Category Archives: Lambing

Farm, Fiber, Goats, Health, Lambing, Neighbors, Shepherd, Shetland Sheep, Vermont Sheep and Goat Association

Farming & the Internet

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Distressing couple of days for Farmer Tam.  On Tuesday morning I happen to be standing by at exactly the moment that Winky, my 2-year-old Shetland ewe, decided to slam into Gandalf, my 4-year-old Shetland wether.  Gandalf has had a weakened horn since he was a little guy, he tends to be the bottom of the pecking order around here and stays out-of-the-way of the others when he can.  The minute I heard the crack and smash sound, I knew it was his bad horn that she’d hit.  I knew it would call for removing him from the pasture as soon as possible, isolating him from the others for observation and for treatment.

Meanwhile I recited to myself over and over to stay calm.  My mind raced.  All I kept thinking of was our conversations last fall when we were trying to think of the best farm decisions for wintering all of the flock.  We considered putting Gandalf “in the freezer” because of his weak horn.  With all of the sheep, we were worried something like this would happen and then we’d be in an emergency situation.

But he’s a lovely pet and in the end, I voted for him to stay on because I thought that he’d been as long with us as he had without incident.  He’d likely be o.k..

So of course I bullied myself for this happening.

Blood poured out of his gaping, broken horn at the crown of his head and I could barely look at it.  Something about the pulsing, the dripping… just wasn’t doing well with it at all.

I desperately phoned, texted & emailed around, still beating myself up for not being able to take care of things myself like I imagined I should.  How did I get myself into a situation like this if I wasn’t prepared to follow through the consequences.  If this guy needed to be put down, I needed to be able to do it and here I was looking for someone else to do it for me.  I was doubly disappointed in myself.

Focusing on the problem, getting help – practical steps to try to help the poor guy.  Beating myself up -negative energy taking away from my inner strength.

A saint, in the disguise of my small animal vet friend up the road, appeared in his shining silver Subaru to give me some immediate support.  He let me know that though sheep were not his thing, he thought he was probably not going to have to be put down.  Also, he advised me to see about getting my sheep vet here. I panicked less.  So grateful, thank you, Dogtor.

My frequent ineptitude with my cell phone bit me in the butt again as my calls to my sheep vet were missed.  I hadn’t turned the ringer on so I was unaware that he was calling.  Finally we connected.

Community is everything in these parts. This lovely retired dairy vet that helps me out with my sheep is the same gentleman that I call on to help out with serving Communion at our church on Sundays!

Meanwhile, I had hopped onto the Vermont Sheep & Goat Association email forum to see which of my sheep-y friends were online today to field my questions about what to do, what was normal, what were my options.  Rather rapidly, my inbox filled up with replies and most assured me that as soon as the bleeding slowed down, he would likely heal and be alright.  Of course, there were the stories shared that were more graphic than I had wished for, but I am the one that sent them 3 photos of poor Gandalf’s head.

Ummm, those emails that told me I ought to go ahead and amputate and cauterised the wound with a soldering rod or whatnot?  I’m sorry.  I don’t have a tool like that, and if I did, I’m pretty sure I would faint while I did it.

And, don’t you just love Facebook?  Tonight my dear goat friend up the road saw my post about Gandalf and called me up to say I could come on by for some clotting powder if I wanted to.  I hopped in the truck and in 5 minutes I had a bottle of clotting powder in my hand.  In 10 minutes, Char and I had liberally applied it to poor, bloody Gandalf.  Sadly, after investigating more closely because of his subdued nature, I saw where the horn is piercing into the side of his head near his eye.

Troubled, my friends, troubled.  Having some hibiscus tea because I heard that it lowers blood pressure.  Hoping to get a little sleep tonight.

I’ll spare you the bloody picture and just let you enjoy Gandalf, my sweetie, before this morning’s injury:

Lily & Gandalf, when he was a lamb.

Lily & Gandalf, when he was a lamb.

