nest and Maggie standing next to it with her mom, Wynona. The other ewes all seemed to be happily chewing cud, but Maggie was clearly agitated. After watching for a few minutes, she widened the next and laid down, grunting and straining. I ran back to the house to announce the impending birth, and then returned to the barn to relocate her to the birthing suite.

By 8:30 Maggie was checking out her new living quarters and avoiding the hay. By 9 she had dug herself a nest and began lip curling. By 10 the lamb was nursing and primarily dry. At this point everything seemed fairly well settled, so we snipped and dipped the umbilical cord and determined that said lamb was a she.


I'm pretty sure this girl is brown, not black, but I'll have a better idea in a few days. Maggie is being a very attentive mother, and, aside from helping her get pointed toward the food, the lamb seems very vigorous and eager to eat!

Next post will be...Wynona's lambs???

Fast-forward 6 hours...

When I checked on Maggie at 5 this morning before going to work I was shocked to find a second lamb in the stall! After over an hour of watching Maggie clean and tend the ewe, I was convinced she was done lambing. We closed the barn and went to bed. This morning, this is what I saw:

You can imagine my confusion when I pulled the light string above the stall. A black HST lamb in a stall with a fawn-colored, primarily non-spotted mom sired by a solid ram? It couldn't be! He looks so much like Crystal that I had to check on her before I could believe he was Maggie's. I guess Maggie must carry an HST pattern gene??? From my readings on Shetland genetics, I didn't realize the whole HST came as a package and could skip a generation. Maggie's sire, Xavier, was an HST, which must be where this little guy got his patterning. I guess this means Maggie's sticking around. I really love the pattern and I hope one of these days we'll actually get our own HST ewe.

So now I'm really done until the next lamb(s) arrive. I'm almost positive all of the other ewes will at least twin, and at this point we're one for one: one black, one brown, one solid, one spotted, one ewe, one ram. What a package! (See, I told you lambing really was better than Christmas.)