Turns out there was a reason Jamie was so wide. Actually there were three reasons!
I was awake around 1:30 this morning for the usual hormonal related reasons. What better excuse than to check the ewes? I found no babies at that time but Jamie's udder was definately more filled. I felt pretty confident that she would be lambing some time today.
This morning when I woke up and let the dogs out for their morning "constitution" I heard an unfamiliar bleating. I hurried out to the sheep pen and there was Jamie, lying under the pine tree with not one, not two, but three newborn lambs.
I had been a little disappointed when Francine only had one, and Jamie's three sure made up for it! This is the first time we've had triplets and it's pretty exciting for me.
Jamie decided to have the lambs outside the barn and the only thing that really concerned me about that was seeing the freshly dug holes along the edge of the fence where she had been laying. (If you look carefully you can see the afterbirths, one on the left side between the second and third rail from the top, and the other on the right side between the third and fourth rails.) It makes me worry that the fox was here looking for a tender, juicy, fresh born lamb morsel, quite a change from the occasional chicken or grub.
With son Wil's help I got the new family unit moved into the stall so they could have a few days of privacy without a big, dumb Suffolk running over them while she was looking for her next flake of hay and bit of cracked corn. I also quickly snipped and iodined their navels and of course took the opportunity to take a few pictures.
By the way, there are two boys and one girl (in the above photo the girl is in the middle). Well, she almost had three on 3/3/09.
I hope the rest of today is as good as the start, and for you too! ☺
4 comments:
Congratulations! The family unit is adorable. Wil and you do GOOD WORK, and so does Jamie.
Love, M
She doesn't look too concerned about the whole triplet thing. Do the babies ever go to another ewe?
mt
Ralph, or Valentine, or whatever is always trying to sneak a drinkie poo off one of the other ewes but they give him a head butt to get rid of him. There are times when you can "graft" a lamb onto another ewe when she has lost a lamb. The timing has to be just right though and there is some trickery involved. The other alternative would be to bottle feed (ugh!). Fortunately I haven't had that problem yet.
They are very cute, but I think hubby and son need to do a little fox hunting here, hopefully the mothers would protect them too!
See you tomorrow!!
Patti
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