Gandalf, all grown up

Gandalf, all grown up

Barns, Chickens, Eggs, Farm, Health, Horses, Lambing, Night time, Seasons, Shetland Sheep, Vermont Sheep and Goat Association

Monday Night Minus Football

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We watched the Superbowl last evening.  I’m not an ace where football strategy is concerned, but I enjoyed the game.  I’m still wondering what I thought of the halftime show…

And here we are, the Monday-night-after.   Our Paint gelding, ‘Ruger Jac’, didn’t want to throw his weight around amongst the girls when it was time for dinner  this evening- a sure sign he wasn’t feeling well.  He had to be convinced to take his rations and convinced to come into the barn.  The girls tired of waiting for him, so they motored past to get to the hay.

I called in my reinforcements to help me complete the chores.  Jim & Char came out to help finish filling water buckets and then Char and I observed and inspected Ruger’s locomotion.  The ground is so darn hard and frozen everywhere that it’s tough to get a read on his gait and what exactly is going on.  There are ice-filled depressions in the footing around the barn and in the pasture so that moving evenly over the terrain is tricky.  We are sure he is in discomfort because of his tentative behavior and so we filled a stall full of shavings for him, loaded him up with rations and treated him with a dose of Bute as an anti-inflammatory for the night.

In the morning we’ll spend more time trying to assess what’s up, calling the vet if necessary.

I hope he’s right as rain tomorrow -it breaks my heart when my kids and my animals don’t feel well.

Ruger Jac's typical clownish behavior with SJ

Ruger Jac’s typical clownish behavior with SJ

Char had a pile of homework to attend to so Jim helped me with sheep-wrassling and we de-wormed the flock before I move them into new pasture in a couple of days.  This is our attempt to keep the flocks parasite-load down and to rotate pastures, allowing the freezing winter temps to kill any shed worms.  This is a way to minimize grazing in infested pastures.

I was able to do some exams on the ewes, too, to see who was approximately how far along and I think that the race is on between Ruva & Maggie for who will lamb first.  Fat bellies on those girls!  I’m so excited for lambs!

Last, but not least, I had Jim assist me with the dark-of-night covert chicken-wrangling.  We ferried fat hens from one coop to the other so as to empty the smaller coop, readying it for a new purpose.  Then, from the large coop, we retrieved the Faverolle Rooster, ‘Almonzo’, and his girls to the Love Shack.  We’ve got an order for Faverolle chicks to fill this spring and in order to ensure that the eggs we hatch out are purebred, it was time to sequester the micro-flock to their own quarters.

I’m not showing favoritism to the Faverolles, it’s just that there is this special request.  However, they are a delightfully tempered, beautiful and hardy breed so it will be fun to have more of them this year.

Join me in praying that they’re not all roosters when they hatch…

Our Faverolle Flock, last summer at 2 days old

Our Faverolle Flock, last summer at 2 days old

Birthday, Farm, Holidays, Lambing, Seasons, Shetland Sheep

Last Chance

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February 1st – woohoo!  My favorite month of all.  It’s my birthday month, and my son’s birthday month, and many good friends’ birthday month, and it’s President’s Week month, and it’s February Vacation month(for the secondary & elementary schools around here) and it’s the month for Valentine’s Day!

Speaking of love…Orin the Shetland ram is going back to his home, Ewe Rock Farm, tomorrow.  He’s been a gorgeous stud here, hanging out with my breeding group of 6 Shetland ewes, since December 1st.  I gave him the word tonight that it was his last chance for love, cranked up the Donna Summers, and dimmed the barn lights.

That means we should be expecting lambs from May 1st and on.

However, I may have indicated in past posts about the couple of wethers(neutered male sheep) that turned out to not be wethers when we were shearing last October.  My shearer helped me to “re-wether” the little randy-rams, but likely they had already been loving on the ewes in September and up until then.

Which means there may be lambs soon now, and by the looks of my matriarch, Maggie, way before May!

