I am going to be posting photos of our sheep and lambs on a regular basis now, so don't forget to check back here.  Or just subscribe to the blog so you don't miss a single day of  lamby fun!

When last we spoke...
I knew that Mara and Eeva (pronounced Ava) were expecting "love lambs" (see: Love Lambs and Regular Lambs)
 conceived early in the morning on October 31st.  My ewes normally have their lambs from between 143 to 145 days gestation.  This is typical of Finn ewes.  So I had planned to bring the ewes into the barn and start watching for lambs around March 21st, which would be 142 days gestation.  We were having beautiful warm weather and the ewes were enjoying being outside. 

Imagine my surprise when I walked into the pasture on March 17th and saw a white lamb just sitting just inside the pasture fence!  She was completely silent until she saw me and then let out a little bleat.  You would think that on a sheep farm, one would not be all that shocked to see a lamb, but in fact I was... very!  It was only 138 days of gestation!  There couldn't be a lamb born yet!!  (Up till this point my earliest lamb was Eeva who was born at 141 days gestation. But Eeva was a very large single born conceived through AI and born to an adult ewe (Helmi).  So I attributed Eeva's early birth to the fact that she got all the nutrients in the womb and was fully developed and ready to be born.) 

The new lamb was totally cleaned off and perfect looking and just sitting out in the pasture all alone.  Rio (our Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dog) had not even noticed her yet and was napping in an adjacent paddock with another group of sheep.  I grabbed an old, but clean, towel out of the garage to wrap the lamb in and took her up to the barn. 

The 6 pregnant ewes were all up at the barn and I could see by Eeva's messy rear end that it was her lamb.  I quickly set up a jug (maternity pen for mom and lamb(s).)  I dumped a tiny bit of grain in the trough and caught Eeva (who was pretty freaked out) and put her in the jug with her lamb.  Once she was contained with her lamb, she worked to clean her off a bit more.  I got out the hairdryer to help the mom dry her and to keep her from getting chilled (since she had been sitting outside).  Eeva was really nervous but fortunately liked her baby.  I held Eeva still, stripped the waxy plugs from her teats and helped the lamb get a drink of colostrum. 

Around this time Upal got home from a business trip in Virginia.  So he was just in time to throw on barn clothes and help!  He helped me get a heat lamp set up and also run up to the house for supplies.   I snipped the lamb's umbilical cord and dipped it in strong iodine.  (This is antibacterial and helps it to dry up really fast.)  Then I put a litle jacket on her and set her under the lamp. 


Here is the lamb at just a few hours old.  The yellow stuff on the lamb's mouth in the
photo on the right is "Baby Lamb Strength" which is a baby lamb vitamin in a vegetable
oil base.  You put one squirt in the back of the lamb's mouth at birth, but sometimes they drool a bit. 

I searched the pasture and the barn to make sure there were no more lambs to be found.  (There weren't.)  Finn ewes typically have only 1 or 2 babies if they are bred as ewe-lambs (to have babies when they are 1 year old).  The baby seemed to be a really smart little lamb and caught onto things fast.