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So out of 12 ewes we've had 20 live lambs, and 6 that have died. And there's still one left to go, at three weeks over due, hope there's no problems there.
Polaris, the first live lamb is doing really well, she looks really healthy and chunky, a good texel cross and enjoys running up and down the field with a bunch of other lambs
.Sunny the Godzilla Lamb had her first this year, not as big as I'd hoped so will not be kept, but maybe next year Sunny will have the perfect Lamb to keep on, and perhaps go to the Lincolnshire show with.
Tinker of course had triplets again this year one of them being a little weedier so we started bottle feeding it, but then its sister wanted some as well. Now the two lambs are a lot fatter than their brother... oh dear...
Now I have a difficult decision to make as to which Lamb to keep this year (we always keep one, to enhance breeding stock) Polaris, who is very chunky and a good shape for breeding. Or Markab (Sprite) who was bottle fed, comes from Tinkers line (very good mothers) and is more tame than Polaris. Hmm...
The YFC Rally is coming up in May and somehow I've signed up for some very strange things, egg and spoon race, know your farm breeds quiz and sheep judging as well as the handbook cover again, I must have been half asleep when my name was being put down.
Also my GCSE exams start mid may, eep! I should be revising but I've been busy over the holidays, and the times when I'm not busy I really cannot be bothered to do anything but sleep, Oh well I shall do my revising the proper way; all on the night before the exam.
~Meggiewes~
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Two ewes birthed today, four lambs, but one died during birth because it was huge. Hopefully the lambs'll come thick and fast now as most of the first time mothers have lambed.
Bellatrix, Betelgeuse, Sirius came into the world to join Polaris, she'll be really happy that she now has some friends to join her bouncing round the pen.
~Meggiewes~
Muliphen - the fifth and hopefully last lamb to not survive this year.
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And again.
There's a lamb in the field just as I get there and it seems to be fine, the ewe is licking it and encouraging it to get up. But, hang on, that's not its mum, this older ewe had stolen a young ewes newborn lamb and was keeping the young ewe away. Later on we manage to get the right sheep with the lamb but as she's young she has little idea what to do, so everytime the lamb trys to suckle she sits down. Eventually we get it to have a drink and they're both well away, everything is fine. Untill six hours later the ewe starts having contractions, and another lamb appears, but just the head and neck, no feet or legs. So after a bit of pulling and pushing we have another lamb, but dead. Having died during the birthing.
Five Lambs, four dead. At least the one we do have is thriving.
~Meggiewes~
The name of the one surviving Lamb is Polaris, and her brother was Kochab. (Names of stars in Ursa Minor/Little bear/Little Plough)
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We've had a ewe with a calcium deficiency (sp?) for a few weeks and she's had treatment and is very weak, we knew she was full of lambs and that if there was going to be trouble it would be with her, well, unlucky us, she starts to lamb but gets into trouble and in the end produces three dead lambs, one of them being our first black one ever. And we find out that if she'd had lambed 24 hours earlier there would be three happy lambs, and the ewe would be more encouraged to get better.
So I dug the three graves and the ewe is lying in a pen looking like she's lost the will to live. Great start to the lambing season.
~Meggiewes~
The lambs are called Alnitak, Mintaka and Alnilam, strange names I know, but those are the names of the three stars in Orions belt.