First of all, I must apologize for not having posted for the last week. Things here have been quite busy and exciting... we had our first baby lamb born on the farm!! He was born on September 20th to one of my favourite ewes - 83K. 83K is now 10 years old, which in sheep years, is getting up there. Even at 10 years old, she has still managed to have a lamb evey year.
So, here's how it all happened...Monday morning I headed out at around 6:30 to feed the sheep and let them out to grass for the day (we have to lock them in the barn at night for fear of coyotes finding them). At 11:30, I figured I should go out and check on them again because there are a couple of ewes that are getting quite close. Anyway, to my surprise, there were 4 ewes in the barn not out enjoying the fresh green grass. I noticed one acting kind of funny and when she turned around, I instantly knew why! There were two feet sticking out! After setting up a lambing pe, and putting her in it, I decided to give her a little hand and with a tiny tug, a baby lamb was born! I then tried to getting him to drink right away. My Dad always said the males were so stubborn that they refused to let you try and help them so it was best to get them their first colostrum before they were up and walking. The thing with colostrum is, the sooner lambs get it, the better it is for them. Babies have no antibodies to fight anything, so colostrum is essential as it carries all of the mother's antibodies in it. I remember learning in an animal health class at school that for every hour a baby doesn't get colostrum, their absorption of the antibodies decreases 10fold. So, with that little science lesson in the back of my head, I was determined to get him to drink right away! After a few struggles, he was up and drinking all on his own. Now, 6 days later, he is looking so very healthy and is growing like a weed!
I hope to be able to report to you in the next couple of days on some more births! There are two more ewes that could lamb any day...
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