Once shearing is over, we sit back and await the arrival of the first lambs. The ewes are penned up in the barn each night, which makes checking for signs of labor much easi
Then we waited, and waited, and waited for the last two ewes to lamb – our two white ewes, "Dizzy Lizzy" and "White Louise". At the 4:30 am barn check on the morning of April 18, Greg reported that Dizzy was acting, umm, dizzy – off her feed and restless, all signs of early labor. There was a little mucousy discharge, but she never really seemed to get down to pushing. We monitored her throughout the day (I spent a couple of hours just sitting with her and watching) and eventually decided that something was not right. Time for my best James Herriot impression. What I found was a large set of tangled triplets. I pulled the first one, a white ewe lamb presented with a head and one foot forward, without too much difficulty. The second unfortunately was born dead – breech birth and stuck like a cork in a bottle. The third was presented with the head back, our least favorite presentation. By that time, I was too worn out to pull any more (imagine how Dizzy must have felt!) so Greg took over once I got the front feet out. Somehow, with a lot of heaving and ho-ing, we safely delivered a black ram lamb. When we finally got Dizzy and her two lambs tucked into their lambing pen, we realized it had been a while since we had seen White Louise. Finally located her – she had gone off to another barn all by herself and delivered a set of twin white ewe lambs!
Now the oldest lambs are just over two months old and the youngest will be a month old tomorrow. All are growing by leaps and bounds, and we are glad to have another lambing season behind us!
Kris
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