Today we were getting the barn set up for lambing — in particular, building the lambing jugs. Our oldest grandson had to lend a hand with pounding some nails…and whatever else he could find to pound!
Grandpa’s little helper!
Getting ready!
No photos today – just an update!
The bred ewes are all doing very well. Winter has been very kind to us here in southwestern PA, and the pastures are already showing some signs of growth – which the sheep have discovered! They are leaving their hay more and more often to wander the pastures in search of delectable newly sprouted deliciousness!
Little by little we are preparing for the arrival of lambs! People are so excited to see them – especially us!
We are tweaking our setup a bit from 2020.
Technology continues to improve, and so in addition to the stationary barn camera we had in place before, we are adding some pan and tilt color, night ready cameras to help us monitor the ewes for signs of labor. The more we can monitor from the warmth of our beds during the night, the better! We will take shifts for waking up and checking our phones -instead of waking up, dragging on the boots and headlamp, and heading out in the cold to check them all. The other advantage to this is that we won’t disturb them if they are resting. The camera is quiet and small, vs. us being noisy and shining flashlights at them!
We’re going to tweak our setup for inside as well. We will again have the 4 lambing jugs – 4 small “stalls” for mom and lambs to be placed either close to delivery or soon after. These private spaces give mom and babies time to bond without the disturbance of other nosey ewes. Typically they will stay there for a couple of days during which we will be able to keep a close eye to be sure mom is accepting them and they are getting adequate nutrition. They will be weighed and tagged during this time as well.
We will also set up a larger area in the barn to bring them into at night if conditions are unfavorable for them outside while they are waiting for their lambing time to arrive. We can also use the area to separate out ones who are close to delivery to have them closer to the lambing jugs.
The last area of the barn will be a designated mixing pen. Here moms and lambs will go after their time in the jug to be introduced to the other moms and lambs prior to releasing them to the pasture behind the barn.
Last year we set these last two areas up on the fly. This year we will be more prepared!
Soon we will bring the flock in for vaccinations. This will give immunity to the pregnant ewes that will pass through the colostrum to their lambs in their first day or so of life. We will also give pedicures and check udders to help verify successful breeding, as we do not have an ultrasound to confirm this. Everyone will get vitamins and minerals, and at some point we will separate the pregnant ewes from the rest of the flock.
We will also be setting up our lambing kit – all of the medications and supplies we might need during the 2 weeks of craziness! Hopefully, as these girls are now no longer first-timers, we will have very few hiccups like we did when they were newbies in 2020!
So grateful, meanwhile, for longer days, shorter nights, greener pastures, growing warmth, returning songbirds, spring peepers, growing tree buds, and soon – frolicking lambs! Come soon, Spring!
Stay tuned! Lambs expected for Easter 2023!
So it’s that time of year again. As things are quieting down in the gardens and pastures, sheep hormones and pheromones have been starting to percolate. Breeding season!
We apologize for the long delay in posting on our blog. With many things going on after the start of the pandemic, we decided not to breed the sheep in 2021, so all has been fairly quiet on the farm in that regard. The sheep have been doing what they do best – keeping our pastures trimmed and fertilized. They’ve been healthy and only requiring the routine maintenance that we felt just wasn’t that blog-worthy.
Over this past year we’ve seen the writing on the wall with regard to food security for our family.
Just before Thanksgiving, we introduced Romeo and Cyrano to 6 ewes. The ewes that were bred to Romeo 2 years ago were put with Cyrano, and the 6 that were with Cyrano 2 years ago were placed with Romeo. This will create new genetics in the offspring in April.
As you can see, the rams made fools of themselves pretty much immediately!
And the ewes were pretty interested, too!
We kept them together until a week ago and are hoping that all of the ewes are bred!
Reintroducing the rams to each other is a whole other adventure! It takes a while for them to remember that they were “drinking buddies” only a few weeks ago – there are new smells that drive them wild – literally – trying to “ram” each other! To reduce the ramming speed they can achieve, we put them in a smaller area and strategically placed tires on the ground to keep them from getting a running start at each other! We interspersed the tires with hay bales, hoping that their tummies would take their minds off of the smells. We also sprayed each of them in key locations with deodorizing spray to minimize the smells from the other ewes.
After a couple of hours they seemed much more subdued, and we were able to return them to their normal pasture!
Of course the ewes, when they were reintroduced, had some minor girly issues with each other, but that seemed to pass quickly, thankfully!
Our removal date for the rams was key this season. We have a wedding in the family in early May, and we wanted to pull the rams out so that no lambs would come after the end of April. Lambing season keeps us on our toes enough and can be exhausting! We wanted to have all of the lambs on the ground well in advance of the wedding! Of course that meant introducing them earlier so that the earliest breeding date could put lambs on the ground Easter Sunday!
