Dogs with jobs

I’ll come back with more info in the “jobs”; for now here are two videos of ewes with their day old lambs.

Video 1

Video 2

Adorable!

Our sheep give birth out on the field or in the barnyard; their choice. After birth we bring the ewe and her lambs into a pen in the barn; to ensure the lambs are milking, the ewe and lambs are having no issues, and to aid in the bonding process (ewes can reject lambs and lambs can wonder off before bonding is strong). We put ear tags in the lambs to identify them. We treat the ewe for intestinal parasites, and trim her hooves. Once we know the lambs are strong enough to keep up with the ewe and the ewe will keep track of all her lambs; we turn them back out into the field.

The first due date for lambs was Saturday Feb 15. We started checking the flock for lambs last Thursday. Saturday afternoon the first lambs were born. The ewe and twins were out in the middle of the field by themselves. Almost by themselves; Wendy our Kangal (livestock guardian dog) was nearby keeping watch over them.

The job is to move the ewe and twins to a pen in the barn. I carried the lambs low to the ground (ewes know their lambs are on the ground not floating in the air) to lure the ewe to follow; Lee followed the ewe making sure she stayed with me and her lambs. Some ewes are scared of us more than drawn to their lambs we’re carrying; the dog needs to focus on just that sheep (not any of others) and prevent that ewe from running back to the birth location or to the rest of the flock. Mothers, especially new mothers, will turn on a dog; the dog needs to stay off far enough to not elicit the ewe to turn but be ready to stand up to the ewe (or at least not loose control of the ewe) if she turns on the dog.

Lee was being a bit too pushy (excited) and caused this ewe to turn on him. He stepped out of the way to not get hit but did not loose control of the ewe. We got the ewe and twins into a pen. Video 1 is of the ewe and twins on Sunday right after they were turned out of the barn.

I’ll post more stories later. We have 21 lambs as of 7:30am Tuesday Feb 18

Babies coming every day.

6 new mothers since I’ve been at work

This video was sent to us.

What do you do if your sheep pasture is on an island that doesn’t have a ferry landing?
Use a boat

Just precious!

Quick update on our numbers as of 8am Feb 20:

Ewes lambed: 25 (out of 55)
Singles: 5
Twins: 20