First Lambs born, Ewes and a good LGD

 Lambing has finally begun. Cara Mia was the first to lamb the year this week. As usual with our ewes, her lambs arrival were a surprise. We had checked all the girls the night before. Nobody was showing signs of being close to lambing. 

• Bagging up  
• Teats firming
• Vulva slackens
• Vulva area pinks
• Mucus discharge
• Slightly swollen
• Hollowing near the hips
• Thinner / Not as wide
• Stops Eating or Ignores Food
• Nesting and Pawing the ground
• Separating from the Flock

We went out to do morning chores and found her with her two lambs. 

This is the ewe lamb Cara lambed. 

Below is Cara's little ram lamb 

They are both doing very well. Cara is a a good mom and very protective of her lambs. Anastaycia, (our one LGD) kept trying to lick and sniff the lambs. Cara would have no parts of it. She has stomped and chuffed letting Anastaycia know the lambs are off limits. Which has resulted in Anastaycia staying a bit back from them but keeping an eye on Cara and her lambs. 

The lambs have snuck off several times to investigate Anastaycia. The lambs even got her to copy their little hop jump they have been doing. Last night Cara apparently was convinced Anastaycia was safe. Cara allowed the lambs to curl up with Anastaycia during the night. 

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Shetland Sheep

Shetlands are a primitive breed. The rams usually weight in about 110 lbs. and the ewes are about 85 lbs. Some may be lighter or heavier. They have their own personalities. Shetlands can be charmers. Especially when they want treats. We have a flock of cookie monsters. It is the easiest way for us to train them to come. 

They are intelligent and can learn how things work quickly. We have a few that learned how to open the gates to let themselves free range. Yes I woke up one morning to my ewes on the front lawn munching on the grass that was growing there. We have learned to keep the gated padlocked to contain some of the smarter sheep. 

We are waiting on the arrival of this year's lambs. We have hopefully managed to get the ewes bred this year.   Ava,  Cara, Heather, Ezri, Gerty, Sanga, Chetta and Sapphire are our current ewes. That is 8 ewes we are hoping produce for us this year. 

We have several new ewes that were bred a bit later than we normally like, but that could not be helped. Chetta, Sanga, Ava, Cara and Sapphire are our newest girls. We have no idea what we will have with these ladies. They were all bred to our ram Wrangler. 

As we only have one ram we are limited with our breeding program. We do plan to add a ram or two. We may even keep one of the ram lambs we produce this year to breed with the newer girls. I am hoping to get a Black or Dark Grey ram to add bit more color to our flock. 

We will see what we manage to produce this year. Will the lambs be all rams, mostly rams, all ewes, mostly ewes or will it be an even split? We won't know until the ewes lamb. That could be any day now or they may hold out for another month. You never know with these ladies.

The third set of lambs

 Heather had twins. Ewe/Ram twins

Meet Yin (dark) and Yang (light)

Ezri's twins

Ezri had her twins on the first. Both ewes one light and one dark.

Iris

Katniss

Lamb Ewe 2

Some pictures of the Musket Katmoget ewe lamb. 

Lamb Ewe 1

Some pictures of the Moorit Krunget ewe lamb.

Our Shetland Sheep

On February 8, 2020 one of our ewes Ruby gave birth to twin little ewes. These two little ones are very sweet and gentle.

 One is a Musket Katmoget and the other is a Moorit Krunget. That will most likely change over the next several weeks.

 These two were a complete surprise to us for a couple of reasons. 

This is early for Shetlands to lamb. Normally they lamb in March and April. Also Ruby did not look to be pregnant. 

Ruby is doing a wonderful job with both of these little ones. She is very attentive and protective. She keeps a close eye on her lambs and will call them back if they stray too far from her. 

We have a list of names for this years lambs, both for ram lambs and ewe lambs. We welcome any name suggestions you may have. If you wish to suggest any names or name themes leave it in the comment section of this post.