The lambs are coming

Mary · The lambs are coming

Last night I started doing the 1am lamb check, and it was a 4 lamb night! The 4 wheeler that pulls the lamb cart isn't running yet, so I took a flashlight and a couple of plastic lamb carriers and walked out into the field. Maaaa, maaaa, where are you little one? Within about 200 ft I found a ewe with twins, 2 ewes right next to the hot fence mothering another lamb and across the hot fence a ewe with a lamb right on the edge of the dropoff to the pond! That one was priority. Insulated boots and a somewhat flexable hotfence made it possible to get it without getting shocked.

Got that one to the barn while the ewe kept butting me and the lamb in her excitement. Next I brought in the twins, nice ewe, she just followed me taking to her lambs who were talking to her, or maybe to nobody in particular, just because they could. After I got them iodined and into a pen I went back for the other lamb, and things got more interesting.

Those ladies were quite agressive. They kept circling me bumping and butting as I carried the lamb and my flashlight. The pasture has bumps and dips, there was a heavy wooden gate into the corral, the barn door was only partly open and stuck, and when I was putting iodine on the lamb's navel one ewe came over the top of the pen gate and hit me from behind, knocking the iodine bottle out of my hand. I caught myself against the wall and the lamb wasn't hurt.

In all the confusion I was able to see that neither of these agressive ewes was a mother yet, (no blood, etc) and I decided that the first ewe I brought in was the mother of 2. So I gave her the lamb and she was happy with it. The agressive ewes were herded out of the barn, through the corral and into the pasture. I wrote a note to warn the next flock checker to watch out for them. The ewe who was the mom had gone through the hot fence to get away from them and had her 2nd lamb in peace something that will continue nightly until almost all of the ewes have lambed 3 to 4 weeks from now.

CajuninKy

So exciting! I cannot even imagine what it must be like. I know it is hard work.

Mary

I brought in four more lambs tonight, 3 were in the field close together with 2 ewes licking and talking to them. Which belongs to who? I decided that the freshest lamb maybe needed a few minutes to bond with it's mother, so I brought in the other 2 lambs and both ewes followed, well kinda. We went as a group in the dark with a flashlight that was in my hand along with the handles of a lamb carrier and not always shining where it was needed.

Followed is a relative term here, they were both circling me, pushing me sideways as I tried to walk with a lamb carrier in each hand. After a lot of circles we all arrived at the barn together. Went back and got the other lamb, and while I was trying to decide who was the mother, one of the ewes had another lamb. She also seemed to like one of the first 2. Both ewes were calm and not shoving each other away from lambs. This makes it harder to tell who belongs to who and that is important because once the excitement wears off, if they are not happy with one of them, the result is a rejected lamb. The real mother might not want it back since it doesn't smell right to her by then.

I put the oldest (dryest) pair with one ewe and the wet lamb from outside with the one with the newest lamb. They are often born within a few minutes of each other, so it made sense to me and I hope I am right. I think what happened was that one ewe was delivering lambs and the other was in labor, so she temporarily adopted a lamb, then later had her own.

The cold lamb (a twin) that I put into the warming barrel last night is now a bottle baby since his mother only has enough milk for 1 lamb. He is in a pen by himself under a heat lamp and was snuggled in the corner all nice and warm. I fed him and he is an enthusiastic eater! And so sweet. Hugging baby lambs is so much fun!

CajuninKy

You seem to have this stuff down to an art form. How long have you been working with the sheep?

Mary

One night there were no new lambs and no ewes in labor when I checked, and the only thing I had to do was feed a bottle baby.

Last night was another busy night in the barn, only 2 new lambs but lots of other things to do. One of those agressive grannys came in with the twins I brought in, she was a bit of a pain. I had to clean a pen to put the new ones in, but first had to move the occupants to a mothering pen. The lambmobile is operational again, a blessing for sure since it elimintates carrying lambs and being bumped around by anxious ewes! I will try to find my picture of it. The new lambs waited in the basket while I moved sheep and cleaned a pen for them and put down fresh straw.

