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Post by ketoriverfarm on Mar 16, 2016 16:32:01 GMT
shellymay, I am living vicariously through your updates now. Getting myself psyched up for my lambing. Each year gets a little harder for me. Turned 65 this year. The 4 hour checks during the night wear me out now. Today is clean out the barn day.  Not one of my favorite chores. But the girls love the fresh bedding. I have to run to the post office with a spinning fleece to ship out, load the dishwasher and head to the barn.
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Post by mollymckee on Mar 16, 2016 21:41:07 GMT
I wish you lived around here shellymay,, it would be fun to see the lambs and help, if I could! |
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Post by manygoatsnmore on Mar 17, 2016 0:28:34 GMT
shellymay, goodness, I have no idea why you have so little time to post, lol!  Congrats on selling the bottle babies...is the same buyer interested in taking more of them when you have some? I've been following this thread and enjoying your story - and the pictures, of course. So, 72 to go, that means you are about halfway through? I would imagine you'd like to sleep for a week when lambing is done!
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Post by ketoriverfarm on Mar 17, 2016 2:57:50 GMT
I wish you lived around here shellymay ,, it would be fun to see the lambs and help, if I could! , if you want to see lambs, you can come up and visit me. I should be lambing starting apr 3rd. |
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Post by shellymay on Mar 17, 2016 12:52:18 GMT
manygoatsnmore,mollymckee,ketoriverfarm,
Tagged 15 new ones yesterday, another set of trips but I am not upset anymore over having trips because the buyer of the last seven called me last night and is very happy with them and wants up to 13 more so he will have 20 total  He called Premier One and ordered buckets and everything, he said his kids had everyone of them named already.. LOL
So the one I pulled from the trips has a home already and I am getting calls like crazy and I will have to take my ad down, had one problem yesterday as a ewe had twins but one of the two can't stand because back legs don't work, after spending time with it we have come to the conclusion that it is in the spine of lamb, you can pinch HER back legs and she will pull them away from you but has no other ability to use them on her own, she doesn't move them at all unless you pinch them and its in both rear legs. DID give her a BoSe shot anyways, I think maybe just maybe momma had her half way out and when she was up and down and up and down she may have landed/layed on lamb bending her in half so to speak and maybe did spinal damage? But I am not sure as it could of been not enough room inside mom and the sib was laying on-top or across this girls back half and caused some kind of problem? ANY how she is good everywhere else but will need lots of attention and care/therapy that I just don't have right now to give her.
No we didn't put her down, I called my girl friend who has helped raise some of the BB's for me before, she had sheep for tons of years and then had to get ut. but she loves to care for them when they are little she just can't haul feed and trim hooves and things of that nature anymore, she is coming to work today to pick baby up and will spend several days feeding and working with her to see if it is a temporary thing going on with the legs, prayers needed that she comes out of it.
Started getting more color in some of the lambs, have black and white now, chocolates, red and white SOOOON I promise more pictures!
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Post by mollymckee on Mar 17, 2016 16:56:48 GMT
I wish you lived around here shellymay ,, it would be fun to see the lambs and help, if I could! , if you want to see lambs, you can come up and visit me. I should be lambing starting apr 3rd. I'd love to do that, newest knee permitting! Thank you. |
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Post by ketoriverfarm on Mar 17, 2016 17:55:15 GMT
mollymckee , if you want to see lambs, you can come up and visit me. I should be lambing starting apr 3rd. I'd love to do that, newest knee permitting! Thank you. So when is your next knee surgery? I should start putting in a good word that this next one goes as smoothly as the first. We we are having absolutely gorgeous weather up here. The best spring I can remember. And this will likely be our last lambing. We are going to downsize. Maybe just get a couple of lambs each spring to feed through the summer. While we are still in good health there are a few things we would like to do. Grandkids are in Texas and Oregon. We do not see them very much. And both of us have a list of national parks we would like to see. We have a camper van now. Time to use it. |
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Post by ketoriverfarm on Mar 22, 2016 20:02:21 GMT
shellymay, Has lambing slowed down? Or are you too busy to post? Waiting for an update!! 
