Winding Up

The last ewe from our new flock of sheep lambed out yesterday, giving us a total of 34 lambs from the 22 new ewes.  We lost the one ewe back in March to bloat and one ewe never took so the actual number of ewes who produced was 20.  Not a bad investment in the end.  We still have four more of my original ewes to lamb out and that will be the end of the season for us until the fall.

Keeping Up with Technology

Long, long time ago I use to be up with the times in regards to new technology.  As a matter of fact, I was one of the few people in my generation or circle that actually worked on the first computers.  My school training geared me in the direction of office and clerical work.  I was the fastest typist in my class and could write shorthand like a second language.  A "computerized" typewriter was state of the art when I graduated from high school.  They consisted of a single 4  inch  line screen.  Basically it cut back on typos and Wite-Out.

When I landed my first ever real job in the Department of Revenue Canada, I was placed in the Word Processing Department on computers so big they were a work station in themselves.  It was a rudimentary Word program in it's infancy.  I was thrilled by the development of the program and of computers themselves.  The computer generation had just exploded and I was excited to be a part of it.  Then when the internet came about, I knew the world would change forever.  It was at that time that I left my office job to raise my babies and while I did the technology wave advanced quickly and left me in the past.  I try to keep up but it really has become so advanced and over my head that I can no longer be concerned.  But with the growth of my flock and our poor flock management records, I knew I had to try and re-educate myself.

So I purchased Microsoft Office for Home that included Excel and somehow managed to create a file to record all the barn births.

I am able to upload them to the "cloud" (which I really have no idea what that is) but basically I can access the file not only from my main computer but from any device.  So Farm Girl can also access it from her ipad and help keep up with the records.

I think that is pretty sweet and will help keeping our records straight and organized more efficient.  However, I am still old school and have not forgotten what can happen when a computer or program crashes and looses everything, so will keep a handwritten notebook as backup.

Spring Lambing Has Begun

The first of our spring lambs from the new flock lambed this morning.  I arrived for morning chores and found them already dry and nursing from mamma.  It took some doing (and realizing I have to rearrange pens) but we got mom and babes out of the pregnancy pen and into the maternity pen where the jug is located.  Not that I think this mother needed bonding with her lambs but it also helps the lambs to identify their mother's.

The new lambs have been named.  Both were males and keeping with naming all 2014 ram lambs starting with the letter B, we have named these two Barnaby and Baxter.

Giving Wool Sheep a Try

Yesterday, Farm Girl and I took a drive south to a small community along Lake Erie.  It's a remote area, popular with the Amish minority..  We were there to purchase four ewes and their lambs.  There is one more livestock barn sale before Easter and we thought the sale of the lambs would pay for the ewes.  What was different about these ewes was that they are a Suffolk cross breed.  Apparently there is some Dorper in them (especially noticeable in the black and brown ewe)  however I'm pretty certain far down the line as these big mammas will be needing shearing soon.  The two older ewes threw triplets in January so that had our attention.  They are much bigger than our Katahdins but we have gotten more comfortable working around sheep and thought we are now ready to try bigger breeds and finally learn to shear.  After all, sheep and wool go hand in hand.

Freak Accident

Freak accidents are a part of life and unfortunately a part of farming.  Sadly, tonight when I went in to feed the sheep, I found our lamb Dory hanging dead in the hay feeder.  It was upsetting to say the least, but I will take the lesson learned from this experience and move on.

My First Death

I have lost more lambs then I'm pleased to admit.  Mostly due to my inexperience.  Today was my first adult ewe loss.  We noticed the other day how huge she was.

I've experienced bloat before and recognized it immediately.  I treated her with a cooking oil/baking sod/water combo.  She took a full cup of the mixture so I waited for it to do it's job.  However, she only went downhill.  She refused to get up or eat so I administered another cup of the mixture before bed that night.

But when I went into the barn the next morning, we found her on her side and severely bloated.  She had past away overnight.

My ewes do not have access to pasture as it is winter and they are given an equal amount of grain so no fear of overindulging therefore I couldn't understand how it had gotten so bad.  Looking further into it, I've come to some conclusions.  Amongst my new flock there were some older ewes who had at least one more year left for breeding.  Part of the deal was that I was to take them along with the rest of the flock.  They had pointed out this ewe with the white blaze down her face as being one that was an elderly ewe.  I had noticed on a few occasions some of the older ewes would vomit up their grain after eating it.  I have looked up whether it was a good idea to be feeding whole corn to an older ewe but haven't found anything that said it was harmful.  I found more information saying it was more harmful to feed them cracked corn so continued to feed them the whole corn.  Reading more on bloat today one of the ways they can bloat is having vomit lodged in their throat not allowing the gas in their bellies to escape.  Bingo.  I could easily see that happening.  If I had read this last night perhaps I could have administered to her accordingly, helped her dislodge the vomit and perhaps saved her.  The thought of calling the vet was immediately decided against as this ewe was older and not worth the vet bill.  I am sad to have lost my first adult ewe, but it is something I realize comes with the challenge of livestock farming.