Ususally I don't have to move sheep or clean a pen at night, but I could see that things got busy yesterday afternoon and evening. There are lots of new faces, including a set of triplets and a set of quads!

I'll tell you in a minute what my barn notes said by the time I left. First the code so it will make sense. C stands for cubicle, the pens we use when we first bring the new lambs to the barn. There are 9 of them and all were full. MP are the mothering pens (community pens) where we put little families that are ready to go outside, lambs have had their shots and all have been paint branded. We also have jugs but I didn't use one, they are small and often a lamb will get squashed in them. R is for red paint brand, B for blue, wf is for white face.

Barn notes from last night: Moved R 10 from C5 to MP 3, new twins in C5.
Bottle fed B2. Good eater!
Removed dead lamb from C6, laid on.
Checked wf lamb in C7, warm.
Removed bashed heat lamp from C7, ewe didn't like the decor.

As you can see, it was busy. The dead lamb was in the middle of the pen, and with 4 to keep track of, momma just lay down in the wrong place, or maybe the lamb did. Plenty of witnesses but nobody's talking. Usually the lambs will lie along the edges of the pen or in the corners and momma in the middle. She is quite fluffy so might not have even felt him under her and of course they lay on lumps all the time out in the pasture.

I had turned off the barn lights and was just going out the door when I heard the breaking glass. There isn't much glass in the barn, so it didn't take too long to locate the broken light, especially since the ewe was still bashing the metal shield. Thankfully it was not plugged in, but had been earlier in the evening when one of her lambs was brought in from the field, chilled. I removed most of the broken glass from her pen, but she butts people too, so I just fished out the big chunks with the manure fork and put the rest of the fixture where she can't reach it. What's her problem? She has 2 nice babies and hates the world?

Mary

I have about 20 years of experience working with sheep. First I learned with my own flock, and have worked for my neighbor for the past 12 years or so. There is always something new to learn. Sheep can keep a person quite humble.

Mary

The lambmobile. The top part of a grocery cart is mounted on the little trailer. The ewes usually follow it quite readily, since they don't want to loose sight of their lamb in the cart.

Mary

The lamb count is 2 tonight, but I brought in a ewe who was showing a water bag, so by the next check she should have a lamb or 2. She is very nervous. I spotted something shiny with the flashlight, and the flock was strung out along the fence, so I was able to move her into the group nearest the corral and take just about 40 of them into the barn where the light was better so I could make sure I saw what I thought I saw.

This was after I brought in a ewe with a big lazy lamb from the field, and moved another ewe who had her lamb in the middle of the barn (a big open space with posts, a few hay and straw bales, the lambmobile, a pile of lumber for corral repairs). Actually those obstacles are sometimes an advantage when one person is sorting sheep. They want to watch me, (they are prey and I am a predator) and so they have to navigate more slowly.

I stand with my back to the open door and locate the ewe I want to keep, then walk toward the flock and slightly to one side, keeping my eye on the one I want, and letting the others go past. If the one I want starts toward the door I take a step or 2 sideways and she stops, but others go the other way around me. A few zigs and zags and soon I am down to 2 sheep and call it good. If the ewe is nervous she needs company, and if she is calm I can get the other one to go out while the one I want gets interested in eating or finding a spot to deliver a lamb, or just runs the wrong way at the right time.

Things were busy in the barn when I went this morning, mostly daily rotations. Those ewes and lambs who had been in the mothering pens since yesterday were moved outside, the pens were cleaned, new straw put down, flakes of alfalfa put into the feeders, and then about a dozen ewes and their lambs were moved from individual pens into the 3 mothering pens. The individual pens were cleaned and made ready for new occupants. And while all of that was happening, two ewes were delivering lambs out in the field.

The ewe I brought inside last night still hadn't lambed by 7am after her water broke and she still did not appear to be in labor. With help she now has a set of twins. Just a case of a ewe with lazy labor, but this is the kind that can have major problems if not assisted soon enough. If I hadn't seen the water bag and brought her into the barn last night it is possible that nobody would have ever seen the water bag, then in a few days she would have been carrying dead lambs and become infected. At that stage of the game they are hard to save.