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Post by shellymay on Mar 23, 2016 15:00:07 GMT
Slowed down, HAHA !!!!!! Sorry yes real busy and as of right now we have 204 live lambs on the ground at the farm, I have SOLD 24 bottle babies that are not in that 204 count, 17 sets of live triplets todate and teaching bottle babies to drink off of bucket is a full time job by it's self let alone catching tagging and recording all info for newborns that are still with their mums....We have had losses with some lambs as well as some ewes and that always hurts like hell  Just no way to lamb out that many sheep and not have some losses no matter how hard or how good of a shepherd you are. Example are two ewe losses due to trips dying inside them and ewes getting a internal infection from dead lambs and they don't always show signs of being sick until it is to late, had a ewe loss as I think she retained her after birth and in returned she ended up with a infection. We have experienced just about everything there is out there over the many years of raising such a big flock of sheep and some things return year after year and you learn to watch for it when it shows its ugly head (figure of speech there) but sometimes going into the new lambing season you forget about such things in the beginning of lambing season until you have problems and then you are quickly reminded of them.
Examples for those of you who are interested, We have had TWO so far this year what we call (parasite lambs) NO they don't have worms LOL, they nurse off of what ever and who ever they can for milk and most of the time it is a ewe that has just had her lambs as parasite lambs find them easy to attack, okay from the beginning. Sometimes you have babies born that have big and sharp teeth right from the get go and moms will nurse them and once they are a week or two old their teeth just get so big and sharper that the moms will start kicking them off the teat and refusing to feed them so they will try to nurse off of other moms when their backs are turned. Once this other mom realizes that its not her own baby nursing she will head butt the lamb away, so they learn to run to the next ewe who is eating hay or something and has her back turned and they will try again with the next and next ewe. Soooooooooon they figure out that trying to nurse off of a ewe who just had brand new babies and is still licking them off and cleaning them up IS a better and easier target, well the new mom knows that this older lamb isn't hers and will try to head butt off this parasite lamb (parasite lamb = one who feeds off others to survive) While new mom is spinning and turning to run off the parasite lamb she will head butt that lamb and sometimes that lamb will be knocked into her real baby and then its like the domino effect and the new real baby will go for a tumble and being pushed farther and farther away from real mom, a parasite lamb knows that the new mom has to try to stay put because her new born lambs aren't cleaned up yet and haven't nursed yet and not ready to just run off with her new babies, so they are easy targets for these parasite lambs, but as of today I have TWO lambs that I had to tag as commercial lambs because I have no idea who their moms are do to being abandoned or separated at birth because of something like this situation above (thud) After a mom gives birth to new lambs and something like this happens and as I said the head butting of the BAD lamb being pushed into one of moms real lambs and that lamb getting pushed farther and farther away from mom and if she has one OR two still with her and only one gets to far off she can sometimes forget about the one getting farther away and you know what happens then as this new born separated lambs sees other ewes walk by it thinks things like ARE YOU my mommy and starts to follow other ewes, THUD...I watched all this happen to one set of new ones and was able to get mom and her real babies back together. Then I worked my ass off chasing and trying to separate out and catch the Parasite lamb (thief), I did catch him and took him home to train to bucket as this behavior will not stop as no ewe wants him nursing because of his teeth are to long and sharp (NO I won't file teeth down which is a option for some people) easier for me to rid of the problem and take lamb home as long as lamb has a sib that the ewe is feeding so she doesn't end up with mastitis in her teats, teeth issue is normally a fluke and twins won't both have the same problems anyhow I have had two of these parasite lambs already this year and they are unrelated to each other!
