No More Waiting....First Lamb

Oreo

We are please to introduce our first lamb of the season....Oreo, he is a 9lb. ram lamb. His mother's name is Spitfire, she is a first time mother. His father's name Little Bear. Little Bear is a friend of our's ram that Spitfire went to stay with for a few months. Oreo came to us a few days earlier than anticipated so he is a lighter than expected. However, his momma is taking amazing care of him and he will be growing at an incredible rate over the coming days and weeks.

This morning when we went out to feed our sheep we had no clue that a mere 2 hours later our first lamb of the season would be born. None of the ewes were acting like they were in labor, they weren't off feed or acting restless. Yet, my husband came into the house at 8:30 and annoucned that we indeed had a lamb outside. The girls quickly donned their coats and boots to get out to the pasture with their dad.

Once out is the pasture they found Spitfire laying in the sun with Oreo right by her side. He was dried off and enjoying the sun on his back. Riley picked him up while Peter sprayed his umbilical cord with some iodine to prevent infection and help it dry up. Then Riley slowly started to back up with Oreo in her arms to bring both mom and lamb into the lambing jug (pen). The two will spend the next 24 hours bonding in this pen. We will be able to monitor Oreo's ability to eat and Spitfire's health after lambing. Another reason we are keeping them separate for the next 24 hours is to keep Oreo warm with a heat lamp (because he is little).

Spitfire and Oreo

Hope that you enjoyed the short video that Gabrielle recorded. We will keep you posted on Oreo's growth and hopefully we will have more lambs to introduce you to soon.