My camera setting was wrong today for many of the pictures I took, but you do get this one of the 3 remaining lambs from the quad set right after they were moved to the community pen. The ewe quickly got interested in the hay, and these little guys just stood there looking around at all that space! This ewe has a huge udder and plenty of milk for 3 lambs, so in addition to her regular paint number, she also has a 3.

One ewe who had twins also has mastitis in half her udder, so she will be raising one lamb, and after that one is weaned she will be sold as a cull. Her other lamb now has a new momma, one that delivered one lamb last night and has enough milk for 2. She is in one of the stancion pens for the next few days, until both lambs smell the same, and then we will see if she takes the new one. There are times when I am quite sure that sheep can count.

Mary

Last night was a slow night with only one lamb to bring inside. The 4 wheeler that pulls the little cart didn't start, I flooded it. The key was left on and maybe the battery is low, it didn't seem to turn over as fast as it should. I gave it a little gas and then smelled gas so just turned the key off.

So, I walked out and carried the lamb with a plastic carrier that goes under the chest so he can be carried like a little suitcase with legs, head and tail dangling. Yes lambs do have tails, remember the nursery rhyme about Little Bo Peep who lost her sheep... "leave them alone and they'll come home, wagging their tails behind them". Tails wag when the lambs trot along, and when a lamb finds the nipple, it really goes fast. Happy tails! However, tails cause some sanitation problems, and the slaughter houses dock the prices of lambs with tails, so we use an electric hot knife and it takes the tail off in just a second or two and cauterizes the blood vessels at the same time. Unpleasant thought I know, but it is fast and the lamb is not stressed for more than a few seconds by the proceedure.

Back to the carrier, it is about 7-8 inches wide and has a handle on both ends. Slip it under the rib cage, put the handles together and pick him up. The momma followed and they talked to each other all the way. She is a 3 year old, still quite excited by having anyone handle her lamb, so she ran into the flock a couple of times when we were passing them and I just put the lamb on the ground and walked away. She came back to it, and after a minute we continued our journey to the barn.

Yesterday there were several single lambs born and only one set of twins. These things go in cycles, and I have no idea why. Until yesterday it was almost all twins with 2 sets of triplets and one set of quads. Often a ewe will produce multiples for a couple of years, then a single lamb, then multiples again. But I still have no idea why we are getting all these single lambs on the same day.

Mary

Yesterday's rain became ice. The windshield on the pickup needed to be scraped and the wipers were frozen to it. I was at the barn long enough for everything to freeze again, so I had to scrape before driving home. Good thing there was a little moonlight because my flashlight was dying and the one in the barn wasn't a whole lot better. The lights lasted long enough for me to see that the sheep out in the field weren't having any lambs.

A little teeny lamb was born in one of the outside pens and is now getting a warm up in the barrel under the heat lamp. His mother was sick and then got attacked by a dog and lost a big chunk out of one hindquarter a few weeks ago. She has been in a small corral pen and I hadn't seen her since I've been doing the night checks. I thought she had lambed already or maybe died. I doubt if she will be able to feed the lamb and the poor little thing was too weak to stand. The lamb was making noise and I went to investigate the weak sounding maaaaa or I wouldn't have known to check that pen. Nobody thought to tell me to look, and I didn't think to ask where she had gone. In all the years I have been doing lamb checks there has never been a sheep kept in that pen.

The ewe and a companion ewe who has been with her followed me and the lamb into the barn. The mother and lamb were put in a clean dry pen and the companion went for the hay, showing no interest in the newborn lamb. After some observation I decided the lamb was too weak to stand, so I put him in the warming barrel. Momma laid down.

There was another ewe in the barn with some mucous showing but she wasn't in hard labor, just pawing from time to time and looking restless. She was there when I arrived. I decided she wasn't in distress so when the owner gets there in another hour or so and he can decide if it is time to pull lambs. His pseudo son in law lives next door and can help him if he needs another person. Usually it takes one person to hold the ewe and the other to reach in and retrieve the lambs. Maybe it won't be necessary. It didn't seem urgent enough to call and wake him.

