New Year's Day lambs.
Hi to all-
Crazy New Year’s Day here on the farm. We had our first lambs arrive today on New Year’s. I think that makes them special. I knew that I had a ewe that was getting awfully close based on various signs that a sheep’s body starts showing. When I went down to check sheep this morning I could tell she was in labor. I guess I have seen it enough now that I just know.
Well I went back about an hour or so later and there were two nice lambs already born up and looking to nurse. That is when the craziness started. You always have to do what is called “stripping a ewe’s teats”. They have a wax plug that builds to close the hole at the end of each nipple when the lambs from the previous season are done nursing. Sometimes this plug has to be stripped away in order for the lambs to get the milk. When I went to strip this ewes teats nothing came out…no wax, no milk (colostrum), no nothing. Not a good sign.
At that point I am in “I need to get some warm milk in these lamb’s tummies” mode. The only problem was I don’t quite have all my lambing supplies together yet. One of those items is nipples for my bottles for when I have to feed lambs. The other problem is it is New Year’s Day which means none of the supply stores that sell said items are open. Thankfully I have a friend nearby that I was able to get a hold of and she had one I could use.
The lambs now will need to be feed every four hours until the ewe comes into her milk. Unfortunately that every four hours does not end at 8pm and start at 7am. It continues through the night which means I will be making a few trips to the barn during the night. Any volunteers?
Realistically I am glad she lambed today and not on Tuesday when the predicted high is 29 degrees. Depending on the temperature depends on how long lambs can go without their first feeding. The colder it gets the shorter that time becomes. Down to 10-15 minutes when it is below 15 or so.
Unfortunately all the rest of the day hinged on the lambing event which made the whole rest the day a whirlwind between trying to get the cows , sheep, hogs, and chickens fed.
Will post tomorrow on water catastrophe from the other day. Coming soon will be information from the sheep pregnancy check.