When it comes to looking for the signs that a ewe may be lambing soon, one of the main signs (before all the goo) is just that they lay down a lot. Well, that's not really helpful!
Since we got the sheep, poor Chocolate Swirl has been so huge that walking was clearly hard for her, therefore she laid down pretty much all the time. Everyday for the past two and half weeks, I was certain that TODAY had to be the day and obviously most of the days I was wrong, but eventually I had to be right!
Here she is a day or two before lambing.
Last Wednesday night, Keith and I went to bed a little early thanks to stopping a TG's for dinner and couple pretty strong beers. I was completely sound asleep (at 11:30) when Keith woke me up with news. He heard loud moaning/baaing sounds from outside. It was clear something was happening: either Chocolate Swirl was lambing or Sam the Ram got out and was making his way to the ladies.
Keith went outside to check it out and it was clearly time for lambing! By the time we both got out there with towels and everything, the lamb was already born. Mama was just standing there, like 'what the hell just happened', so Keith and I grabbed the towels and wiped the lamb off a little bit. In about 30 seconds, Mama shook off being stunned and got to work cleaning up the little lamb herself, all while the little, wobbly lamb is trying to hard to find her feet. The whole this was pretty incredible to watch.
One thing that surprised me about this whole experience was how quiet it was. After the initial moaning, both Mama and lamb were quiet, as were the rest of the sheep and goats that were in various places in the barn. Chocolate Swirl and her lamb were in their own stall and all the rest of the sheep were up and attentive, but didn't make a peep (which is really unlike them!)
We cleaned off the lambs umbilical chord and waited. We waited to see if she was going to have another lamb, she was so huge we expected more than one. Then, when it looked like there was only going to be the one, we waited for her to start nursing. This took a while.
The lamb tried to nurse on just about everything including Mama's ears, tail, and the wall of the stall, before she finally found what she was looking for. When she finally did, her tail was going crazy and we knew that our job was pretty much done. We got Mama a bunch of hay and water with a little molasses in it (because that's what the book said to do) and I really have no idea how we eventually got back to sleep that night.
We left Mama and lamb in their own stall for about couple days, where they spent time curled up together, bonding. I only went in to fill food and water. We let them out in the pasture and all weekend they were pretty much velcroed to each other.
Can we talk for a minute about how freaking cute this lamb is! She's looks like a mix between a border collie, a cow, and a Rorschach test, I have named her Bessie. At a week old, she is running around like mad, bouncing off the other lambs, while poor Mama is running after her, with a 'come back here right now, young lady!' attitude! She is also as big as the the triplets that are a little over three weeks old.
In other news, can you tell from the picture that all the sheep are shedding their hairy winter coats?! The one surprise from this is that the one I thought of as White Chocolate (there is also Milk Chocolate and you all know Chocolate Swirl by now), she's actually a ginger underneath that crazy coat! I think it makes me like her just a little bit more.
The goats a doing fine. I'm pretty sure Cupid has been successfully knocked up, but that doesn't stop her from escaping. Snowy just want cuddles, as always, and Franny seems to have joined the sheep herd.
Hopefully we'll be having a kid or two in July. Until then, no new additions are planned, but that doesn't mean they won't happen!
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