Introducing

BAILEY

Born: March 16, 2014
Dam: Charlotte (1)
Sire: Unknown Dorper
Twin: Ellie

ELLIE

Born: March 16, 2014
Dam: Charlotte (1)
Sire:  Unknown Dorper
Twin: Bailey

I Called It

I'm getting pretty good at determining when a ewe is about to deliver.  The past two times when I predicted they were going to deliver the next morning, they delivered the next morning.  It's not based on guessing but but the how hollow she looks and the size of her udder.  Basically it balloons up the day before.  So last night I called it again in regards to Charlotte. We have yet seen a live birth so Farm Girl set her alarm for 3am and I put a phone next to my bedside.  At 3:30am I got a phone call from the barn.  Charlotte had already delivered her first lamb.  I quickly through on my housecoat and barn coat and ran out to the barn.  It took her another hour to deliver the second.  Both holstein coloured little lambs.  The first born was a nice big ewe lamb and the second a tall ram lamb.  Charlotte came to me pregnant, the sire is not Dodge but the Dorper ram from the farm she came from.

We actually caught most of the birth on film at the end as it took so long and our batteries were dying.  We have lots of film of the first 50 minutes when she thought it would come out real quick but as I said, it took longer than anticipated so my camera had already died and Farm Girl's iphone was beginning to act up.  But it's mostly there, if not the best quality.

This is the continuation however there is a few minutes between without being filmed as Farm Girl did not realize that the camera shut off.

Switcharoo

I made another switcharoo in the barn.  This time the only ones to move were Dodge and Durango.  Dodge moved out of the open ewe pen and into the new ewes pen.

And Durango moved out of the new ewes pen and into the open ewe pen.

This way if any ewes were missed in breeding by one ram, hopefully the other will get the job done.

Introducing

At last Queenie gave birth to her twins.

The poor girl was ready to explode.

And around noon today, she finally delivered two male lambs.  One a white and brown speckled and the other my first panda.

We have named them Boston and Bruins.  We name our ewes in alphabetical order but had not intention of naming the rams as they are destined for slaughter but unintentionally we named the first two male lambs born with names that began with the letter B.  So we decided to continue that theme.  My hubby was wearing a Boston Bruins sweatshirt the day they were born and hence they were named accordingly.

BOSTON

Born: March 3, 2014
Dam: Queenie
Sire: Dodge
Twin: Bruins

BRUINS

Born: March 3, 2014
Dam: Queenie
Sire: Dodge
Twin: Boston

Durango

Along with my 22 ewes we bought on our cross province road trip the other day, we also bought their young ram.

He's only 9 months old and is showing lots of potential.

Introducing

Dory & Diva

Born: February 27, 2014
Dam: Ugly Betty
Sire: Dodge
Both Ewew Twins

Introducing

Brownie

Born: February 16, 2014
Dam: Dark Carmella
Sire: Dodge
Twin: Cookie (deceased)

Cookie

Born: February 16, 2014

Death: February 18, 2014 

Dam: Dark Carmella

Sire: Dodge

Twin: Brownie

Queenie

Introducing

Annabelle

Born: January 13, 2014
Dam: Freckles
Sire: Dodge
Twin: Bear

Bear

Born: January 13, 2014

Dam: Freckles

Sire: Dodge

Twin: Annabelle

It's Breeding Season Again

We're breeding for Christmas market lambs. It would be fantastic if we could get everyone bred around the same time.

Introducing

Buttercup!

Born: January 19, 2014
Dam: Carmella
Sire: Dodge

The Runt Delivers Two

Freckles is our smallest ewe.  In fact, we thought she was a dud and wouldn't produce any lambs.  We considered slaughter for her but I decided to wait another year to see how she did.  All the ewes from our first batch didn't lamb out in their first year so we allowed Freckles to stay along with them to see if she took or not.  We were pleased to discover that she did in fact get bred back in the fall. Two ewes lambed before her and threw singles.  Not uncommon for first timers.  Freckles was due next and we wholeheartedly anticipated another single.  Especially from such a small ewe and for her first time. So we were completely shocked to find she delivered twins over the supper hour today.

A tiny, thin little ewe lamb.  And a big healthy brown ram lamb.

As per usual for first timers, Freckles didn't want to nurse.  She wasn't rejecting but she also wasn't allowing. so what we do is tie her up and force her to accept the lambs.

So far that has worked for us, so hopefully it will work again.

Growing Lambs

Went into the barn yesterday and snapped some photos of the lambs how they look today with the new Nikon camera I bought myself after Christmas.

Our Christmas lamb born on Dec 24/13.

We've decided to call him Noel.

Our earlier Christmas lamb born on Dec 21/13.  We name our ewes in alphabetical order, so this one gets a D name.  We have called her Delilah.

Annie

Bonnie

Celeste

Sam the white ram making funny faces for the camera.

Sam, Celeste and Annie

One of our first lambs in 2013, born August.

Celine, twin to Celeste, had a hard beginning and is far behind everyone else.

Our black ewe born who is destined for slaughter was born in August.

Celine again.

The older black lambs in comparison to Celine much smaller frame.  We're not sure if she will ever catch up.

Either the August Ewe or ram lamb.

And again.  Can\t really tell them apart except by their genitals.