After my work run this afternoon we had to do a little re-arranging. We divided the main part of the barn down the middle with panels and set up a pre-school/daycare center section. It was time for the first born set of seven lambs to meet their new young flock-mates.
Before going out into toddler population though they needed to be tagged, shot and banded. In my opinion it is just best to get these three things done before the lambs are a week old. It may cause them some trust issues but they are so much easier to handle and hold still. By shot I mean their first round of medications, anti-bodies that type of thing. Banded is putting the rubber band around their tails so they fall off.
We have two colors of tags. Orange for Lamar, our late Blue Faced Leicester Ram, and Yellow for Frazier, our mixed breed terminal Ram. Girls get tags in their right ear, boys get tagged on their left. This way I can identify them at least for sorting and mating purposes at a glance.
While taking care of this bit of housekeeping another ewe gave birth to twins, both boys. One ewe had triplets yesterday and no milk so we are bottle feeding them. Another ewe had complications this afternoon which ended in one still born lamb and one live one and then another ewe had her twins once it started storming again.
At this point I think I am missing someone too. Pretty much every stall and the new temporary enclosure I made are full and three ewes with their lambs are in the daycare center. I think we are just a little past halfway finished but we left the ewes in with the rams so long this year we could be waiting on ewes well into June.
The first round lambs are out meeting the other lambs int heir age group and already starting to bounce around playfully and showing an interest in nibbling the hay a bit.
They grow so fast.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!
You have more energy than I do. I salute you & guys like the Hippo!
ReplyDeleteMV - Thanks man. I tell ya though I feel it in the morning these days.
DeletePP,
ReplyDeleteThe picture of the lamb is adorable, it's as if the lambs smiling and proud of it's jewelry.
More weather changes, more babies born.
Be safe!
Sandy - Yep as soon as I saw the red blob coming towards us I knew we were going to get another set. Never fails :)
DeleteTY Rob!!!
ReplyDeleteWhen it rains it pours - but sometimes that works out for the best.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a happy (but busy) place to be this time of year.
ReplyDeletePP,
ReplyDeleteLambs this year started on Superbowl Sunday. I have a black ewe that offers up a boy lamb every year. This year's lamb is the ONLY sheep I have that has grown horns. WHAT a problem!
He got his head into a small space and jerked back and apparently broke the horn or some such. OMG, blood everywhere. And he is practicing hard to be Superbowl Wild Boy so catching up with him is not easy. His own mom did not want to let him nurse any further, but looks like they talked it over and came to an understanding. He keeps his head sideways and does NOT butt mom and she lets him have some milk.
You have any experiences similar? Mine are all high %age Dorpers. We are looking at an early BBQ rather than keeping Mr. Mischief around much longer.
Other than this one lamb we did well and the usual mix of girls and boys. We will eat well this year.
Winston