I am sitting here going through sections of our website, and I come to my blog drafts page. Imagine my surprise to find this post that I thought I had published in 2014!
Enjoy these lamb pics while we wait patiently until April when this year’s lambs will be born.
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In 2014 we were blessed with 10 healthy lambs! 6 ewe lambs and 4 ram lambs; 3 sets of twins and 4 singles. Our lambing season began on February 28th and lasted till March 9th (when we had 2 sets of twins born).
Because of the extreme cold weather that winter and the icy conditions we kept the ewes and lambs in the barn until the ice melted and the youngest lambs were a couple weeks old.
It was great to watch them enjoy their new-found freedom when we finally were able to bring them outside.
They had been outside for a couple weeks and were racing a few times every day. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of watching them!
Remember that 1980s film For Keeps? I felt like I was in the scene where Molly Ringwald announces, “I’m pregnant. Can you pass the turnips?” when I went out to feed the sheep last Tuesday morning.
Coco was laying in the middle of the field next to a lamb. I wondered why she was mothering a lamb when she didn’t have any. As I got closer I realized it was her lamb! I went right over to Fiona and felt for an udder … it was full! I immediately brought Coco and her lamb into a lambing jug and put Fiona in the jug next to her.
Coco’s little ram lamb weighed 7 lbs and has turned out to be just as loud as his mama.
The next morning I thought I saw a lamb on the baby monitor so we checked the barn before leaving for school. Fiona had 2 lambs next to her and I checked Coco’s stall to make sure her lamb didn’t squeeze through into her jug! Nope … she had twins! After bringing Noah to school I went back to the barn and checked on the lambs. The ram lamb (darker color) weighed 7.25 lbs and the ewe lamb weighed 5.25 lbs. She’s the smallest (live) lamb we’ve had born here!
When we crotched the ewes in early February we didn’t think our lambs were pregnant, but we were wrong! Wondering how we missed it? With 2 months to go in their 1st pregnancies, they weren’t very big yet. Also, first-timers’ udders don’t get swell too much prior to lambing.
Our shearer came out the day after Fiona had her lambs (Thursday) so everyone was able to be shorn. {If you shear before lambing, most shearers recommend shearing 3-4 weeks before the due date so there is no chance for injury to the unborn lamb(s).} The day after shearing, we moved all the ewes and lambs to our big stall to get used to being in a large group again. The weather turned colder over the weekend, so we kept the flock in the barn until Sunday so the smallest lambs didn’t get too cold.
Here’s a short video I took of the ewes and lambs on Sunday. They were so happy to be outside!
Our lambing season is now finished. Really. We don’t have any ewes that don’t already have lambs. Now to watch the lambs grow!
Red Rope Farm 