LSA News

No. 63, March 2005

The View from Hidden Spring

(story continued)

"6" with her black lamb

Feb. 17 a.m. No new lambs, just uncomfortable ewes. The white ram lamb of "6" is entropic; I will staple his eyelids this p.m. (One of the wonderful veterinary tools available is a staple gun which has stainless steel staples. Placing one or two staples on the bottom lid in the skin will roll the lid away from the eye; as the lamb grows the eyelid "learns" the correct position and the staple can be removed easily.)

Feb. 17 p.m. There is a down side to being away from the farm during lambing. "Speckles" lambed in the afternoon: twin black lambs. The ram lamb was born first, a big robust guy, and the ewe lamb was born second. Speckles was too busy with the first lamb to get the second lambs' amnion cleared from over her nose and mouth so she suffocated. I've lost lambs before this way, but only if I'm not there. Depressing waste.

Speckles and her lamb

(Feb. 21 a.m. Since I have not recorded in the journal since Thursday I will seek to put down the blur that this weekend was:) Feb. 18 p.m. When we got home from work on Friday afternoon, we were greeted by the sight of Lacy with her two small black lambs standing at her side, all dry, all happy, and nursing. This is the way it's supposed to go! We put her in a jug, did the "lamb things", and were done before 6 p.m. We had now lambed three ewes.

Feb. 19. a.m. When I went to feed in the morning all the ewes but one came down to the barn. "Culpepper" was late showing up, seemed distracted, and turned around and headed back up the hill. I followed her to the huge incense cedar that the ewes love to sleep under, and there were two lambs, a white ram and a black ewe. Culpepper followed me as I took the lambs down to the barn. She seemed surprised by the white one, and pushed it away once or twice, but not too meanly. This worried me big time, so I caught her head, and the white lamb dived under her to nurse. When I let her go she started moving away from him. This looked like an impending rejection. All day periodically I went to the barn, caught her head and made sure he nursed. One side of her udder was hot and hard, but when I milked it normal streams of milk issued. I worked with the ewe to get the lambs to pay special attention to that side to try to nurse it out, and watched as she continued to push away the white lamb. This was the first time this older ewe had ever acted this way, and it may earn her a trip to the auction, even though her fleece is one of the more beautiful in the flock.

Meanwhile it was time to start turning the ewes out into the spring pasture right by the house and barn. Here they are the safest. Out went "6" and Speckles, thrilled with the sunshine and grass but very watchful of their lambs.

"6" with both her lambs

Feb. 20 a.m While feeding in the morning one of the ewes is pawing and baaing. "Cinnamon" is lambing. I keep a watch on her as I go through the chores. Kirk and I decide to go ahead and put Lacy out in the spring pasture, and lead her out by carrying her lambs in front of her. Culpepper is continuing to be a problem to her white ram, and I decide to tie her up to give him a better chance at getting his milk. She is moved to the largest of the four jugs, and may be in there and tied for the long run. To compound his problems, the white lamb has entropic eyelids and I have to staple them. He is much happier the next time I check him, and has figured out that when I show up he is free to eat. The ewe can still move, but can't butt him. He is a very tenacious nurser.

Cinnamon has now produced a black lamb. Both Mom and lamb are fine, so I leave them to get acquainted while I clean the three jugs that aren't yet occupied. When we are finished with all the chores, we check Cinnamon. She hasn't yet lost her afterbirth, so we elect to let her be and run in to breakfast. When we return I wonder why she has taken the lamb up the hill, and go to the barn to open a jug. Lo and behold, Cinnamon is right where I left her, happy with her big lamb....hummm. I pick up her lamb and lead her to the jug and snuggle them in. Sooo—who's the ewe on the hill? I find Kirk and ask him to help me find out. It's Licorice, and two black ram lambs. We lead them down and put them in a jug. Then I go to the house to get their shots, and also some dental floss. One of the lambs has a patent urachus (urine is still leaking from the umbilicus), and I will simply ligate this by tying dental floss at the base of the umbilicus next to his tummy.

Have you been keeping count?? The flock of ewes has gone from 17 sheep to 27 sheep in less than a week! Whew!! and we still aren't halfway through the thirteen ewes that were "exposed" to the rams.

Feb. 21 a.m. All is quiet: no new lambs, and no one acting "lamby". Nothing has changed with Culpepper's attitude or her udder, so I put her on penicillin in case it's impending mastitis (an udder infection). Cinnamon is totally in love with her lamb, and may get to go out tomorrow into the spring.

Feb. 22 a.m Licorice has decided that she too has a favorite lamb, so she is tied up and tolerates the "less" desirable lamb nursing, but not without protesting. I have to step into her jug to make certain he nurses. The lamb is sounding a little raspy so I may put him on penicillin, but for now I'll just watch him.

Feb. 23. Cinnamon gets to go out into the spring pasture with "6", Speckles and Lacy. She's happy.

