Bottle Lamb

The ewe with the butt rug finally gave birth to her twins.  A boy and a girl.

We relieved her of her rug butt but sadly that didn't stop her from rejecting the ram lamb.

The poor little guy.  So he became my first bottle lamb.

It so cute having a little lamb living in the house.

New Lamb

We have a new lamb on the ground and it wasn't from the ewe we were waiting on.  Instead, it was from this big momma!

But, surprisingly, for her size, she only threw the one lamb.  A ewe lamb.

But she sure is cute.

Lamb Watch

We've got an ewe in the lambing pen.

She's the one with the rug on her butt.  The day before yesterday, her lambs were kicking wildly.  You could visually see them leaping all over the place in there.  Today, we found some blood discharge in the sheep pen.  After close inspection of all my ewes, this one was the only one with a swollen vulva.  So we kept her in the lambing pen today.  We went back every hour to check in on her.  One visit found some white discharge coming from her vulva.

Stuck to the underside of her tail.

I'm thinking we should have new lambs on the ground within 24 hours.

Waiting on More Lambs

We are suspecting that at least two or three more ewes may lamb.  I went into the pasture and snapped photos of udders and vulvas in order for me to have some type of visual referral in the future.

The Empress, she definitely looks pregnant but in all fairness, she's looked like this since the day she arrived.

That said, I do think she is pregnant.

This is the ewe I suspect is up next.  

Her udder is developing and her vulva is red and swollen.

The two suspecting ewes.

This is supect #3. She's wide and has an udder developing.

But her vulva looks normal, so this could be a while yet.

She is however wide and has that hollow between her back and stomach that Queenie had before delivering.

The New Lambs

The lambs will be almost a week old tomorrow.  This is my first time with newborn lambs and I haven't a clue what to do.  I figure I'll let mom, Queenie, lead the way.  I wasn't sure when it was safe to let them out of the "lambing" pen to join the flock.  Every morning when I sent the sheep outside, Queenie remained quiet and undistrubed by their exit.  Sheep are flock animals and need to stick together.  The fact she didn't feel the need to told me a lot.  So this morning when I let them out, and she called out after them and I knew it was time.

Heading out into the big pasture.

Comforting lambs in their first outing.

Keeping a distance from the flock.

Sticking close to momma.

Lambs are nice and strong.

Joining the Flock

Bit of confusion at first (wrong momma).

Ram already practicing his ramming.

Ram Wrestle

What does a homeschool kid do on his down time?  Why, wrestle young rams of course!

Finally!

After weeks of trying to get the sheep to stay inside the horse pasture and graze, today I found them doing just that.  It was so rare that I literally ran back to the house to get the camera to document the moment.  Usually some will graze while others find ways of escaping.  When you have even just one nervous ewe, you have a flighty flock.  So for weeks they would go in only to stand around crying out along the fence line until they planned an escape.  Not sure what was so different for today, but there they were.  Happy, content and grazing.