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Post by nobrabbit on Jan 19, 2018 15:36:04 GMT
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Post by here to stay on Jan 19, 2018 15:47:22 GMT
Although only one picture was there for me, it was pretty neat. That's a good size herd you have there.
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Post by shellymay on Jan 19, 2018 19:54:29 GMT
Congrads, We won't be lambing until March, I will enjoy your pictures to hold me over  |
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Post by ketoriverfarm on Feb 2, 2018 3:25:06 GMT
I only have two bred ewes this year. So no lambs here until 1st of April. Thanks for the pic.
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Post by Maura on Feb 2, 2018 14:43:17 GMT
I only had January lambs once, and February lambs once. After that the ram was separated on Labor Day and rejoined on Thanksgiving. No more snow lambs. The sheep didn't mind, but I did.
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Post by shellymay on Feb 2, 2018 16:43:40 GMT
I only have two bred ewes this year. So no lambs here until 1st of April. Thanks for the pic. , I will trade you lambing season watch, I will care for your two in April and you care for my 150 ewes which will lamb out in March |
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Post by ketoriverfarm on Feb 3, 2018 21:04:29 GMT
I only have two bred ewes this year. So no lambs here until 1st of April. Thanks for the pic. , I will trade you lambing season watch, I will care for your two in April and you care for my 150 ewes which will lamb out in March Yeah I do feel a bit lazy. I may volunteer to help out a friend during her lambing in March. My first year with sheep, I had two ewes bred. I was so clueless that first year. But the ewes and I and four lambs all survived. |
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Post by nobrabbit on Feb 5, 2018 12:39:45 GMT
32 on the ground now. It has been an exciting season, 2 sets of quads and 1 set of triplets! Our 1st big sale is in May so January lambing works perfectly for us. I think we have 10 more ewes to go.
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Post by Maura on Feb 5, 2018 14:33:17 GMT
When I move, I'd like to get January lambs in May and raise them to slaughter. No newborn lambs to worry about, no hay all winter.
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Post by here to stay on Feb 5, 2018 16:48:39 GMT
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Feb 5, 2018 17:33:05 GMT
Only 5 so far, by 2 ewes. The one who had triplets has always been a lousy mother. She's been know to have a baby outside the barn, walk into the barn to have another, and forget the first one, then reject it. This year she gave us two bottle babies, but I took some advice and put them on Craigslist. I put the ad up at 2pm, by 8pm they were gone, and we had $100. A young couple with an 11 year old daughter wanted them for her 4H project.
From the looks of the rest, we'll be covered up with lambs before the week is out.
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Post by nobrabbit on Feb 6, 2018 16:58:07 GMT
We are supplementing one lamb from each set. The ewes are handling them more easily that way. 2 bottles twice a day and the lambs have the routine down pat as they are waiting at the fence for us every morning and evening.  |
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Feb 15, 2018 0:30:45 GMT
Sad to say, our biggest ewe, Penny, started labor and was in obvious distress. The roads were sheer ice, and our vet couldn't even think about coming out Sunday. He said we'd need to go in and help the first one that might be out of position. My wife reached in while I held Penny, and it's head was turned back. After a struggle the baby came out, but stillborn. Penny was big as a house, and we knew she had at least twins, probably triplets. We waited about 20 minutes, then went in again, another stillborn. In a minute or two the third came, stillborn also. On a friend's advice we drenched her with water/molasses, and on the vet's advice the next day gave her an antibiotic and tetanus vaccination. She's doing fine now, but bleating and looking for her babies.
Since our experience with Penny, another big girl had bagged up and looked overdue for a few days, so we went to the vet for some Lute & Dex to induce labor. We tried for 20 minutes to herd her into the barn to give her the shots to no avail, she's the most spooky prone of the flock. We decided to try again in an hour, but when we went back out - she'd had triplets! All healthy and nursing, she's going to be a good mother.
It's so hard to know what to do. Last lambing Penny had three healthy lambs with no problems. This time disaster. Nona (no name)looked the same, but delivered without help. I'm not just beginning to wonder if maybe we're not cut out for this.
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Post by here to stay on Feb 15, 2018 3:21:17 GMT
Ozarks Tom, I'm sorry about your lost lambs. My precious Timmy had a tangled delivery her first time out. She went on and never had another problem. Tangled just seems to happen. But I know how you feel. Each kidding season, as I was sitting on an overturned bucket in the dark, waiting for hours and worrying, I swore I'd never do it again. After the dog attack, I never have.
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Post by shellymay on Feb 15, 2018 13:46:23 GMT
Ozarks Tom, Sorry to hear about the loss of trips for penny, No they all can't be figured out, No they can't all be saved every time.....
All livestock farmers do things different.......
We only grain our sheep starting three weeks before delivery and continue until 3 weeks after delivery, so six weeks out of year our sheep receive grain, well this helps us spot problems, sheep love grain and all come to feeder to get their share, but a ewe who is about to deliver will usually not come up for feeding and will stay out in pasture, that is a red flag that says keep an eye on her
Same thing, a ewe who has been getting grain for 3 weeks before delivery and is in distress will usually not come up to eat, red flag again....
A water bag hanging for more then a 1/2 hr is a red flag that something could be wrong, some will go up to an hr but if there is active trying to deliver from ewe and no lambs to show for it, red flag...
Red flag sheep need monitored, watch for pawing the ground, watch for pushing, if a ewe shows all the signs of labor but no lambs to show for her effort, something is wrong with the position of lamb/lambs... and it is time to go in and check position of lambs... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom,
With my girls being breed and do to deliver close together, if I have a issue like penny had I would have let Penny smell and lick the dead lambs first, then I would pen her up and keep the dead lambs on the outside of her pen close but not close enough that she can really tell they are dead. Then if another ewe lambs out with trips within 24-36 hrs later I would take one of the trips wipe it down and then pick up saved dead lambs and afterbirth from Penny and wipe one of the trips down with all the odors off her real lambs and then try to get her to take one of the trips, this has worked for us many times.... there are more tricks to do this also if one trick fails there are many to try....(note keep dead lambs and after birth in a moist area to keep from drying out).
This saves you from riding of a bottle lamb, or having one runt if you leave all three on the other ewe, it saves you from drying Penny up and fear of mastitis, and the lamb that was adopted will grow so much faster.....So you see the bad/sad situation can turn positive real quick....
Good luck with the balance of ewes you have left to deliver, hope all goes well with them......And of course pictures are wanted
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Post by nobrabbit on Feb 17, 2018 20:30:10 GMT
Ozarks Tom, sorry to hear about your loss of lambs. Yesterday during one of the ewe checks we found one with part of a head and leg hanging out. The ewe had quit trying and was walking around. One leg was bent back, and poor little guy was blue. Thought for sure he was gone but we got him out, started working on him and luckily he survived. It has been raining on and off for a couple of weeks here in KY. It is tough on the sheep but all are staying healthy so far. We do have bottle lambs occasionally and enjoy them tremendously. Here is a short video of one of the quad lambs that we are supplementing.
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