Often when I am out there in the dark checking sheep I think of my sister who is doing the same thing with their cows. Her shift starts at about 2 or 3 am and goes until daylight. Her husband watches them until midnight, then he goes to bed and she gets up and takes over. They work alone too. Now she has some scarry stories! Sheep are small potatoes compared to an agressive cow that weighs close to 1000 pounds.

That was all I could do for my short shift, so I came home and went back to bed. I slept later than normal this morning, dressed quickly, grabbed a snack, tossed some hay to the horses and went down to the barn to see what had happened since I left about 2:30am.

The wounded ewe delivered 2 more teeny lambs. One didn't get out of the sac, but the other is alive. The ewe who was pawing in the barn needed help, got it later this morning, but her twins were dead. She was given one of the wounded ewes lambs and seems to be accepting it. The lamb I put in the barrel was tube fed and has been put back in with it's mother for now. I saw him stand to nurse but I'm not sure he is getting anything. Possibly his actions will stimulate the mother to produce enough milk for him. She was given antibiotics for her infected leg.

It's good news and bad news when you have a farm. On the good news side, 2 of the ewes that have been in stancion pens with one lamb of their own and one of somebody elses, have accepted their new lambs and are now in larger pens. For now they are alone, but in a few hours other ewes will be put in with them and they will be watched for another day. One of them was a ewe I brought in several nights ago that had delivered a very big lazy lamb. She was given another lamb that was about 10 days old whose mom couldn't feed it for some reason. Both lambs are about the same size.

smokey the dog

Interesting narrative Mary.

Mary

Brrrr, I think winter has had a relapse. We had hail this afternoon, then snow, and the sky was clear enough when I headed for the barn that I could see fine to walk without using the flashlight. Had to scrape the windshield, and I am so glad for that scraper with the long handle and a brush on it for snow.

The note in the barn said a granny had come in and claimed one of the pens and seemed determined to stay. She had nothing showing but was standing there like she owned it. I got the 4 wheeler started and putt-putted out into the pasture. The ewes were getting to their feet and wandering away, leaving bare spots in the snow like a lot of polkadots all over one end of the field. One nervous ewe had a water bag showing so I brought all of them to the barn to sort them.

Of course, the warmth of the barn plus a couple of alfalfa bales to munch on gave them more incentive to stay than to go back out the door, so the sorting took a lot longer than it should have. Eventually the ewe I wanted to keep inside hopped into the pen with the granny and then it was easier to get the rest of them out the door which I closed behind them so they didn't make a u (ewe) turn and come right back. Some of them had already done that at least once while I was trying to isolate the one I wanted. Before I went out to open the corral gate, I checked their hind ends again with the flashlight to be sure I hadn't missed something.

Two ewes in a small pen with one of them about to deliver is just too crowded, so I had to move somebody. It seemed better to move the ewe who was about to deliver to keep all the birth fluids out of the small pen. Then I put the gate up to keep the granny inside it and let the mother-to-be stay loose in the open part of the barn where there is straw and plenty of room. Birth fluids out there are no problem, they just seem to disappear.

I watched her go to the other side of the barn and hop over the barrier board into an empty pen, and thought she might stay, but she came back to a spot just outside the pen with the granny and appeard to claim that as a birthing spot. She nibbled on the nearby hay bale and didn't seem to be in any hurry to deliver but kept looking to see where I was. So I left, and she probably has at least one lamb by now.

The ewes and lambs in the small pasture across the road were noisy so I walked over to shine my flashlight around to see why. A lot of the lambs are in the creep feeder, cozy and not anxious to leave, and their mothers are calling them. Lambs are answering and expect the ewes to come to them which they can't because of the boards on the creep feeder which only allow the ewes to put their heads through to eat.

The fog had moved in, making the moon light up about a quarter of the sky. I scraped the windshield and started home, but lack of heat from the defroster made the windshield fog up and freeze again almost before I got started, so I rolled down the window and stuck my head out and followed my tracks home. Mine were the only tracks on the road.