Enjoy these lovely Orin-photos.  I know for sure that he and Winky are going to be proud parents, I just don’t know if he’ll be daddy to the other ewes’ kiddoes.  If you have questions, feel free to send them to me.  I’ll be happy to answer about my inept animal husbandry skills…

Michael Carver's Shetland rams at Ewe Rock Farm

Michael Carver’s Shetland rams at Ewe Rock Farm in November, Orin on the right

Orin -this guy has Swag

This guy has swag

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December 1, 2012 -he loved the girls immediately

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Orin & Nikki, wishing for more graham crackers, please

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Orin taught the girls about graham crackers, which they wouldn’t touch before he came on the scene

Birthday, Chickens, Farm, Lambing, Shepherd, Shetland Sheep, Weaning

The Report from Bo Peep and, also, Peep

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I did write the other day that I would report back when the lambs had hushed.  And they have.

The mamas took a day to quiet down, the lambs took 2 days.  Aisling, the bottle lamb, took 3 days and in actuality, it may be longer because after all, she thinks she belongs in the house anyway.  So this whole weaning/barn/pasture thing isn’t really her cup of tea.  But she’s got 9 great buddies who’ve been real troopers.  It seems that above grain, above pasture, cuddles with their shepherdess and a manger full of hay is what makes them happiest.

10 Weaned Woolies

But just as the lambs stopped crying, a new peeping began in the kitchen, next to the coffee maker.  Eleven chicks have hatched since yesterday afternoon and a few more are pipping in the incubator.  Praying for all hens.

Araucana egg, pipping

Brand new chickabiddies

Last, but not least, my husband turned 55 yesterday.  A late summer supper on the back porch, with a quieter pasture, was the stage for some silly singing and tasty treats.

Merry band of troubadours

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Lambing, Weaning

Hugs given here

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Hagrid and Albus

Day 1 of weaning – so much baa-ing.

But what calms the lambs down is cuddling.  I spent half an hour this afternoon hugging and petting, scratching and chatting with them.  They like that.  They don’t baa.

As soon as I leave, the sad songs start again.

I hate this tough-love stuff.

Farm, Lambing, Recipes, Shepherd, Shetland Sheep

Some days I just want to be a city girl

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with an intact pedicure…a pair of shoes that doesn’t have manure on the bottoms…minimal property maintenance or maybe just a flower box or two…public transportation…no roosters crowing or crying lambs…

All I can hear today is baa-ing.  My lambs, 10 of them, are crying and crying for their mamas.  My mamas, 6 of them, are crying and crying for their lambs.

Yesterday we de-wormed the flock.  Today we began the weaning.  The mamas are in a far pasture behind the barn; the lambs are in a pasture closer to the house but out of sight of the mamas.  They all can still hear each other.  Everyone can hear them within a 5 mile radius, I’m betting.

Today is not a good day to test me.  I’m a bit frazzled.

In other news, my daughter brought home the reject peaches from the local farm that she works at and I’ve slipped them from their skins and am putting them into pies.  I’ve got a coconut lime cookie recipe going to take to my last photography class tonight.  And there is a lime blackberry cheesecake in the works for tomorrow evening.

As soon as my son Jody gets back from the feed store with some straw, I’ll be mucking the sheep stalls.   Tonight everyone will go into fresh, clean bedding, separately of course.  So they can have a tidy place to cry all night.

I’ll let you know when it’s quiet again.

And no, I don’t really want to be a city girl.

how I look when we’re not weaning lambs

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Farm, farm, spring, seasons, horses, shetland, sheep, garden, pigs, chickens, roosters, peacock, peafowl, wool, seedlings, tractor, pasture, field, barn, pets, cats, dogs, kittens, bunnies, hay, Lambing, Seasons, Shepherd, Shetland Sheep

I hope they’ll be o.k.

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Last night I zoomed home from my summer class and helped a farmer select and load four of my yearling Shetland Sheep into the back of his truck.

It poured buckets while we gathered round the stalls and between the deafening rainfall on the tin roof and the chorus of baa-ing from the woolies, I was able to impart a few words of wisdom.

I said “Ciao” to 5 of my chickens the other day when I was visited by a family delving into the world of layer hens.  I know those folks through community activities so I was more sure of the home they were going to.

I didn’t know the guy from Adam that came by last evening.  He has an assortment of animals on his farm and this is his first foray into sheep.  Shetland Sheep as a starter flock can’t be much easier and so I have no trepidations about my endorsement.