This will bring back memories for us of our very first lambing of our Icelandics in CT. I will never forget spending Holy Saturday FREEZING, sleeping in a shed with a ewe who was rejecting her lamb! After a couple of intense days our work (and my freezing) paid off, and Matilda accepted Daisy! (check out the hyperlink for photos!) Those beautiful ewes are still alive and living in California!
So here’s to the hope that you won’t have to wait as long for the next blog entry! First lambs are due Easter weekend, and we will have no shortage of photos and videos from our ovine obstetrics ward for you! Just think through these dark winter months of frolicking lambs on green growing pastures!
Our family wishes you and yours all the best for a blessed and Merry Christmas! May the love and peace of the Christ Child reign in your homes and hearts and be spread throughout the world!
Sheep social distancing
Big day today at Morning Star Meadows. This was a day we had to warn the neighbors about!
Normally, when we hear lots of vocalizing from the sheep, they are either alerting us to a problem or letting us know they aren’t happy about something. Some of our neighbors have been kind enough to let us know if they hear something that concerns them. Most commonly they vocalize when they see us and think they are about to be rotated to a new pasture! They call out loudly, demanding we move them ASAP!
Today they will be talking a LOT to each other, so we alerted the neighbors a few days ago in preparation. It is the language of love that the ewes and lambs have had since the lambs were born. They have learned to call to each other when they are separated in the pasture so that they can reunite, but today that reunion will not be possible. We are physically separating (distancing?!) them for the first time in their lives, and they are not too happy about it.
Although it is a “baaa-d” day of sorts for the lambs, we are trying to do this as gently as possible, doing what is known as “fence line weaning,” where lamb and ewe can see each other through the electric fence. In the top photo, we had just sorted them all after weighing them, taking fecal samples, and checking them for parasites. The ewes had their quarterly pedicure as well. Here they are separated by the fencing inside our yards where we work with the sheep.
Auntie Felicity, our ewe who failed to fall pregnant last fall, is with them. She’s not too happy about being apart from the other ewes, but she has always seemed to enjoy being with the lambs, and they will be happy to have her presence amongst them as they get used to being separated from their moms.
Here you can see her leading the pack!
This weaning process will allow the ewes to regain their body condition a bit prior to the next breeding cycle. In about a month we will bring them all in again, weigh them and re-sort the flock. We will reintroduce the ewe lambs to the ewe flock (the mom’s will no longer have an udder from which the lambs would try to nurse) until breeding season. The boys, who have all been castrated, will either stay as their own flock or hang out with their dads, the rams.
So far we have been able to work our flock without the use of sheep dogs. We have some agile young sons and daughters who have helped us through the years! We took advantage of their friends who were visiting today – the more bodies, the smoother things go! It does truly amaze me that a good sheepdog can do the work of all these people!
This video shows the lambs, and Felicity, heading into their weaning area, seeing their moms and realizing they are separated. It’s going to be a noisy day or two around here! We will keep a close eye on them for the rest of the day to be sure no one tries to test the fence and cross over! Social distancing is NO FUN!
Lambs are thriving!
The lambs are about 7 weeks old, now – give or take. They are all growing quickly, and their moms are eating and drinking plenty to try to keep up with both the hot weather and the nutritional needs of their lambs.
Every 3 days or so we move the ewes and lambs onto a brand new section of pasture adjacent to where they had been. Usually by the end of day 2 or definitely on day 3, we can’t walk past them without them loudly voicing their desire to be moved. Oftentimes it is too early to be moved, but they tell us anyway! As you know, the grass is always greener on the other side!
In the first video, they are still in the mob grazed section. They have definitely mowed it down well, eating weeds and grasses, and leaving mostly fibrous stems of the flowering parts of the grasses. When they see us with the UTV starting to move the fence into the next area, they know moving to the new area is imminent, and they get particularly vocal about it!
It brings a shepherd an element of joy to wake up on moving day – especially this Italian shepherd who loves to feed people (and sheep!) We know that the sheep will go to a nice clean and nutritious location for the next few days – no internal parasites and plenty of nutritious forage! Thought you might like to have a snapshot of what makes us happy!
Enjoy!
Rebonding a rejected twin
Sometimes your day just doesn’t go according to plan. Especially when you have a farm!
This day started out with an early morning delivery of twin rams. We watch the birth, make sure they are both up and standing, weigh them, dip their navels, and make sure both are nursing. We put them in the lambing jug with the heat lamp to let them bond, assuming all will be right when we return in 45 minutes to check them.
When I go back to see how things are going 45 minutes later, you can imagine my shock to see mom head butting the second born (brown) lamb away from her -like seriously NOT happy with him! This was NOT in my plan for the day! I was hoping to go for a walk, plant potatoes, make dinner…NOPE! Now we have to figure out how to make this relationship work!
