2022 Lambing Season Update
Lambing season (when all the lambs are born) began promptly at 6:23 pm on Friday, March 24th. I was mostly ready, (thanks to my sister’s help!), but it still was a bit of a hectic start...
I had been prepared for lambing season to begin for a few days, but I had decided I’d keep the sheep out in pasture until a) a lamb was born or b) we hit the 148 day gestation mark. I didn’t want to bring the sheep in too soon because I didn’t want to have them spend more time than needed in the permanent lambing paddock. A healthy lamb could be born at 145 days, but in my experience, most are 148-150 days gestation.
Well, of course, the first ewe starts showing beginning signs of labor out in pasture at the FARTHEST corner possible. After a ewe has her lamb, they’re put in a jug (a small pen) to bond. A ewe will usually follow its lamb, but the further the distance, the trickier it is. So, since the ewe wasn’t too far into labor, I decided it would be best to do a quick move of the whole herd into the lambing paddock. The lambing paddock is about 30 feet from the lambing shed, where all the jugs are.
But of course, Levi, my livestock guardian puppy, was making all this a bit trickier. The soon to be mama didn’t want to be anywhere near Levi. So I had my sister hold Levi as I tried to herd the sheep. But I had just given them hay in the field…so hay wasn’t working as a motivation.
As I’m moving the sheep, Nicole and Levi are at the other end of the pasture and Levi is very unhappy he is not moving with the sheep. He’s bouncing and jumping, and it’s hard to hold a huge unruly puppy down. He’s over 115 pounds. He breaks free from my sister and runs to catch up to the sheep. His running causes them to run and escape through the small little gap in the electric fence chute that I was hoping the sheep would just trot past.
Thankfully, small specks of green grass catch their attention and they don’t go too far. We get them back into the chute (decide it’s just easier to let Levi do his own thing) and get the sheep into the lambing paddock. Approximately 15 minutes later, the first lamb is born. And the complete business of lambing season takes full swing!
In the first seven days of lambing, over 30 lambs were born. That is WAY faster than any lambing season I’d been involved with. And during those seven days, there were actually two days without lambs. So that means 30 lambs came over just five days. Wow. And for that first week, the majority were born after 4pm.
We’re now on day 13 of lambing season, at 36 lambs, and it has slowed quite a bit. I’ve got 7 ewes left to go! Lambing season could extend into early May, though I think these remaining ewes will have their lambs within the next few weeks.
Lambing season thus far has been filled with many highs and of course, a few lows. I knew I’d be having a busy lambing season just based on having 25 new to me ewes. I didn't know what to expect from any of them in how they would be at delivering their lambs and as mothers. I had some records for some on what they had had in the past, but no details on their mothering skills or milk production quality.
In my next blog post, I’ll share some stories about tricky labors and bottle babies. Most ewes are totally fine at delivering a lamb unassisted, but sometimes you have to get involved. Stay tuned to hear about those adventures!
