The Lambs Are Here...Some of them!

The Lambs Are Here!  Some of them…

On Tuesday, March 5^th twin lambs were born to our Katahdin ewe, Fiona.  The sire was a Katahdin/Dorper cross with a gorgeous midnight black body and a tan saddle of longer, almost wool-like hair.  (Katahdin’s are hair sheep meaning that they shed their winter coasts and do not need to be sheared).  We borrowed that ram after our Black Belly ram Simon, succumbed to a massive abdominal infection late last summer.  We were hoping that the borrowed ram would service the ewes so we would have more genetic options available to us next year with our own ram. This year was being dedicated to growing the herd and diversifying the genetics.

The lambing process itself was very easy, at least for us.  Basically, we had nothing to do with it.  We had prepared the lamb jugs and all was in readiness for whatever issues could pop up.   At about 6 that evening I heard a very shrill bleating coming from the paddock and instantly realized we had a lamb!  I ran outside and saw the noisy one and then I saw a second lamb with Fiona, just a few feet away.  We grabbed towels and proceeded to wipe them down and place them in the jug.  Fiona followed in behind them with no problems and we shut them in for the night.  I was so happy that we had the jugs ready.  There was a cold wind from the north that evening and it was going to get cold that night, but they were well protected inside the jug with fresh straw bedding.  And with mom to cuddle up to, they wouldn’t get cold. 
 

We kept all of them in the jug for 3 full days so that Fiona, a first time mom could bond with them and we wouldn’t have to worry about having to bottle feed.  We stepped in every day to make sure everyone was doing okay and finally opened the jug and let them out on the afternoon of the 3^rd day.  As one of our friends told us, “there is nothing cuter than a lamb, except maybe a puppy!”  We had to agree.  We have had lots of puppies and they were all cute but the lambs had them beat.  A week later, they are running and bouncing all over the paddock and making life difficult for momma and the other ewes.  We separated the ewes and lambs from the ram.  He was not at all impressed with them and none too gentle either.

Luck was with us this first time and we still have two more to go which could happen any day now.  I can’t say we are more experienced, we really aren’t.  But I’ll take that kind of luck any day.  And cute isn’t adequate to describe the pair of ram lambs running and bouncing around the place.  Go sit and watch them for 5 minutes and whatever stress you had will melt away…