2011 Baby Count

February 16 - one ram lamb to Dorothy
February 13 - one ewe lamb, one ram lamb to Emma
January 29 - twin ewe lambs, to Mabel
January 5 - one ewe lamb, Flora, (bottle fed) to Cathy Gale


Monday, March 29, 2010

Triplets again!

Sunday morning, we received another set of triplets but this time in the sheep flock. Emma Piel, our first ewe that we raised with a bottle, produced her first set of triplets. Two ram lambs and a ewe lamb.
It was also my first time to see one born. We'd gone down to check on Emma at about 10:45 am, because she was acting strange at 8:30am. Sheep can develop pregnancy ketosis, where they lose the ability to metabolise carbohydrates, and they can die without treatment. At 10:45 am, Emma had started labor, so we left her alone to plant three boysenberry bushes up the lane. At 11:00 we went back to the sheep field because I'd left my gloves on top of their shelter.
By then Emma had one baby, and we could see the second one coming. She was completely professional, three pushes lying down and then she stood up for gravity to help. We left to pick up Ashley from town. At about 1:00pm we walked down so Ashley could see the twins, and to our surprise, Emma had three babies! The weather yesterday was really unpleasant - rainy, windy and cold - so I worried all night about those three little lambs. But this morning everyone was in really good shape.

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