Feb. 24. I left work at 1 p.m. in order to get home early and load Lacey (the overo paint mare, Rainy's mom) in the trailer to take her to Drain to her new owners. When we get home there is a ewe with two black lambs standing on the hill, very happy looking. We rinse off Lacey's muddy legs so she'll look lovely for her new home. While I'm standing there, hose in hand, I see Sara, the only maiden ewe this year, in labor under the prune tree behind the barn. I watch her as she pushes and pushes. Finally, I give the mare to Kirk and go assist. Sara isn't a silly girl, she sees me coming and doesn't fret...just keeps doing what she's doing. By now there are two front hooves and a white nose showing. I hold the feet and pull one leg out farther into the light which removes it from the pelvic girdle, and then the other leg, and out comes a huge white ram lamb. I pull the lamb around toward his mom. Sara, good to her heritage, stands and begins the business of washing and loving her lamb. The day is gorgeous and warm, so we decide to leave them out and alone until we get back from delivering Lacey.

Lacey now at her new home, we begin putting the ewes in the jugs. "Diver" goes first, then Sara. I had meant to cull Diver from the herd last year, but put it off. Not because of attitude—she's wonderful—but because of the anatomy of her milk bag. She has a huge bag, with enormous amounts of milk, but the nipples are placed at the very bottom, hanging down like a cow. This makes it difficult for the lambs to learn to nurse. I will be working with them over the next few days to teach them how low they have to get to find the milk source. Sara on the other hand already has her new boy nursing! They are doing fabulously well.

And now "Liesl" has lambed. Liesl has a very stubborn ear infection that hasn't responded to a variety of antibiotics, so she walks with her head canted to the side and is a little unsteady on her feet. I was hoping she might not have conceived. She has a single small white ewe lamb, who is vigorous and searching for breakfast. As I feed the four remaining pregnant sheep, and the four replacement ewes ("Scooter", daughter of "5", "Samantha", daughter of Liesl, "Polly" (named after Kirk's first girl friend in elementary school) and "Leia" (named by Margot after the princess), I watch Liesl's lamb become successful at nursing. My problem now is that all the jugs are full and Liesl needs one. Fortunately, Lacey the mare's stall is empty, so I put Culpepper and her two lambs into it and tie her back up. Liesl goes into Culpepper's jug. What a busy morning.

Feb. 26 a.m. All seems quiet as I feed the animals, including Culpepper's white lamb's breakfast bottle. She accepts him fine except to nurse. She lets him sleep beside her, calls him when he's not in direct sight, but won't let him nurse. I'm resigned to the fact he will be a bummer lamb. They are called this not because it is a "bummer" to have to deal with them, but because they try to bum drinks off of ewes that aren't their moms. I've seen them sneak up behind a ewe that is nursing her lamb and nurse on the other side from the back, where the ewe can't see them.

Lambs everywhere

Feb. 27 a.m. The day is absolutely gorgeous, warm and spring-like. We decide to go ahead and put Sara, the first time ewe (who is acting entirely like an old hand) out into the spring pasture with the others. She is happy to go out, and keeps her lamb to herself for the first few hours. The lamb though sees the other lambs and wants to play. Sara watches her carefully. Meanwhile we use my Mantis to rototill a small area of the garden to put in peas and lettuce. The farmer's almanac says to plant peas when the daffodils are blooming. We put in pea pods, sugar snap peas, and regular peas. Our favorite lettuces are the bib type, so I plant several types.

Feb. 27 p.m. We decide to do our chores a little early, and start them about 4 p.m. Last thing we do in the evening is feed the white lamb another bottle; he gets four on the weekends but only three on workdays. When we are done we check the lambs in the barn and get ready to close up the barn. Kirk says "that's a lamb baaing under the cedar". Yep, good ol' "4" decided to lamb. We take the flashlight and find her with a single white lamb. She is getting old, so a single might be it, but she appears to still be large so we just move her down to the barn to wait. She's not acting like she's ready to lamb another lamb, and since both are fine, we decide to go get an hour of sleep and come back. At 12:30 a.m., we go back to the barn to find that "4" and her lamb are the total. She has passed her afterbirth, and we put the two in the jug vacated by Sara. The white ewe lamb gets the usual treatments and then I check "4"'s bag....there is very little there. We decide to make certain the lamb has had some milk by milking four to six ounces out of Diver, who has enough to feed an army (we should have named her "Dolly"). This done, we go to bed for the remaining four to five hours before chores start again.

Feb. 28 a.m. "4"'s lamb has found something to nurse on; maybe the added grain and alfalfa are bringing her into her milk.

Feb. 28 p.m. Lambs, lambs everywhere....even where they aren't supposed to be! Somehow, I don't yet have a clue as to how, Diver's two boys are out of the jug and in the barn lot. She is baaing loudly and worrying herself to death. They are busy chasing each other around. As I walk through the barn I see that Belle is standing in the barn with a very large, happy looking white lamb at her feet....."Great," I think, "where am I going to put you?!" I pick up Diver's two boys, nicknaming them Lewis and Clark, and put them back in with a very relieved Diver.

