Mark, how soon new waggly tails?

85 lambs (as of last night)
44 ewes done

4 singles
34 sets of twins
5 sets of triplets
2 died

>60 ewes were pregnant
Lambing will be done by March 19th

Wendy has been mostly good; still has some puppy tendency of wanting to play nanny with lambs taking the away from the ewes. She responds very well to a verbal correction and should mature out of this.

http://youtu.be/sYsUhrf23K4

I love the video!!!

A new single this morning

Thank you for the reports and the video.

:B

Made a clicky:

http://youtu.be/sYsUhrf23K4

So cute!

What a nice video Mark! Thanks!

Rita

One story from this years' lambing.

My wife and I were out walking amongst the flock to check for new lambs or ewes with issues. We spotted a ewe that had the head of a lamb sticking out of her backend but she was not in labor; she was calmly grazing. I attempted to catch her (we did not bring a dog so that the flock would remain calm) but I could not get close to her. The lamb had to come out even if it were dead; if left in the ewe would die and any other lambs in her. I did see the lamb shake its head once while trying to catch the ewe so had some hope the lamb would live. We drove her towards a fence but still could not get close to her. We then drove her along the fence and into a pen on the fence line (pen used during our sheepdog trial). We pushed her into one of the chutes in this pen and pulled the lamb out (we had to push the lamb back in to find the front legs and then pull on the leg to pull the lamb out). We decided to leave her with her new lamb with the hope that having removed the blockage she would deliver the rest of her lambs (we could tell by her size and past lambing history she had at least 1 more, likely 2 more).

While we waited a storm came in and rained hard, after which we went out to check on the ewe. She still only had one lamb with her. We grabbed her lamb and used it to lure her into one of the lambing jugs (small stall in barn). We then pulled two more lambs from her (reach in, find head and front legs attached to same body, pull on both front legs until lamb comes out). The two new lambs were larger than the first.

The new family stayed in the jug for several days so that all the lambs (especially the smallest) could get a good start on life. On a warm day the ewe and her triplets were let out. She kept up with all 3 lambs and all looked good until we had a cold front blow in. The cold front brought a hard cold rain followed by a drop in temp of about 20degs. The flock came down to the barn during the rain and we did a field check after the rain for lambs still sleeping in the field. We found the small triplet curled up on the hill, wet, and cold (cold inside the mouth). We dried the lamb, put it back in a jug with its family, and set up a heat lamp to warm up the lamb. While the lamb did get dry and warmed it was still too weak (and dehydrated) to nurse; we tube fed it (warm milk replacer fed through a tube directly into the rumen). The lamb regained its strength but had fallen even further behind in growth relative to the other two lambs. Being bigger and stronger, the other two were likely taking most of the milk which left the small lamb just surviving with some additional replacement milk.

At this point we decided the small lamb needed a foster ewe. We tried it with two other ewes but attempted the grafting (adoption) too long after those ewes have delivered their own lambs. We eventually found a ewe that was showing signs of early labor and we put her in another jug. Right after she delivered her one lamb we placed the small triplet in with them. The small lamb was very determined to nurse and eventually the ewe accepted her foster lamb. This new family is still in a jug; once we're certain the ewe will not reject her foster lamb the family will be allowed out of the jug.


As of last night we have 92 lambs; we're in a lull in lambing but still have 15-20 pregnant ewes (based upon how big they are).

One of you may ask, how are your young boys doing with lambing chores?

Before lambing, the chores consisted of calmly moving the pregnant ewes from one location to another. Calmly is a very difficult task for most young dogs; Lee is getting it with calm reminders from me (my staying calm helps him stay calm).

Lee moving pregnant ewes

Once lambing has started, the chores are:
move flock out of barn to facilitate pouring grain into feed troughs
gather any sheep that did not come to barn yard at feeding time
help move new mother and lambs to lambing jug

This last chore is the hardest. We walk out through the field amongst the flock. We pick up the new born lambs and use them to lure the mother to follow. The dog falls in behind this one ewe to keep her following her lambs that in her mind are now flying (being carried off the ground). The hard parts for young dogs are focusing on just the one ewe while moving through the rest of the flock; not rushing the ewe that is frantically calling to her lambs and darting around us looking for her lambs (in our arms) that are calling to her, making sure the darting ewe does not escape (not backing down if the ewe decides to dart back to the place where she lambed), and being willing to not turn away if the ewe decides to turn and face the dog that she feels is threatening her lambs. Lee and Grant are getting the idea of the right distance off the ewe (to keep her coming but not make her turn and fight) but they still need to be reminded to stay calm.

I like seeing Lee at work, of course.

Do you have any video of Sam and Wendy or Sam or Wendy on duty?

:B