More than a few times I’ve wondered that I should just not have so many animals.  I’m a sucker for a happy ending.  Though I raise turkeys for the table and have parted with other livestock for various reasons, I still have so much anxiety when it comes to saying goodbye.

I’ll miss you, Obaamaa, Iglesias, Buttercup & Daisy.  I hope you’ll be o.k. in your new home.

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Farm, Lambing, Photographs, Seasons, Shetland Sheep, Vermont Sheep and Goat Association

From 12 – 22: The Flock Grows: Ready to Relax, Chapter 4

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It’s time to finish telling about the last 5 lambs born at the farm since I had digressed and spent a chapter on Aisling, the bottle lamb:

Ruva, big as a house, twinned on Sunday, April 1st  at the end of the day.  Bless her heart, her deliveries were uneventful and we had her ram lambs’ cords trimmed and iodined by 10 p.m..  This made for a much better night’s sleep for me, because by then the stresses of the rejected lambs and bottle lambs and all that jazz had me pretty worn out.  Ruva is a veteran, having twinned in the past as well as having single lambs, so she knew what she was doing when it came to nursing and caring for her boys. We named her two guys “Romulus” and “Remus” and they are nearly identical, except that Remus is slightly smaller.  Their fleeces are not quite chocolate-y, which would be called “Dark Moorit“, but a warm tone between fawn and dark reddish-brown called “Moorit.”

Ruva with Romulus & Remus

April 2nd, a Monday, was a day off in lambing.  And thank God because I was ready for it.

Tuesday, April 3rd, Lily gave birth to twins at dusk.  We’d already moved most of the ewes and their lambs into private or semi-private quarters, so Lily was sharing a stall with Winky when she lambed.  I thought, actually, it was a good lesson for Winky as she was the last ewe left to lamb.  Lily had ram lambs which we named Albus and Hagrid.  They are darn cute!  Albus has  a Moorit-colored fleece with white sideburns and a beard.  He is the picture of wisdom, in a lamb, that is!  Hagrid, named for the friendly half-giant in Harry Potter’s world, is just that.  He is a lumbering, friendly bearded Moorit, very much loving to cuddle whenever you are with him.  Well done, Lily, well done!  Two beautiful healthy boys, and she delivered without a hitch.

Lily with Hagrid & Albus

Now we’re up to 9 lambs, 21 sheep all together.  All in 5 days time.

Char & Aisling - good times in the front yard!

By now the bottle feedings for Aisling were working out, the nursing of the reject/orphan lamb Oliver were working out, and all of the other moms were tending to their newborns uneventfully.  I had put Winky, my teen-pregnancy candidate, into her own “lambing jug” so that if she were to lamb, she would not be able to risk bonding with it because she would basically be on top of him or her in such small quarters.

After a few days, I thought maybe she was just fat and I’d misjudged her all along.  So I put her out to graze with the flock of wethers and her fellow-yearling ewes.

On Easter Sunday, we were bringing in the flock, and who do you think had a tiny sidekick, brand new, wet and mewing by her side?  Yes, Winky!  She birthed “Bunny” right in the sheep-chute in the cool grass in the pink light of the late day sun.  ”Bunny” is kind of a cheesy name, I know, but my husband suggested it and for all of the work he does around here, I felt like I should at least humor him.  Char and I were thinking along the lines of “Pascha”, or some-such clever variation on Easter/Passover, but after a few days, “Bunny” stuck because, gosh darn it, her round, innocent face is definitely bunny-cute and her coloring is a lovely Musket with Katmioget markings.

Just this morning, I wethered (that means “neutered”) 8 ram lambs.  Can you say traumatic?  I’m pretty beat and need a shower, yes, but it is done and they are all being comforted by their mamas.  And I won’t have to worry about placing any rams in homes, or being over-run by in-breeding or managing (poor) behaviors by having 8 rams here on the farm.

