Lambing results for 2010

Thank goodness - we made it through lambing season! I had great plans of taking photos of each new set of arrivals, but things quickly got out of hand and I never really did catch up. The last lambs were born on April 27 - twin mule ram lambs from a North Country Cheviot mom!

The BFL's were amazing! 10 of 10 ewes lambed. Only the yearling had a single which was great and she is doing a fine job. There was 1 single, 7 sets of twins, 1 set of triplets and finally after much waiting and watching and worrying we were presented with a set of quads! In total there are 13 ewe lambs and 8 ram lambs.

In addition there are twin BFL x Shetland ewe lambs, 1 BFL x NCC ewe lamb and 3 BFL x NCC ram lambs. It was pretty intense with the majority of babies arriving between April 5th and April 17th. Only one lamb was dead at birth (cord ruptured inside we think). I was able to foster one of the quads on to that ewe and am bottle feeding the smallest quad.

So, not only will I have a good selection of replacement ewe lambs to choose from, but there will also be some available for sale!

Watch for photos, but don't hold your breathe!

First lambs of the season!

Finally we have some lambs on the ground. Mae was our first ewe to lamb presenting us with twins on April 1st. Friends were visiting for Easter and thought that perhaps we had staged the event just for their benefit. Everyone loves to see animal babies and sometimes I forget how lucky I am to get to watch the process close up!

Maeve (12 lbs) and sister Morag (11 lbs) are doing beautifully. Seeing their first explorations of the great outdoors today was huge fun. Apparently there are only two gears at this point - full throttle and absolute collapse. Nothing makes me laugh faster than watching them "crow hop" around trying to bring four legs into some kind of control!

Possible Quads

Silvie is an older BP ewe who looks like she is carrying quads. We have been pumping her full of extra feed, but you can see from the photo that she is dropping weight. If she doesn't have these babies soon, I think that she might explode!

We had guinea pigs when the kids were little. Momma guinea pigs would look like they had swallowed a dinner plate just before they gave birth. Silvie reminds me of them every time I look at her!