Yesterday was barn chores then bagging up a load of saw dust from the saw mill and unloading it back here. Then cleaning out the lambing barn and rearranging all the ewes and lambs. By the time I got that done it was time to start evening chores.
Today was chores, then taking the three remaining puppies to the vet. After that was cleaning out a section of the barn, remodeling some pens so we can fit more ewes in the lambing barn. Then chores and docking six lambs and trimming feet on ten sheep, and all the other stuff that had to be done.
And this was after there were five lambs born between midnight and seven this morning.
So tired...
There was one really cool thing in particular. We had a set of triplets born the day before yesterday. We pretty much always take one lamb and orphan it when we have triplets. The ewes don't have enough milk for three lambs, and most have trouble keeping up with three lambs. In this case, there was a ewe weighing 10 lbs, a ram weighing 9.5 lbs and a ewe weighing 5 lbs. The 5 pounder is adorable, and her name is Magnolia.
Well, after chores yesterday evening, mom checked the lambing barn one last time. She could only see the two bigger triplets, but Magnolia was missing. I heard mom yelling, trying to get the mama ewe to stand up, thinking she had accidentally laid on her. When I got there I pulled the ewe up, but Magnolia wasn't under her after all. So... Where was Magnolia?
Magnolia had climbed into the adjacent lambing pen with a ewe named Alpha and her lamb Alfie. Alpha had a rough delivery and is still not 100%. Apparently she was disoriented enough to adopt Magnolia. So Magnolia the teeny-tiny has a new mama and brother and they are absolutely adorable all curled up together.
For anyone unfamiliar with sheep production, this is an extremely rare feat. In 30 years of raising sheep, we've only been successful twice previously in grafting a lamb onto another ewe. That it happened spontaneously is pretty remarkable.
No comments:
Post a Comment