And boom!  There are 10 little lambs here now, along with the 12 other yearling and older sheep.  It is a baa-fest when you go out in the morning to put everyone out for the day – you almost want earplugs!  But when they are out to pasture it takes some serious self-discipline to tear yourself away from the cuteness-overload that is going on.  I encourage all of my friends with little ones, or any animal lovers, to come and visit the farm now while the cavorting and gamboling babies provide what we call “lamb-t.v.”  And if you can’t get here from where you are, do enjoy the following photo collage:

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Farm, Lambing

From 12 – 22: The Flock Grows: Bottle Baby, Chapter 3

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"I'm going to feed my father's flock,
His young and tender lambs
That over hill and over dales
Lie waiting for their dams."
-"Searching for lambs", English Folk Song

When I left off yesterday, the count of lambs was 5, right?  Maggie had kidnapped Nikki’s twin, and then Maggie had rejected one of her own twins.  Meanwhile Nikki & Pansy had one little ram lamb apiece to nurse and Maggie had 2, leaving one more(Aisling) for us to connect with a wet-nurse.

We did, indeed, manage to get Aisling some feedings off of Maggie.  But it only happened by either stanchioning Maggie, in which she still made great attempts to step on or kick her little one out-of-the-way, or by sitting on her, practically, and putting her in a hold so that she couldn’t move away while Aisling latched on for a feeding.

Stanchioning and sitting on Maggie couldn't help Aisling to score a decent meal! Char and friend Tristan try to help by holding Oliver and Seamus out-of-the-way.

The feedings were inconsistent and brief.  We needed to get that little girl some sustenance because by the end of the second day, she had really started to show the signs of waning energy that told me it would become serious, fast, if we didn’t put her on a supplement.  I picked her up to take her out of the stall altogether to figure things out and Maggie started bleating her head off.  Surprised that she was at all interested in her baby, I came back into the stall.  She dashed over to inspect that Aisling was o.k., so I put Aisling down on the ground for her.  Aisling immediately went to suckling and Maggie fussed over her as though she was the returned prodigal daughter.  After a few minutes, Maggie had a change of heart and decided to butt her out-of-the-way, out of her sight.

How tragic it is to watch this sort of mental and physical abuse unfold, especially when you’re talking about a 2 day old lamb.  It was heart breaking.  But we decided to start these “stress” feedings with Aisling if it would help get her some nutrition, not sure if the calories lost in the stress of being removed, then being reunited, then being butted was worth the number of calories and colostrum she would consume when she did latch on.

After about 6 hours of this, we decided no, enough, and brought her into the house.

snuggling with the rescue lamb

The first night was a little rough for me, with feeding her every two hours, being peed on in bed, and me fighting the flu, but Aisling responded nearly instantly to the nurturing.  She curled up right under my chin whenever she wasn’t awake and her tiny wooly self breathed so steadily and deeply…it was like a little angel body next to me.

So now we have a bottle baby, in the house, and I’m not sure my husband is down with it, but it is what it is.  We’ll figure out what to do with her eventually.  Her days are fabulously filled now with outings to Char’s school, frolicking out on the lawn, and visiting her brothers in her old stall.  When she goes in for playtime, they greet her enthusiastically and everyone jumps around like they’re a lamb or something.  Maggie still likes to butt her away if she gets too close, but she’s learned to keep her distance mostly.  When I bring her into the house, she enjoys running around and greeting the cats and dogs and ‘baaaas’ when she sees me with her bottle.

Daughter Sarah Jane, home for her birthday weekend and Easter, helped with the midnight, 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. feedings so that Farmer Tam could get some much-needed sleep.

Night feedings have stopped in that little bit of time.  She tucks in at around 11 and is good until 6a.m..  Jim brought home diapers last night, which fit her fabulously after we cut a slit in them for her tail to peek out, and that helps.  I think they look ridiculous, but it is definitely helping to save on clean-up.  Charlotte and I have to travel in the upcoming week and I wasn’t sure what we’d do with Aisling, but my brother-in-law volunteered to help out and so, bless his heart, I don’t think he needs to have his house trashed by lamb pee-puddles!

I think Aisling’s story warranted its own post and I will finish the other lambing stories soon.  Peace to you this day.

Back door guests are best!