Then there is the problems of thief ewes, yes I typed that correctly! every now and then you will have a ewe that is so close to having her own lambs that she has some kind of maternal instinct kick in and thinks that any new born lambs that were just born are hers (thud thud thud) I believe it was three days ago, had a ewe with a water bag hanging out and it was very apparent that this is her first water bag as no other blood or evidence of a second water bag so she hasn't had the first lamb yet, anyhow the ewe thinks because she pushed out her water bag that she ought to have a lamb (thud) so she runs around to any new born lamb that still has birthing sac/or fresh blood on it and tries to STEAL it from the real mom THUD THUD smashing my head here LOL...This can also happen when a ewes hormones kick in even before her first water bag is out, this in not uncommon as it happens every year to us with a couple of sheep at least. BUT what it means is that within the next 24 hrs this thief ewe will have her own lambs, of course sooner for the one with the water bag hanging out. Problem is she WILL steal another ewes newborns lambs and will let it nurse and the whole nine yards UNTIL she has her own and then she will reject the one she stoled as she then realizes its not her real baby....when or if this happens a person only has one choice and that is to put the thief momma into her OWN separate pen for the next 24 hrs until she lambs, OURS this year lambed out a nice set of twins and all was well. LOL But the lesson here is if you don't get her out and away from the others she will cause so much damage and separation with several of your other ewes and when you run registered stock you can't have shit like this happen. 
We have had to pull lambs and cull a couple of ewes because their milk bags got so big that their teats stick in the waste hay and dirt and they have picked up bacteria in their teats that caused mastitis, this sheep breed is for meat not milk like goats and if you pull your kids and milk your moms it might be one thing but truth is BIG enormous milk bags on sheep is not a good thing as they lay around and smash those teats into ground and yuck in pastures or around waste hay and pick up bacteria, So we get into a habit of checking all the ewes with enormous milk bags and make sure her teats are good and if she only has one good side and one bad side we will leave her with one lamb but NO more then that and will bottle feed the other, we have 2 that have had both bags bad this year and they have been removed from flock to keep them from getting all the good feed and blowing up, we try to dry her up and they are sent to our other farm and will go on the trailer when the time is right to sale barn for slaughter as I will not keep them and raise their babies year after year (some people would) but we are not in that kind of business here!
Let's see, I have rescued two lambs out of the field this year that were all but dead and rushed them to a hot water bath to get their internal body temps up and then placed them under heat lamp until they are nice and warm and dry, once this happens they will usually stand and start hollering for FOOD, LOL..Remember never feed a cold baby.....we have had one baby who could not stand at all, but she has strength and feelings in all four legs and no other signs or injury to her legs, gave BO-SE anyhow but didn't help at all as I suspected it wouldn't (we don't have selenium issues because of the mineral we feed here) after further investigation into this lamb I realized she has a spinal injury, never had this before and I can only assume that somehow when the ewe was delivering she had this lamb maybe half way out and then laid down and bent this baby in half causing some kind of injury to her spine??? I have no time to dedicate to a lamb like this with special needs, basically being hand fed and butt wiped GRRRRRR, but gosh NO I didn't put her down I just called a friend who has plenty of time and patients for something like this  The lamb is doing well (a couple weeks old now) and is doing therapy everyday and we pray that she will learn to get up on her own and stand and walk, she also is not in the count of above lambs.
Don't get me wrong there are tons more good lambing's and normal healthy lambs and ewes then there are problems or issues sorry if I sound like these few cases are going to drive me out of the business as it is kinda all normal stuff that can happen! as I said 204 healthy lambs on the farm and 24 bucket/bottle healthy babies sold.
So we are hoping that the last 16 hurry along so we can start concentrating on helping lambs grow strong and healthy for the future destinations, things like creep feeders and such have to be put out this weekend for lambs as some are already drinking water and tons of them are already eating mineral and they are ready for some solid foods...
Spring has arrived and truthfully I missed it, I did get one picture of our Bradford Pare trees in bloom but that was it!!!!!! I also know that I owe some of you lots of pictures and all I can say is hopefully real soon
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Post by manygoatsnmore on Mar 25, 2016 4:04:32 GMT
shellymay, I'm exhausted just READING about your lambing season. THUD. That was me hitting the floor, not my head hitting a wall, lol. Hope the rest of them get with the program so you can get a little rest (and post a picture or two ).
