Take a look at Silvy rousing the lambs from nap-land and moving them out of her way. Why? Because she can. Silvy has been on the bottom rung since she was added to my flock. And now, much to her delight, there are 6 lambs that she can boss around when the dams aren't looking. She's no longer the lowest in the land. She gets in big trouble, though, if one of the mothers catches her headbutting the babies. That type of superiority is not allowed. Even though it rained again today, I was pleasantly surprised by this afternoon's events. I expected my last pregnant ewe, Sian, would probably lamb on Sunday-just by the looks of her bag. She was sunk and in early labor when I ventured out to let the girls out around 12:30 pm this afternoon, though. She had claimed a stall in the barn so I just added some fresh bedding and shut the door. By 2:30 she had two fresh lambs up and nursing with gusto. Way to go, Sian! And now...I can go back to sleeping through the night. No more 2am barn checks. Ahhhh...Sweet Sleep. Sian has lovely solid black, crimpy, soft fleece. I put her with Bombarde this year so I was really eager to see what she would give me. She gave me a gorgeous grey ewe lamb to replace Rachel some day. This lamb is glossy black except for the tiniest hint of sugar lips. I think I'm going to like her! The big surprise was a dynamite katmoget ram lamb with spotting though. Again, where did the spots come from? I have never bred for spots. Sian never even had so much as a white hair on her head at birth. And I can't see any spotting on Bombarde either. It's just so funny when these recessives pop out. The head spotting was obvious, but the body was all mottled so I'm not sure if that is just kat coloring or white. We'll see tomorrow. Both lambs seem to have that ultra crimp Bombarde always throws. Beyond that, I can't say. The barn was dim and Sian was being such a great mom I didn't get involved much. I did check her bag and milk was flowing. The lambs ate several times without my help while I watched. Tomorrow I'll get a better look. Thus ends lambing season at Boston Lake Farm. 200% lambing this year-a first ever. 5 ram lambs and 5 ewe lambs-a fair ratio. I feel very blessed.
4 comments:
Blessed, indeed!
Congratulations! I am jealous of the sleep thing, we have three ewes left to lamb, hopefully this weekend, but two don't look that close. Beautiful babies, and yes we are very happy with the babies we have gotten from Bam.
Congrats on the great lambing season! We still have eleven girls to go. I'm jealous you are done!
Congratulations on all the fine looking lambs. The picture with all the white lambs is adorable!
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