CajuninKy

Sorry you got cold again. I know you were enjoying the warmer days. It must have made the sheep tending a bit more comfortable.

That is a nice invention for lamb hauling. Must be lots nicer than walking in the snow and being butted by the ewes.

That is a huge udder on that ewe. Can people drink sheep milk?

Mary

Yes, people in many parts of the world drink sheep milk and even make cheese from it. My hubby brought home some sheep cheese from Romania. People in undeveloped and developing countries all over the world use the milk from whatever kind of animals they have, goats, sheep and cattle being the most common, I believe. But I have heard about yak's milk, mare's milk, camel's milk, etc.

The past two nights have been slow in the lambing department, but the days have been making up for it. In two days about 20 ewes delivered lambs. Last night when I was at the barn I heard an anxious little voice, one of the "grafted" lambs that we thought had been accepted by a surrogate mother has apparently been rejected after all, and was alone in the bummer pen for it's own safety. The neighbor lady who lives down the road will take it and raise it on a bottle. She has already taken about a dozen lambs to raise this year, and she also raises calves.

I'll make a trip to the barn in a little while, there are bound to be more little surprises. This is the time of day when the lambs are getting ear tags, shots, etc, and are being moved to larger pens or out to the pasture.

CajuninKy

After the lady raises the lambs, will they be returned to the flock?

Mary

No, she buys them for about $10-15 each, keeps some of the females for herself I think, and sells the males as market lambs.

CajuninKy

Market lambs are bought for meat?

Mary

Yes, Cajun, market lambs are for meat.

It was raining lightly tonight and the ewes were busy, so I had plenty to do. The weanling calves in the back corral were watching me through the fence as I went out through the side door of the barn, through another pen and alleyway and out the back gate to the sheep pasture. (More on this story later).The side doors are really big doors, high enough to bring loads of hay inside, they're heavy but they open easier than the ones we usually use because the barn has not settled on that side. The doors that access the corral where the calves are now, bind on their roller tracks and are a real pain to open. That problem will get fixed only when they are impossible to open. There are way too many other gotta do's ahead of that project and not enough manpower.

New triplets were born tonight, unfortunately one appears not to have gotten up, and he still had a lot of the birth sac on him. His face was cleaned off (maybe not soon enough?). The siblings are fine. Another ewe had a nice big set of twins, just what we like. A third ewe, already in the barn just needed to be checked to make sure 2 lambs hadn't become 3, they hadn't and she appears to be finished. They are a bit on the small side and smaller lambs usually mean more lambs, there are only so many nutrients to be shared. I gave her some dry straw because her pen was pretty wet, she must have had them both in the pen or was very wet from the rain when she came inside. A soggy sheep is like a big sponge.

There is also a ewe who was loose in the barn, probably a granny who followed another ewe with newborns in from the pasture, she is pawing but not trying to push, I left a note that she might be having problems, maybe somebody missed seeing a water bag. She is about 4-5 years old. I can't remember what year we used purple ear tags and couldn't get close enough to read any numbers but I do remember when those purple tag ewes were lambing for the first time. They were a bunch of over the moon type of idiots, but now, with age and experience, they are nice and calm. Come to think of it, most of the first time moms and even some with a couple of years of experience are a bit nutty.

And now the cow story:

The calves are in the corral because they are being weaned. Most years the weaning goes quite smoothly, the cows and calves are separated in the corrals, the cows are taken back to the pasture, a hot fence is put up separating a space for the calves which are then moved back. The hot fence discourages them from rejoining their mothers, but they don't get too upset because they can see each other close by. A few days later another hot fence will be put up to increase the distance. Usually it works, but not this year because the fence is not hot enough and they went right back to their mommas.

Saturday the sorting/weaning began, Sunday it began again, and Monday was round 3. This time the calves were kept in the corral that we use to get from barn to pasture to bring in new lambs, and so we had to detour. It is the largest and most secure corral. The calves will be moved somewhere soon, where hopefully they will stay.

