Day 150

The average gestation length for Shetlands is approximately 147 days. The only ewe I've ever been able to track is Clover, (because Shetlands like their privacy,) who twice lambed at 149 days. Today is day 150 and not a single ewe looks close to lambing. However, I did witness Cedar mounting at least one ewe the day he was to leave, but that was at the far edge of the field, so I have no idea who is actually expected to lamb on April 6th (147 days from that date). Given that the ewes tend to cycle in groups, I suspect that several of the girls will be lambing in April, and we waited just long enough for him to get the job done. Judging from the pictures it certainly looks like we'll be busy the first week of April.

The only ewe that I think we MAY see a lamb out of by next weekend is Edna. And I think it will be A lamb, not lambs. She is SO narrow compared to the other ewes, and her mother always carries straight out to the sides and looks uncomfortably large. Edna also seems to be acting a bit strange, secluding herself from the flock and staying in the barn most of the day. I'll have to keep an eye on the weather, because with low temperatures and a snow storm predicted, I'd hate to have her lamb outside.

My next bets are on Maggie and Crystal, both of whom I think will lamb the week before Easter. 

Although...Poa may beat one of them to it. Poa looks like she's about 10 days to two weeks from lambing.

Kira looks like she'll go at Easter. This is what she looked like 2 weeks prior to lambing triplets last year. She and Poa lambed within 24 hours of one another, so my guess is they'll be pretty close again this year.

Wynona's always last. My guess is this year will be the same.

The only two ewes that may lamb after her are Madeleine and Claire. Neither have much of an udder, and both are still pretty narrow. It's always so hard to tell with first-timers. But Cedar did seem to be chasing several girls in those last 48 hours before his departure.

Just for comparison, here are Edna and Crystal. Crystal is huge but has a very small udder, while Edna is tiny and has a well-developing udder. 

If there are lambs before next weekend, I'll post again. If nothing exciting happens, I'll post in a week.

Sheared Sheep

Finally! The bred ewes are sheared. I can now begin estimating approximate due dates and numbers of lambs.

These girls are all two-year-old, first-time fresheners. Because I don't have any comparisons from previous years, it is a little hard for me to tell just who will be first and how many each are carrying. My guess, based on barrel width and udder formation, is that Madeleine and Claire will each twin in early April and Edna will single in a week or two. Judging on udder size, Edna may be the first to lamb of the whole group.

Edna

Madeleine

Claire

Maggie twinned last year, and my best guess is she'll twin again in 2-3 weeks. Poa has twinned for the past three years and always looks quite wide. Though her udder is still quite small, she may be closer than several of the other girls.  

Maggie

Poa

Crystal looks quite a bit smaller than she did last year, but her udder is still small. My guess is she'll twin this year in a few weeks, or else she'll wait until the end and triplet. Kira on the other hand, definitely looks like she will triplet again this year. She has barely any udder formation but is already HUGE. Both Kira and Crystal twinned two years ago and had triplets last year. Both ewes lost one lamb during birth. Hopefully this year lambing will be a little smoother for these girls.

Crystal

Kira

 

 

 Wynona looks just like she did last year. Triplets after Easter.

Wynona

And, from the front...Madeleine, Claire, Edna, Maggie, Poa, Crystal, Kira, and Wynona. Cedar certainly did his job, settling all eight ewes in just three weeks.

And then there is just Annie. Annie was put in with one of our ram lambs for three days in November. He tried hard to catch her, but she just didn't seem to be having any of it. This was just a we'll-try-it-and-see pairing, so I'm not too disappointed that she clearly isn't bred. Annie is out of Poa and is Claire's sister, so we'll have plenty of Poa genetics in this year's lambs without any from Annie.

Winter Woes

Winter is almost over, which means lambing is just around the corner. I was hoping this would be a post-shearing post, but unfortunately our shearer was badly injured last week and will be unable to take off the girls' coats prior to lambing. This has left us scrambling for an alternative, and a quick one, as lambs could be on the ground in 2 weeks from today! The nine (potentially) pregnant girls and the ten open ewes have been in the barn since Saturday, drying off and getting ready for shearing. When we finally got word of where the shearer was...well, let's just say I've been busy. I've been emailing and calling people all over the place to try to find someone who will clip our girls, and we're still keeping our fingers crossed that someone will come by the end of the weekend. We decided to kick the ten open girls out to open up more space in the barn for the bred girls, but things are still tighter than is ideal for ewes in their last trimester.

So, here are the non-bred ewes. This group includes the seven ewe lambs from last year, Clover, Mocha, and Lwaxana. These girls were hesitant to leave their mothers, but once they got out to the big field, the sight of the round bale was too much for them to resist. Haylage has been a great addition to our feeding program this winter, as it minimizes our chores and the girls get free-choice of feed. Our only challenge has been keeping the ewe lambs off of the top of the bale. I think they like to play Queen of the Mountain!

The bred girls seem to be enjoying their new indoor pen. Aside from the slight bulging here and there, it is really hard for me to see who is pregnant. Half of these girls are too leery of me for a tail lift and udder investigation, so until we get the sheared I really don't know who is expecting or when to expect.

Both Madeliene and Kira look rounded and pregnant to me. This makes sense, as I'm pretty sure I saw Cedar mount one or both of them. I'm particularly excited about their lambs, as Kira's girls are so friendly and have beautiful fleece and colorings.

Crystal does not look particularly pregnant to me. She is no where near last year's size, which is probably good since she had difficulty lambing triplets successfully.

Wynona and Poa, the old girls, look pregnant. I'd say they each have twins, or perhaps Wynona has triplets again. It's just so hard to see under all that wool!

Margaret looks like she did last year before shearing, so she probably has a few weeks to a month to go.

Then there are the newbies: Claire, Edna, and Annie. I have no idea if any of them got bred. Annie was only exposed to a ram for two days, so chances are she's not, but that ram did try awful hard! Claire has such LONG wool that I can't see anything. Maybe she has a single or twins that are a month or so out. Edna is also a big fat question mark.

If only they could get sheared I could see both their bellies and their udders! I would know! As I've said in the past, shearing day really is better than Christmas to me. Imagine if Christmas were postponed by a week, or even two! I don't know how long I can handle the suspense.

In other news, our chicken flock was rapidly decreased when a weasel, or rather three weasels, made their way into our coop this winter. Apparently we had a weasel nest out back of the barn. Our neighbor killed one, and our other neighbor's cat killed one. We lost 11 birds before Thanksgiving and exterminated two weasels. In January another weasel came back and took 14 more in one weekend! We're now down to 11 birds, including Spot, our rooster, and we're down to four eggs a day. So we've put in an order for more layers, and we should get 15 new birds in mid-May. I'm really excited about these new girls, as we are getting 11 different breeds!

As far as the weasel is concerned, he still seems to be around. Here's a picture of fresh tracks I found this morning in the driveway. At least we seem to have weasel-proofed the coop!

 And the goats are doing well...for now.