Quads

[heartstrings]

I've been watching this ewe with anticipation for the past few weeks. Her first lambing was twins and the second and third time was twins too. Last year she had triplets but last night she had four. As I watched from a distance two were born then I noticed the third never lifted his head.. I didn't want to disturb her as she cleaned him up but after some time, when I saw he wasn't moving I rushed over there, checked for obstructions, and noticed his heart was beating as his little chest was visibly thumping but still no breathing. I quickly picked him up by his hind legs and swung him upside down, then gently "dropped" him on his side. I saw him take a few breaths but then he stopped again. It was disheartening. As i walked away carrying him, she dropped the fourth lamb and in a few minutes, it was up walking. This morning I caught and checked them; all three are girls. That made me feel much better. She had three girls last year too. I will be keeping all six girls hoping that maybe some of Dottie's extra fertile genes were passed on to at least one or two of them.

As of this morning the flock numbered 155, but they are lambing about every day now. Last Saturday, 8 lambs were born in one day; three sets of twins and two singles. There are only about 3 and 3/4 more rolls of hay left of the 15 to 20 tons we had. At the rate they're going, they will only last another two weeks at most.  It will be time to go buy more because there won't be any spring grass for several more weeks..

Edited February 13, 2016 by heartstrings

[Ukulelemike]

Sorry for the loss of the one. It always amazes me how much the loss of one little life can hit you. You can hae 30 healthy babies running around, but one little lifeless body can hurt.

 

[heartstrings]

 I have to pen the flock up, in my half-acre paddock, before putting out the hay because it's almost impossible to do it with them in the field. They constantly climb onto the hay trailer, jump the trailer tongue between the trailer and the truck, get underfoot and it's hard to even walk without tripping over them. Plus there is the danger of accidentally poking one with the pitchfork. Every morning I fork all their hay into about 100 piles, about 6 or 8 feet apart, and this is necessary to prevent as much waste as possible. If I just put out a roll, in a hay ring, they pull out half of it, drop it on the ground, and after it's stepped on they don't want it.

This morning there were three more lambs; a single and a set of twins. Mandy, the ewe with the single, got separated from he newborn baby during the mad rush to the hay field. As she ran back and forth across a 1.5 acre field, bellowing frantically, her lamb was already in the hayfield, It shows the importance of a lamb sticking with it's mother because Mandy was missing out on breakfast,

 

 

 

 

[heartstrings]

My Wife and I had to pull the first lamb (the brown one) then the black and white one came just a few minutes later.

[Ukulelemike]

Yay-babies! 

We are due for our next batch in May. Before then we have to get at least 30 to auction. I love going to auction, but I HATE getting ready for auction. Have to pick who is going, trim hooves, tag ears, and convince them they want to get into the trailer. Praise God looks like I will finally have a good vehicle for it-using my tax return to hopefully buy a 1999 3/4 ton Suburban 4x4 with a 454 engine-something finally strong enough to pull a big load. My daughter's boyfriend is a mechanic and he is going to go look at it for me today to let me know if he believes it will be worth buying, since the truck is 3 hours away, in the town where they live. If it checks out, we'll drive out Friday and pick it up.   On a side note, prayer for this would be appreciated-my decision-making skills in the area of purchasing vehicles has not always been the best.

[heartstrings]

Wow! That's a big motor. Praying that your vehicle works out to be a sweet deal.

Last year, I sold all of ours on Craigslist but only sold 35 of the 65 which were born because I kept all the ewes and just sold rams. So far this season we have 85 and more on the way. We plan to sell all of those but about 10. Methinks it may be tough to sell them all on CL this time. We'll see.