 

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Shetland Sheep, Farm, Lambing, Vermont Sheep and Goat Association, Health

From 12 – Twenty-TWO: The Flock Grows, Chapter 2

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This post starts with a note:  the lambing series was originally named “From 12 – 21:  The Flock Grows”, but I have had to update the title.  If these types of farm goings-ons interest you at all, stay tuned for the last lamb in a very-near-future post.  If it all just sounds too mundane and confusing, come on back to the farm after the lamb updates and we’ll bring you other farm and family tales!

To resume…

Last I’d left off, nearly a week ago, the report from the farm was about the twin ram lambs that Nikki brought into the world.  Dickens and Oliver are now a week and 3 days old and have been getting good round the clock feedings from their birth mama and adopted mama.  There were some exasperating hours in and around the first 2 days of their lives and I am happy it is now just a memory.

Char, trying to get Oliver to take a bottle while Maggie, the dry-but-doting granny-nanny, looks on. Note the Red Sox pajama bottoms that are all the rage in barn-wear during the week of Opening Day at Fenway Park :-)

At night checks on the Friday evening that Dickens and Oliver joined us, March 30th, Jim hurried me out of the house to see Pansy finishing up with delivering her first-born, a ram lamb we named ‘Tolkien.’  Pansy and Nikki are twins, as you may remember from previous sheep posts, and so we thought it fitting that in their first year of lambing they decided to birth their babies on the same day.

Pansy and her new ram lamb, 'Tolkien'

The next day, Saturday, Char and I reclaimed some strong iron sheep panels which had been reinforcing areas of fencing weakened by last year’s athletic jumping sheep and we turned a horse stall into a very posh lambing nursery.  We cleaned all of the bedding out of the large sheep stall, the old goat stall and the lambing jug as well.  We paused in the afternoon to “Bowl for Kids’ Sake” with my youth group to raise money for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program.  It is not necessarily relevant to this story that I happened to be on fire for that day’s bowling, but I can’t help but toot my own horn.  I think the improvement in my bowling is directly related to hauling bales of hay, grain, water buckets and shoveling manure.  Hidden benefits of chores.

Farmer Tam, bowling strikes!

And my youth group had a jolly time helping to make a difference in Bennington County.

Maggie & Oliver, Nikki & Dickens(out of view) and Pansy & Tolkien in the Nursery which Char & I designed and built using reclaimed sheep panels.

That evening, Char & I happened to be in the stall with Maggie when she began laboring, around 11 p.m..  By midnight Maggie had given birth to “Aisling“,(pronounced ASH-ling, Irish, and meaning ‘a dream or vision’), who was quite large compared to the other 3 lambs that were a full day older than she.  She was covered with a very yellowish birth sac which I’d not noticed with lambing in the past.  Maggie set to work right away grooming her all over and she nursed, hallelujah, nearly immediately after birth.

The moment of truth was on us – would Maggie now reject Oliver?  Or would she keep him on, especially now that we knew that she had a milk supply of her own to be counted on.

She did not reject him.  Phew!

An hour later, between 1 and 2 a.m., Maggie birthed Aisling’s twin, Seamus.  Oh my goodness!  He was absolutely runt-y compared to Aisling and just beautiful.

Maggie licks Seamus all over, just after lambing. Aisling is still yellow-ish from the birth sac membrane that is stuck to her wool. Notice how much larger she is than her twin, born just one hour later.

The moment of truth was upon us again.  Would she reject Oliver now?

She did not reject him!  Phew, again!  But, Maggie did decide to reject Aisling.  It only took about one hour for her to make that call after she’d delivered Seamus.  Char and I were confounded and troubled when we finally went to bed at somewhere near 3a.m. on April Fools Day.

I called in sick (with the flu) to church the next morning, where I teach a Sunday School class and sing in a choir, and began the day at 5:30 a.m. trying to figure out how to get Aisling the much-needed colostrum and feedings that I had been trying to get for Oliver only one day prior.  I had that “deja vu all over again” feeling…

Shetland lambs: Maggie nursing Seamus, a Katmoget ram lamb, Aisling, a Mioget ewe lamb, and adopted Oliver, a Moorit ram lamb

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