 Yesterday i got a really neat lesson in Sheep Psychology!
I had shut the last ewe to lamb and her twin lambs in the barn because the lambs were a little weak at birth. I think her milk was a bit slow to come in and they were born on a really damp chilly day. After 2 days i was satisfied that they were hale and hearty and turned her out with the other sheep at feeding time. They all ate together just fine..then my lesson began!
I have turned all the other new mothers back out within a day or two..if i ever penned them at all since they are hair sheep and used to lambing on their own with the flock with no problems. Not this time!
Sugar..who is a very sweet white ewe finished eating and called her lamb to nurse. Her lamb was munching the hay that id just tossed in for them and ignored her. She called for about 5 minutes. Her lamb kept ignoring her. Her lamb is about 2 months old. Then her gaze fell upon the 2 new lambs by their mom and she marched right over and said..give me my babies!!! Their mom of course struck a foot at her and said..these are my lambs leave them alone!! The ewes started butting heads and several other ewes wandered over to watch. One of the other ewes kind of lured one of the babies off to one side and started licking her tushie and nudging her to nurse. That made sugar mad and she went after that ewe! I was afraid the lambs were going to get hurt and went in and move all the flock away from the new mom.
Sugar found her lamb and nursed her and i thought that would be that. Not so. As soon as i left the pasture she went right back for those lambs that she was sure were hers! Once again a bunch of ewes gathered round them. It was like a school yard fight where two ppl are fighting and all the others gather round to egg them on!
So once again i went in and broke up the fight. I left the pasture and the ram went to stand between the new mom and sugar. She backed off a little and stood there..then 2 other ewes came up and they all three backed off the ram! And bam the two ewes got into it again!
Id had enough and was afraid one of the lambs was going to get seriously hurt. I know they need to work things out but i guess not til the lambs are older! I picked up one lamb and held it low and pony (the new mom) followed me right into the barn stall with it. Then i realized that the door was tied open and id have to set the lamb down and untie it. I figured shed take it back out. Nope! She had had enough too! She took her lamb to the back of the stall and then looked at me like..okay now go get the other one would ya! So i did lol.
I'll leave them penned for a week or so until the lambs are big enough and smart enough to get out of the way when the ewes fight..and hopefully sugar wont still think that they are hers!
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Our newest lamb was born on April Fools Day morning! So of course her name has to be April!
Shes the first lamb born out of *our* katadin ram so we were really pleased to see how nice she was built! Our other lambs have been sired by our friends ram since those ewe were all bred when we got them. We have one more ewe left to lamb and then lambing season is over for us til fall! And im ready for a break! As much as i love the new babies..worrying about getting them here safely takes its toll on me too!
Aprils mom, dot.com, usually is a very friendly ewe but she wasnt wanting to let me get close to her lamb to take pictures so its hard to see Aprils other side. Shes got a big brown spot on her rump and down that hip..so i should at least be able to tell her apart from the other lambs! Gotta love spring and the arrival of all the new babies :)
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When it rains..it pours is always true in Oklahoma. But yesterday it REALLY poured!
This is our front pasture! It was totally flooded! We got 2" of rain in about 15 minutes!
After that came the hail! The wind was blowing so hard that it blew the hail sideways past the windows! That was the weirdest feeling! We were sure glad that we'd done the sheeps feet trimming and lamb worming that morning and then left them in! They would NOT have liked being out in the big pasture in that hail!
One good thing about all that rain though... my pasture is turning soooo pretty and green now! Its funny. ...before we started homesteading i saw grass and just thought..man i need to mow soon. Now i see grass and i think..yeah.. no more hay to buy for a few months! Perspective... its a strange thing |
