Saturday, March 17, 2012

Lambing season is over

Well this year's lambing season is officially over. As of yesterday morning, Flo, our 12-year-old ewe had twins. One ewe lamb, named Smartie and one ram lamb, named Dum Dum. You guessed it they are my youngest daughter, Riley's sheep. The ewe lamb was born without assistance from us and Flo started to clean her of right away. Unfortunately, the ram lamb was presenting abnormally and Peter had to assist in his delivery. Poor, Dum Dum had his head out without his front hooves showing first. Peter quickly pushed the head back, while finding the hooves, so the lamb could be delivered with the least amount of trauma to both the ewe and the lamb.

As soon as the second lamb was delivered we left the three of them alone. We watched from a distance to make sure that Flo bonded with both lambs. After about 20 minutes we moved the lambs and Flo into the lambing jug to continue bonding.

Today, the three were let out into the pasture with the rest of the flock. Flo is making sure that her lambs are within sight at all times. She is a seasoned pro when it comes to taking care of her lambs.

While this lambing season had it tragedies there were also many triumphs....both girls learned how to pull a lamb, we were able to save to rejected lambs by bottle feeding, and the girls are spending time every day in the pasture with the flock getting them to trust them.

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