Mary

We keep track of the ewes and their new lambs with the all important barn chart. The left side of the page tells us the date and time, what pen they are in, what the ewe's ear tag color and number is, what she looks like, comments like "wild" or "good mother", and what her paint brand is. The right side of the page is all lamb information: things like face color, sex, if a normal or assisted birth, a column for eye problems and space for comments. I thought it would be interesting for you to see.

Mary

Sleeping a split shift is getting old but it won't last much longer at the rate those woolie ladies are popping out the babies. The drop band (ewes waiting to drop their lambs) is looking quite small. They usually lie down to deliver them, but occasionally one just kind of squats down, pushes a few times and drops the lamb on the ground. It certainly encourages the newborn to take a breath right away!

Tonight was windy, clear and nice moonlight, and I almost didn't need the flashlight once I got through the gates on my detour route and out away from the buildings. We have had enough rain to make quite a lot of mud in the alleyway, but the pasture is still quite dry, well, that's a relative term, it is not as wet, and there is hardly any mud there.

The calves are still in the corral, where I suspect they will stay since plan A failed twice, and plan B isn't too likely to happen as long as there is no emergency. There is a fence in a pasture about 2 miles down the road that needs to be fixed before plan B could happen and there is just no time to do it, so I think the calves will spend a few days eating their hay in the corral, then be moved in one direction and the cows in another. They were not so noisy last night.

If you were wondering about the triplet lamb from night before last, he wasn't alive when I found him. Probably the ewe didn't get up in time to clean the birth sac from his nose. Usually the lamb will give his head a vigorous shake and break the sac, but if it is tough or the lamb is weak sometimes that doesn't work, and the ewe gets up and starts cleaning it off. The sac is full of fluid, and sometimes the lamb gets some of it into his lungs and has to be treated for the resulting pneumonia. This one could have been a stillborn. We haven't had more than our usual death rate this season.

The ewe that was pawing in the barn got help to deliver twins. They were all sleeping when I got to the barn. The ewe didn't get up, so I know she is tired. She will be kept in the barn for some extra time to help her get over it, and she is also on antibiotics because of the assisted delivery. Non organic lambs there.

There is quite a network of organic producers nationwide. Lamb, beef, turkey, chickens, fruits and vegies. Even organic wool. Well, I have about 4 tons of organic wool stored in my hay shed, baled up in 600 pound bales, waiting to be sold in large volume to a buyer. It would make a lot of sweaters!

A link to Organic producers follows, given it's own line to make it more likely to work if you click on it.

www.eatwild.com

Mary

It's spring!! I read it on the internet so it has to be true!

When I went to bed about 9pm the wind was howling, and I thought maybe the weather would be nasty when I went to do the lamb check, but no, it wasn't as windy, no precipitation of any kind coming down, and there was bright moonlight. I walked out to the field with the flashlight and looked at the sheep, one ewe had mucous showing and she was "talking" as they often do, maybe encouraging those lambs to come on out and see the world. Possibly she thinks maybe she already had them. Sheep don't do time all that well. Basically, for a sheep, either it's mealtime or it isn't.

I went back through the alleyway, opening the gates wide at both ends, then opened the barn doors wide, moved the 4 wheeler and lambmobile out of the way, and placed a flake of alfalfa near the door inside the barn where they could see it and be tempted. Now all I need is the sheep who have moved to the far end of the pasture. The ewe with the mucous is a nervous type and has the rest of them stirred up. They respond quite well to my voice and the flashlight as I move them slowly toward the alley.

The gate into it is the same one we normally use, but instead of turning left immediately and going through the back corral we now have to go straight down the alley. It is about the same width as the alley in a city and has one big corral on the left side with the weanling calves all lined up and curious, which the sheep think are boogey men, and two smaller corrals and a small pen on the right. The last corral on the right is where the future guard dog stays, and he is barking because something is different. We have to go between the boogie men calves and the boogie man dog. To top it all off there is a big puddle at the end, and the moonlight is making it look very shiney.