Kirk and I confer regarding where to put Belle. We decide to take Licorice and put her in with Culpepper and her two lambs. That done, we clean her jug and put Belle and her white ewe lamb in the jug. This is Belle's second season, and while I would have expected two lambs, the huge white ewe lamb is beautiful. Belle has already had her nursing, so we are able to just give her shots, and go back to the "problem" lambs. These are Licorice's, Culpepper's, and (only due to her huge bag) Diver's. Kirk hangs the bottle for Culpepper's white lamb; he's eating well from the bottle and is catching back up to his black twin. We have let Culpepper loose in the stall now, and the white lamb doesn't approach her to nurse in an obvious manner so she treats him fine. We have noticed he does briefly bum a drink from her, when his twin nurses, by approaching from the back. While Kirk runs interference for Licorice's lamb, I go tend to Diver and the huge bag problem. We have a quick dinner and hit the sack at 10 p.m.

Mar. 1 a.m. All is as it was the night before, thankfully. We do chores, and I notice that 4's white lamb seems a little depressed. I watch the lamb while helping Lewis and Clark to the side of Diver they haven't figured out. She is nursing, but I check her for dehydration by pulling up the skin of her back. It should snap back, but appears to be a little slow. I make a mental note to check her in the afternoon.

Mar. 1 p.m. Kirk runs to the feed store to get some more beautiful orchard grass hay for the lactating ewes. They like it even better than alfalfa. I do the chores. Nothing much has changed from the morning. I go to 4's jug and look in. The lamb is up and playing! I check 4's bag: good news! she's come into her milk and it feels like she will have plenty for the lamb. Tomorrow I'll band the tails on 4's and Belle's lambs and they will be able to go out.

Mar. 2 a.m. Peaceful, no new lambs. Licorice's and Culpepper's lambs are each sneaking drinks from the other's mom! Culpepper's lamb doesn't even finish the bottle, he's busy bucking around and sneaks a drink from his mom while she's eating some grain. Things are looking up. Only Maria and Stripe are left to lamb and they both eat breakfast with gusto. If they were lambing they wouldn't, they'd be distracted. Maybe we have time to free up a couple of jugs for them.

Mar. 3 a.m. All is as I left it last night. We banded the tails on the last lambs born so Belle and her big white girl get to go out. This time I am turning them into the big pasture as the Spring pasture has reached its max. This morning for the first time both sides of Diver's bag had been nursed down. I didn't have to help at all. If this is still the case tomorrow, I will turn her out as Lewis and Clark are really ready to see the big world. I'll clean Belle's jug this evening, and have it ready for either Maria or Stripe. They seem to be trying to out-wait each other.

Mar. 4 a.m. Wait a minute......OK, remember when I said I still have two ewes left to lamb? Well, I still have 2 ewes (or more?) left. When I got to the barn this morning, I heard "Mama-talk" coming from the big covered area, and was busy commending myself for having cleaned Belle's jug out the night before. Well, there was Maria, still pregnant, and there was Stripe, still pregnant. I sometimes forget the other four ewes because they are yearlings and don't usually get bred. Leia was standing licking and talking to two tiny black lambs. You have to understand that Leia is just 13 months old, which means she got pregnant 3+ months before. This is an unusually precocious ewe! She was obviously mothering the lambs, but feeling a bit overwhelmed by this event in her life.

I checked Diver's bag. Yep, Lewis and Clark had figured out both sides, so out she went with the boys into the big pasture. Those boys were so thrilled to get out into the big world, and were bucking and playing all over the place, driving Diver nuts.

It took a lot of coaxing, but we got Leia into the jug; she, of course, had no idea that days of luxury awaited her. As soon as she was in I gave her some sweet feed to eat to enhance the idea that this was a good place to be. We did our thing with each of the tiny 2-pound lambs, checked that Leia did indeed have milk available, and ran to the house to get off to work.

Mar. 5. My how nice to have everything calm and bright. The weather is so beautiful I decide to put 4 and her lamb out; they are very happy. I'm happy to have two jugs available should I need them! Leia's Lilliputian lambs are happy and playing around their dutiful and loving first-time mom. They are so small they can actually walk under her to nurse. They are very cute, and will grow....eventually.

Mar. 6. Still no new babies. Leia has decided that she really likes living in the jug, and baas to me to feed her. Her teenies are bouncing around, active and miniscule. Liesl is having a rough time: the drain of the lamb nursing and the long ear infection are getting to her.

Mar. 7 a.m. Things are quiet. Liesl is down and struggling to rise; I help her up and feed her her grain. I'm afraid we are going to lose her soon. All the rest of the sheep are happy and healthy. Lewis and Clark love being out with their mom Diver, and are pestering 4's big white ewe lamb. I take a few pictures of ewes and lambs in the spring pasture before we leave for work.

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