boldly predicted we wouldn't see any more lambs for a number of days.
Then Rosemary, later in the afternoon, dropped** ... and was holding her tail out (just a wee little bit).
Alison went out at 10:00 p.m. and she's making mommy noises to her unborn lamb (assuming once since it's her first time) and the tail is now cocked completely to the side.
It looks like another sleepless night :-P.
Note to Lona: How do you guys do this with such a big flock? How many ewes do you run? There are folks around here with 200 or 300 ... I can't even imagine. When I dropped of Claire's Venture application today, I was speaking to the receptionist and made a crack about lambs interfering with us getting it done earlier. She laughed, and said in the last week she's seen a number of teens (AND staff) enter the building looking haggard and drawn and unslept, and in each case it was because of lambing. You know you live in a rural area when lambing is the predominant cause of sleepless nights, rather than partying!
**Dropping prior to birth ... you can actually see depressions in the flanks of the ewes as they get ready to give birth. NORMALLY this isn't a big clue for me ... but Rosie made it very obvious this afternoon. We'll see. I'm still a little shocked that I was correct in predicting Corrie's impending lamb.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Dh is a firm believer in feeding mid-morning and late afternoon. Says it helps eliminate night births. The truth is, he will stay up 'til 11 if someone looks like they're working on it, but it doesn't happen often. The Suffolks need a bit of coddling (they're genetically stupid), but the Polypays are amazing mothers.
Having said that, we lose a few, and expect that. This season has been our most hectic, condensed lambing season yet--every time we turn around (for 9 days now) there is another set of twins or triplets. DH is starting to look a bit rough around the edges. We don't have enough bonding jugs to go this fast!
It comes from putting 3 rams in. When you put 2 in, they are always fighting each other. When you put 3 in, at any given time 2 are fighting and 1 is busy.
Enjoy!
Post a Comment