Please forgive the graphic photo. I do not honestly know when Anna Belle is due. I never saw her bred. But she has looked just like this for more than two weeks now. She bagged up long before Rachel even did-and Rachel always has a large bag. I cannot imagine how long she intends to wait. The weather is as mild, sunny and warm as it has been in a week.
I thought Dolce and Sian were due this coming Sunday. Now I don't really feel like I know anything about the due dates. The girls will lamb when they are ready.
So far, Dolce seems unconcerned about lambing. And since I haven't even crutched her yet, I can't tell what's going on with her.
The shearer is scheduled to come tomorrow. I wanted a mid-May date, but he is going to work on a pipeline job by the first of May so I had to go earlier. The experience of not having shorn or crutched ewes this spring has been a good one. Now I have gone through all the different possibilities for lambing. I can honestly say it doesn't seem to bother the ewes or lambs to have a full fleece. But it sure is gross for me and Clancy. The wet tail thing is the worst. And it is hard to put a lamb on the teat when you can't even see anything. We crutched Rachel and Anna ahead of time because we were sure they would deliver first. But Delyth and Sian got crutched a couple hours after they lambed. It's not really any more awful of a job to do it then compared to doing it before lambing. And it really helps us when we collect colostrum.
We still haven't seen Sian nurse her lamb, but the lamb took two ounces out of a bottle with no trouble. And she was bouncing around a bit in the jug. It'll be nice when we have more confidence in Sian's mothering ability. She does have a nice milk supply to work with though. Time to have lunch with Clancy.
I thought Dolce and Sian were due this coming Sunday. Now I don't really feel like I know anything about the due dates. The girls will lamb when they are ready.
So far, Dolce seems unconcerned about lambing. And since I haven't even crutched her yet, I can't tell what's going on with her.The shearer is scheduled to come tomorrow. I wanted a mid-May date, but he is going to work on a pipeline job by the first of May so I had to go earlier. The experience of not having shorn or crutched ewes this spring has been a good one. Now I have gone through all the different possibilities for lambing. I can honestly say it doesn't seem to bother the ewes or lambs to have a full fleece. But it sure is gross for me and Clancy. The wet tail thing is the worst. And it is hard to put a lamb on the teat when you can't even see anything. We crutched Rachel and Anna ahead of time because we were sure they would deliver first. But Delyth and Sian got crutched a couple hours after they lambed. It's not really any more awful of a job to do it then compared to doing it before lambing. And it really helps us when we collect colostrum.
We still haven't seen Sian nurse her lamb, but the lamb took two ounces out of a bottle with no trouble. And she was bouncing around a bit in the jug. It'll be nice when we have more confidence in Sian's mothering ability. She does have a nice milk supply to work with though. Time to have lunch with Clancy.
3 comments:
Wow! Anna Belle sure looks big in that photo. I hope she goes soon for you. My Mabeline is a real tub too.
Last year our ewes lambed in full fleece. The moms were fine, we didn't crutch them at all, and the lambs found the teat just fine. But I sure didn't like not knowing what was going on under all that wool. Also, the older lambs had a hard time recognizing their mother when we finally got it done in mid May.
Good luck with your shearing and all the beautiful new babies. The white lambs are so angelic.
Congratulations on the beautiful babies, Sabrina! And your un-shorn ewes look SO huge!!! That Dolce sure is a beauty.
Will someone please tell our big white ewes that they can DROP those lambs already!?! I woke up to SNOW this morning (this is the Pacific NW, not Minnesota!), so I was just sure I would find that Dinah had lambed when I went to the barn. It IS her due date, after all. But NOOOOO. Sigh.
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