Sunday, April 22, 2007

Finally another arrives :-)




Finally! Another lamb---and a live lamb. Yeah!
She's a little bitty thing--a little over 5 pounds. A bit small for my preference but her mother absolutely refused to eat any of the grain we offer during pregnancy to the ewes. So considering that we have fed hay since August, with just a small bit of green grass during some warmer spells---I am happy with the health of this lamb. She is very vigorous, quick to get up when born to nurse and the most interesting color lamb. Moorit (brown) with a grey undercoat gene from mom and dad which gives her a soft dove grey or "violet" cast to her coloring. Very cute. My daughter says she doesn't care that I won't name them people names---SHE is calling the lamb violet since that is what she looks like. Well, violet technically is a color so we can call her that I suppose. Dove would be cuter but we don't register them with a name anyways---just with farm letters and a number only. Kind of cold isn't it--but much easier in the long run.
The ewe who lost her lamb to the cold weather the other day---was SURE she was going to be this one's mother. She was trying to steal it before it was even finished being born. She was licking and nickering to it. When we took the lamb and it's mother to the barn, Princess tried to come over the fence with us to follow. Sad. She will be a good mother next year though.
It's also a good thing we happened to be home since this one had the lamb in the same spot and still even today it is cold under the tree in the shade there---and windy. The lamb was starting to shiver by the time we got them out to the sun. Just imagine the other lamb being born while it was still dark instead of 11 in the afternoon. Poor little thing. Last year we had hot hot weather at this time, this year cool, with cool breezes. Because of that and after "falling down on the job" and losing my other lamb --I am now walking the pasture at 3 a.m each night to check if lambs have been born. Better safe than sorry again.
Well, this lamb was a total surprise today since I have ewes much much larger and with much much bigger milk bags---so maybe we will be on a roll here soon. 7 more to go: 4 more yearlings and 3 more adults left.

3 comments:

Stuart and Gabrielle said...

Congratulations on your latest lams, Monica, especially after the diappointment of losing one. We're slowly getting used to the highs and lows of keeping animals and growing vegetables: we've been nursing a pooly gosling for two days now before we decided we had to put it out of its misery. However, the rest are doing just fine and are enjoying being out on fresh grass.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving comments on our blog so often, we really do appreciate the support from so far away!

Dancingfarmer said...

Thanks to both of you too! Sorry about your gosling---but it is good news that the others are doing well. This new lamb does "refresh" my spirit so to speak because it can be sad and hard sometimes.
Have a good one
Monica

Robbyn said...

Congratulations on Violet, and condolences for Princess...

I'm learning a lot about lambing through your posts.