Weeks 4 and 5 didn’t bring any lambs, which was expected. Harriet was bred successfully a couple weeks after all the other ewes.
May 4, 2025 – Sunday
Harriet had twin ewe lambs around 4 this morning. She had us fooled, thinking she was going to have triplets! The 1st lamb weighed 8lbs, and the 2nd weighed 9lbs.
Harriet’s udder was so engorged that I milked out some colostrum so the lambs could latch on top her teats better. The colostrum will go into the freezer for any future emergencies.
That’s a wrap on our 2025 lambing season! We had 20 lambs. 9 sets of twins and 2 singles. 16 ewe lambs, 4 ram lambs. 11 Tunis, 3 Jacob, and 6 Tunis/Jacob cross.
I checked on her throughout the morning, and just before I ran to the feed store in the afternoon. By the time I got home from the feed store, she had delivered a ram lamb and was cleaning him.
After a few minutes, she began pushing again and delivered a ewe lamb. Once they were both standing and walking, I made sure they nursed before moving them to the lambing jug.
The ram lamb weighed 8.55lbs and the ewe lamb weighed 8.1lbs.
April 11, 2025 – Friday
Maya had a 10.65lb ewe lamb just before 5am this morning!
I remember waking up around 3 or 4am to check on the monitor only to see Maya laying contentedly in the stall. The next thing I know I was waking up at almost 5am to her baaing to a lamb.
I didn’t check yet to see how many horns she has or if she’s lilac or black and white. Maya is a very protective mama and was upset enough by me weighing her lamb.
We let Kate and her lambs out of the jug and put Maya and her baby in, so there was a bit of confusion for a couple minutes until everyone settled down.
Edit: the ewe lamb is a 2-horn dark lilac lamb.
April 11, 2025 – Friday
Luna totally surprised us this afternoon with twins ewe lambs! She wasn’t due till Sunday and she didn’t look ready to lamb at feeding this morning, so I wasn’t checking the monitor very often today.
I was packing up Etsy orders and watching the livestream of Noah’s baseball game this afternoon, and all the sudden I heard what sounded like newborn lamb cries so I rushed out onto the deck. Luna was out in the barnyard with 2 brand-new, almost dry lambs. One lamb was 7.85lbs and the second was 7.2lbs.
Harriet is our last pregnant ewe and she’s due around May 1st.
Check back in early May for our final entry for this year’s Lambing Diaries!
I noticed Prim seemed to be in early labor around noon so I kept an eye on her to watch her progress. Some pushing by 1pm but no water sac. I did a quick examination and felt the sac. Prim is more nervous about being touched while in labor so I had to halter and tie her.
After a while I decided to give her space and watch her from the kitchen window, hoping that would help her labor progress, but it didn’t. She didn’t want to go back into the barn so I lured all the mamas in with some grain.
Once haltered again I examined her again and felt a little tail. Dave held her still(ish) for me while I found the back feet and repositioned the legs so I could pull the lamb out back feet first. After pulling the ewe lamb with my lamb puller, I checked for another. I felt a head so I let Prim rest and clean the 1st lamb for a few minutes.
The 2nd lamb emerged head first, but I was able to get 1 front leg repositioned easily to help pull it out. The lamb was limp when I got her out but began to breathe and move once I pulled the sac from her face.
The 1st ewe lamb weighed 8.65lbs and the second ewe lamb weighed 7.85lbs.
Once both lambs nursed, I milked out some colostrum to freeze for any future emergencies.
April 5, 2025 – Saturday
Kate had twin ewe lambs this morning! She didn’t want to eat breakfast around 8sm, so I went out to the barn to check on her. Maya kept bothering her, so we opened the stall door and let her wander around the barn aisle.
The first lamb was born around 10:30. She’s the one on the left in the 1st photo. She weighed 7.25lbs and has an odd spot on her right rear leg that looks like raw skin. I’m researching epitheliogenesis imperfecta, but I’m not sure if that’s what it is. I can’t tell if there’s actually no skin or just raw skin. It’s definitely in the shape of her other spots.
The second lamb was born shortly afterwards and weighs 8.4lbs. Both lambs seem to be lilac or dark lilac but we’ll be able to tell better as they get dried and cleaned. I think 1 is a 4 horn and 1 is a 2 horn.
