Sunday, April 17, 2011

Lambing ends with another surprise

Tuesday morning, 7am, it was obvious to me that my last ewe, Brei was in labor. Thank Goodness cause let me tell you she was getting sooo big, I was beginning to feel sorry for her. At 11:00 Brei had still not delivered and I was beginning to get a bit nervous. Finally at 1:15 she delivered a lovely little white ewe lamb. I called my friend who just couldn't believe that as big as she was there was only one baby in there. An hour had passed and I was pretty sure if she was having twins the second one would have been born by now. I shouldn't have been so surprised but was completely taken back when I went to check on her an hour and a half later and found another little darling being licked off.
Side note : the vet was out end of Feb. and had informed me that she was 99.9% sure Brei was NOT pregnant!
First pictures- not too lovely

Here they are today.  5 days old.





They are every bit as friendly and laid back as their mother. We had to have the vet out the next day to check on Brei, who hadn't expelled all her afterbirth and wasn't doing too good. It took her a couple days but I think she has fully recovered. She has taken to charging at our border collie anyway. She is defiantly a protective mother.

By the way- and the more experienced shepards probably already know this but barbwire fence DOES NOT hold lambs in.  What I'm wondering is, would a strand of electric wire on the inside do the trick?



I have learned a lot through this lambing experience. The miracle of birth never gets old and God's wisdom in all of creation is so spectacular! I am forever in awe of the beauty that surrounds us.

Now, planting season is about to begin. It is my husbands favorite time of year!

Many wishes for a happy and safe spring!

~Kathy


3 comments:

  1. Electric wire only works if the sheep or lambs hit their noses on the wire. Otherwise, the electric current is lost on their wooly fleece. Rolled wire or cattle panel keeps them in but panel is overkill for sheep. I have cattle, also called hog panel, for my horses and it works for sheep as well.
    Lovely lambs!

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  2. Thanks for the info on electric wire. We have cattle panel for the area around the barn and the barbed wire was already there so we thought we would do some minor repairs and see if it would work. Guess we will have to figure something out - Priscilla's twins have taken to wandering around the farm like a dog would...LOL. They are trouble makers for sure.

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