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Post by shellymay on Mar 26, 2016 2:06:14 GMT
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Post by shellymay on Mar 27, 2016 2:43:30 GMT
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Post by manygoatsnmore on Mar 27, 2016 5:41:39 GMT
Happy Easter to you, too, shellymay, and thank you for the pictures. I'm especially attracted to the ones with the wild spots, dots and splashes of brown or black. Lovely pictures of all of them. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2016 10:58:26 GMT
Gorgeous photos shellymay - great seeing them. Thanks for posting. Know what you mean about the spotties, manygoatsnmore. I usually have some of those when my girls lamb. It's quite good for spinners and weavers because they get a selection of colours off the one fleece. I'd be in my element in the middle of all those mothers and babies. Love your dog, too. The only thing that I'd hate about having a flock that large is putting in all the ear tags. I can birth lambs, castrate ram lambs, treat flystrike, trim hooves, give injections and deal with most other issues no problem - but I get unbelievably squeamish stapling in the tags. Always scared I'll hit a vein by mistake and there's that ghastly crunch as the metal tags puncture the ear. Gross. |
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Post by shellymay on Mar 27, 2016 12:51:46 GMT
Thanks manygoatsnmore,@kiwifarmgal, and kiwifarmgal no such thing as losing a lamb to a ear tag puncture error, lol. we all miss sometimes and no biggy they bleed a little but not much at all, also there are three different dogs in pictures and they do their job well of keeping afterbirth cleaned up so no predators come around they are also excellent with the babies! Can't help but to have a few favorites every year and it is usually one with lots of color , its a lot work but so enjoyable that you don't relate it to work "ONLY TIME", lambing and care takes a lot of time and with a full time job you can understand why I don't have time for planting and canning/freezing garden veggies but I do envy those that do! |
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Post by mollymckee on Mar 27, 2016 13:19:01 GMT
I love the pictures, shellymay,! Thank you! I certainly understand that you don't have time to garden. All the sheep are adorable, but what a lot of work at lambing time! Have a Happy Easter! And try to get some rest........ |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 28, 2016 14:39:29 GMT
Beautiful flock! What breed are they? We have dorpers so the most color we ever get are black heads and legs.
Can't imagine having the numbers you do! Lol. The few we have keep us busy to the point my dad would like to sell them all I think.
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Post by shellymay on Mar 28, 2016 23:15:43 GMT
Beautiful flock! What breed are they? We have dorpers so the most color we ever get are black heads and legs. Can't imagine having the numbers you do! Lol. The few we have keep us busy to the point my dad would like to sell them all I think. They are Katahdins, Dorpers are a great breed also, how many head to you have? |
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Post by shellymay on Mar 28, 2016 23:20:40 GMT
One set born yesterday one set born today, the last ones are just dragging this out  7 more ewes to go and we are done! |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2016 0:21:10 GMT
Isn't it the most satisfying feeling when the last one hits the ground shellymay? But 7 isn't too far to go. Have really enjoyed this thread. |
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He called Premier One and ordered buckets and everything, he said his kids had everyone of them named already.. LOL 
ANY how she is good everywhere else but will need lots of attention and care/therapy that I just don't have right now to give her. 
Just no way to lamb out that many sheep and not have some losses no matter how hard or how good of a shepherd you are. Example are two ewe losses due to trips dying inside them and ewes getting a internal infection from dead lambs and they don't always show signs of being sick until it is to late, had a ewe loss as I think she retained her after birth and in returned she ended up with a infection. We have experienced just about everything there is out there over the many years of raising such a big flock of sheep and some things return year after year and you learn to watch for it when it shows its ugly head (figure of speech there) but sometimes going into the new lambing season you forget about such things in the beginning of lambing season until you have problems and then you are quickly reminded of them.
The lamb is doing well (a couple weeks old now) and is doing therapy everyday and we pray that she will learn to get up on her own and stand and walk, she also is not in the count of above lambs.
7 more ewes to go and we are done!