We added a wall of straw around the lambing jug because Maya tried multiple times to clean the lambs through the panels.
Edit: I applied a medicated cream to the first lamb’s red spot after she was clean and dry. even though it seemed like it wasn’t raw skin anymore. After a day or so, you could barely see where the spot was, and now the area looks and feels normal. I’m wondering if a blood clot or something got stuck in her fiber during or before birth.
April 8th
April 16th
April 6, 2025 – Sunday
Qi’ra surprised us with twins tonight! I thought she was too slender to be carrying twins, but she fooled me.
She showed us she was getting ready to give birth by separating herself from the other ewes most of the day. When I checked the monitor around 8pm or so, I saw her pushing. I went out to the barn and watched her for a while. When it was obvious she was tiring, I helped her deliver the lamb. She’s a first-time mama and wasn’t sure what was happening most of the delivery, but once the lamb made noise, she began cleaning it off.
We moved her and the ram lamb to the lambing jug, and I noticed she had another set of hooves visible. Her first lamb was up and nursing, and Qi’ra wasn’t pushing the second lamb out. I wiggled the feet around, and she soon delivered the ewe lamb.
The ram ram weighed 9.65lbs, and the ewe weighed 8.05lbs. They had so much energy that once they got their footing, they didn’t stop moving.
For a first-time mama, Qi’ra is pretty relaxed and is taking good care of her babies.
Odette kicked off lambing season today at dinnertime with an 8lb ewe lamb born butt-first. I found her mid-labor and was hesitant to check the position of the lamb because I thought she was still in early labor.
After about 30-45 minutes went by with no water sac emerging, I prepared to check on the lamb’s position. As Odette pushed, the lamb’s butt became visible and I knew at this point repositioning the lamb would be difficult. I wiggled the lamb’s hips with the next contraction and was able to deliver the hips and rear legs. I pulled the rest of the lamb quickly before she could start to breathe while still in the amniotic fluid. She was limp for a few seconds, but after I got her airways clear, rubbed her chest, and Odette started cleaning her, she started to breathe.
March 27, 2025 – Thursday
Kathleen had twins ewe lambs just before 3am. The first was 9.3lbs and the second was 9.4lbs.
I noticed her acting like she was close to labor around 7pm last night and checked on her every hour or 2. I decided to go to the barn around 2am because she was pushing but not progressing. After a quick internal, I determined the lamb’s presentation was good but she was probably just big. Fast forward a bit and the water sac emerged along with feet and a nose. Several minutes after the first lamb was born, Kathleen delivered a second, also normal presentation.
Mama and lambs are in the lambing jug now and both lambs have nursed. Kathleen enjoyed some warm water with molasses, a little grain and has lots of hay to eat while her lambs nap.
March 30, 2025 – Sunday
We woke up to twins from Ophelia, all dried, nursed and happy. The brown lamb is a ewe and is 7.35lbs. The black lamb is a ram and is 7.25lbs.
March 30, 2025 – Sunday
A ram and a ewe for Opal!
I checked on the monitor before I went to bed and saw she was in labor, so I headed out to the barn. The ram was born first and is 8lbs. The ewe was born very soon after the ram and is 6lbs.
Both are up and have nursed, and I’m going to bed.
You’ve shorn your sheep, now learn to skirt wool fleeces in person! I will be hosting 2 skirting classes this spring, and will also be offering private skirting sessions where you bring a fleece to skirt.
Rendering your beeswax cleans it of impurities and is necessary in order to use your beeswax in most projects. There are a few methods for rendering beeswax – I use the crock-pot/slow-cooker method. It’s easy and doesn’t involve pouring any hot wax through a strainer.
First, you need to gather your beeswax and supplies. You will need:
a slow-cooker (with lid)
an old (but clean) white, cotton t-shirt, cut in 2 pieces so you have the front and back torso separated – you can find inexpensive t-shirts at crafts stores if you don’t have one that you can use
kitchen twine or other string
approximately 2-4 cups water
a spatula or other utensil
a knife
You will want to use items that will not be needed for food in the future because beeswax is difficult to fully remove from objects, even after rigorous cleansing. I purchased a spare slow-cooker, 2nd hand from someone local, for rendering my wax.