Now if you are a sheep, all of this is very dangerous since the only defense you have is to run and you are carrying about 40 extra pounds of lambs and fluids which causes you to waddle everywhere and feel very vunerable. There is a preditor behind you with a flashlight and you are only slightly more comfortable in the middle of the bunch. However, the bunch is only about a dozen animals and the middle is very small and not too secure. The sheep on the edges also want to be in the middle and you find yourself on the edge again, next to the curious boogey men calves, or next to the barking boogie man dog! Forward seems the only way to go.

I got them through the alley, closing the gates behind me as we went. At the far end of the alley, beyond the scarry puddle, the barn lights made a light patch on the ground, something else to be avoided! The whole bunch turned right and went out into a small lot that has several pieces of miscellaneous farm equipment, a pile of lumber, a big shiney metal grainery, and a lot of dark places where something might be lurking. They went to a far corner and discovered a bit of green grass to nibble. I let them relax before trying to move them toward the barn.

Hmmm, it's an inviting looking place, and they see other sheep in pens and there is the sweet smell of alfalfa. It's been a while since dinner, but somebody needs to be brave and lead them inside. The dog is now on their left, still barking, and there is a fence on the right. The preditor with the flashlight is behind them, lurking. I wait and talk to them, they move left, I shine the flashlight that way and wiggle it, they go right, and the flashlight stops them before they get to the fence. I let them stand there and think about it for a couple of minutes. There is nowhere to go except forward. Ok, somebody gets brave and goes through the door and suddenly they all have to be there, RIGHT NOW! it's like a dam bursting.

I wait for them to relax and get a few mouthfulls of hay while I stand near the door and locate the ewe I want to keep inside. They have spread out and are in two smaller bunches, The ewe I want is in the bunch on the right, so I walk toward them and some of them join the group on the left who now feel trapped and see a way around me to get out of the barn. Ok, now there are about 7 left and I step back toward the door to let the rest of them spread out a bit while I locate the ewe again. A few of them go to the right, she says where she is and I step to my left and let most of them escape around my right side.

Only three left, and now I wonder if I can get two out and keep the right one in. One ewe goes off to one side and I move around to let her escape. The remaining two are stuck together like glue. I decide that if I try to separate them I might loose them both and have to start over. Besides, a nervous ewe could use some company so I decide the mission is accomplished and close the barn doors.

The ewe will likely be a mother by the time the owner checks the sheep in about 2 more hours, and since there is nothing else happening or about to happen, I can go back home to my warm bed.

Mary

When the ewes and their lambs are moved from the barn to the pasture we have to take them across the county road which runs right through the ranch. The ewe on the right is sniffing at two different lambs, the one with blue paint is hers, she only has one, and the other one with red paint belongs to one of the other ewes who would also have a red number, indicating that she has twins.

The cans on the wire all have a few pebbles in them, and when it is shaken it helps direct the sheep. The shepherd's crook also helps and can catch a lamb by the neck without hurting it. The ewes and lambs keep circling around and zig zagging to find each other so our funny little parade is slow and confusing. Occasionally a neighbor will drive through and we have to get all the lambs out of the way, or he just has to wait a minute. All farmers are used to waiting.

They were going to a little pasture with the big tree and the old house in it. Later they go out into a larger pasture when they are older, stronger and have more practice finding mom and dinner in a bigger world.

Mary

Sometimes the little lambs run back to the barn, and if momma doesn't go along so that they can come back together, somebody just has to carry one.

Mary

And here is my favorite little guy, hollaring his head off expecting his mom to come and find him.

Mary

The few remaining ladies in waiting are put into the barn at night now, and the owner checks them at midnight and daylight, so I am off lamb duty and theoretically able to sleep a whole night without getting up in the middle of it. I say theoretically because I wake up several times, tell myself I don't have to get up, and go back to sleep for another hour or two.

I'll try to take more pictures from time to time as the lambs grow, so that all of you won't suffer from lamb withdrawals.

Mary

The lambs are growing fast. Here are some pictures of them now that they are about a month old. I took a walk with my camera one day last week and got some exercise and a few pictures.

Mary

The ewes move away if I get closer than this.