Step 1 – Add about 2 inches of water to the slow-cooker pot. Cover the pot with 1 layer of the tshirt and tie with kitchen twine just under the pot lip. Don’t tie the t-shirt too taunt – you want it to give a little.
Step 2 – Set your pot in the base, making sure the t-shirt is not stuck inside the base. Place your wax cappings and any other beeswax on top of the t-shirt. You can push the t-shirt down so it hangs like a hammock, but keep it at least an inch from the water level. Place the lid on the slow-cooker.
Step 3 – Turn slow-cooker on LOW. Melting the beeswax will take approximately 2 hours, depending on how much wax you have and the size of your slow-cooker. As the wax melts and drips through the t-shirt you will see dirt, propolis and other impurities left behind. You can spread the wax out as it melts if desired.
Step 4 – Once the wax is completely melted, turn off the slow-cooker. With oven mitts, remove the pot from the base. Untie or cut the twine and discard the t-shirt (if it’s 100% cotton this can be composted).
Step 5 – Let the beeswax cool and harden. Once solid, remove it from the pot (remember there’s water underneath the wax that can splash). You may need to use a knife to dislodge the wax from the sides of the pot.
Step 6 – Dry the wax disc. The bottom of the disc will be rough and will contain some impurities. Scrape this off the wax disc with a knife.
Step 7 – Repeat process with your wax disc using the other piece of clean t-shirt. This process can be repeated as many times as you wish, but I usually render my wax twice.
After cooling, drying and scraping your beeswax a second time you can store it as is or melt again in a double boiler or wax melting pitcher and mold into smaller blocks. I like to mold my wax into small discs, each weighed out to the portion I will need for my lip and skin balm recipes.
Remember it’s best to store your wax sealed in a ziploc-type bag or airtight container because it can attract wax moths.
I’ve been neglecting posting here, and have been posting more to facebook and instagram lately. 2022 had its ups and downs for the flock, but most things went well. We had 18 of lambs born – 3 Jacob, 2 Tunis/Jacob and 13 Tunis.
Molly, Maya and Kate were bred to Rival. Molly had a ram and ewe,
Maya had twin rams,
and Kate had a single ram.
Luna, Erin, Lia and Kathleen were bred to Marvin. Luna had twin ewes,
Erin had a single ram,
Lia had a ram and a ewe,
and Kathleen had a single ewe.
Harriet, Natalie, Lexi and Izzy were bred to Apollo. Harriet surprised us with ram/ewe/ram triplets,
Natalie had twin ewes,
Lexi, sadly, lost her ewe lamb during pregnancy, and Izzy had a ram and ewe.
For our 2022 breeding season we only used Apollo and Marvin. 14 girls are pregnant and our 1st due date is March 28th. I hope to post about births here, but you can always see daily updates on FB and IG.
Coco went into labor Saturday morning, May 2, 2020. The first lamb, a ram, presented butt-first and I was unable to turn him to get his legs out first. I slowly delivered him so not to damage Coco. The 2nd – a ewe – was a normal presentation (head and 2 front legs) and was born without any issue. The 3rd was also a ewe and was presenting with only 1 leg forward; her head and other front leg were turned away from the birth canal. I live-streamed the lambing on Facebook Live once we realized there was a 3rd lamb. You can see the video below: (it is graphic and stressful)
After the 3rd lamb was born we made sure they all nursed, got weighed and navels dipped in iodine.
It became clear by the afternoon that Coco didn’t want to feed the ewe lambs – only the ram.
So we brought the girls in the house for a while…
but decided that they needed to be with Coco as long as she didn’t hurt them.
We added a couple boards in the jug we had Coco and the ram lamb in so that the girls could get away from Coco if needed.
We held Coco so the girls could get some colostrum, plus we supplemented with bottles of colostrum we had frozen the previous year (in case of emergencies) mixed with colostrum we milked from Coco. We continued to milk Coco for a few days until her milk supply had slowed for only 1 lamb.
After a couple days in the jug, we let Coco and her lambs out with the other mamas and lambs. She watched over all 3 of her babies, and we went out a few times a day with bottles to feed the girls.
We were thankful that she didn’t totally reject the girls because lambs learn so much from their mothers, including what is edible and how to interact with other sheep.
Over the 3 months of bottle feeding we decided to keep one of the girls that had become such a love bug. We named her Natalie and she is growing into a beautiful sheep.
Red Rope Farm 