First we tried to squeeze them a bit tighter in the jug so that she wouldn’t be able to push him around so forcefully. She was still intent on taking him out, and extremely anxious, so after trying this for several hours, we finally succumbed to a head stanchion for mom.
Here they all have a bit more freedom of movement. She can lie down, but she can’t go after her lamb. He and his brother can nurse and play and move around. She still gets to see both for this time where she needs to work out that he is hers. Over the next couple of days she will get more used to him and his smell and will become more bonded…hopefully!
Not the best situation, but if all goes according to plan…IF(!) …this will be far better for him vs. bottle feeding him. She does still talk to him and will occasionally lick him – she’s just very confused. We are hopeful!
Growing by leaps and bounds!
As of yesterday morning, just a little over one week into our lambing time, our humble flock at Morning Star Meadows officially doubled its number! Lambs number 13 and 14 were born to one of our tan ewes, Faith! We have had our share of ups and downs, learned many new things, and have been rewarded so far by many healthy lambs that, as you can see in the video, are truly enjoying life here!
We can’t say much for full nights of sleep, but the effort has been very worthwhile. The week started off with all of the ewes in a pasture adjacent to the barn and just beside the house so we could easily survey them day and night to watch for signs of ewes nearing labor.
We would get up every 2 hours or so to walk down with a flashlight to see the status of each ewe, hoping not to miss signs of an impending birth.
Our first birth was from Prudence (sire, Cyrano.) She is a big ewe, so we were surprised that she gave birth to a single ram, but not surprised that he was huge at 11 lbs! We all loved his beautiful coloration, and he was very soon christened “Bucky.”
Twins followed later that day from Filia (sire, Romeo) – a white ram and a white ewe lamb.
We got a little breather the following day, but the day after brought another set of twins, this time black, boy and girl, from Hope and Cyrano.
In the very early hours of the next morning, we awoke for our 3am check to a surprise! Sophia was standing in the middle of the pasture with 2 lambs near her. We went to check her to bring her to the barn, carrying the two lambs. One was very small and doing poorly, the other was strong and standing. As we were luring her to the barn with these two ram lambs, she was calling to them and faintly nearby we heard another lamb calling out! We were shocked that a third lamb had wandered away from her – actually ending up outside of the electric wire protection! Somehow this little guy – strong as anything, had made it past top security to explore the nearby strip of woods near our driveway! Sophia had had triplet boys, but sadly the smallest didn’t make it. The other two, one all black and one white with a black cap/cape, are doing great. Crazy enough the one who “escaped” – the white one – was the 7th lamb born at the farm and thereby earned the number “007.” The kids have named him “Bond” for his amazing pursuits! Cyrano is the proud father.
The following day brought another set of twins – this time both ewe lambs! Nina did a tremendous job bring them into the world, and Cyrano is their father. The smaller brown ewe lamb is a gorgeous and somewhat unusual color, and she has been named Mocha.
Another day off before a double hitter. That day we again had two sets of twins. Fay (sire, Cyrano) gave birth to a large ram lamb – a very beautiful burnt orange color, followed by a white ewe lamb. Sadly, despite all we could do, including mouth to snout respiration, we could not revive her. She never took her first breath. The ram is thriving, though!
Later, Bessie (sire, Romeo) birthed ram/ewe twins. Her ram lamb is black, and the ewe, white. All went well!
And yesterday, just a little over a week before this all began, Faith (sire, Romeo) gave birth to boy/girl twins. The ewe lamb is white, and the ram lamb has gorgeous markings, including brown ears like a bunny, and what looks almost like eyeliner!
And today we await the last of the ewes (Joy, Felicity, Charity and Grace) to reach their hour! Things have gotten a little easier for us shepherds. When we began this process, our barn camera was directed at the lambing jugs so we could watch the new moms and lambs. About midway through we had some nasty cold, wet weather and decided to bring the remaining moms-to-be into the barn. We didn’t want new babies born on the pasture, exposed to harsh weather. We turned the camera around so that we could now watch the ewes 24/7 from the house. Last night was the first night we actually stayed in bed the whole night!
I guess you could ALMOST say we go to sleep counting sheep, as this is commonly the view on our phone or Ipads (below is actually a current screen shot of the camera view of the ewes who are still expectant.) We promise to update you as soon as all the ewes are delivered, and as soon as we are back in a higher state of conciousness after a few full nights of sleep!
Maternity wing
For the next few weeks we will be spending a lot of time with this mob! We are pretty certain that at least 11 of the 12 are pregnant! Now we wait for the “when” and “how many!”
Today, after a crazy spring blustery snow squall, we finished preparations for our maternity wing and labor and delivery ward.
This is a relatively small area where we can keep close tabs on the girls as they approach their due dates. Tomorrow marks the first potential due date, counting from the time the rams were introduced to the ewes back in November. The girls are close to the barn where we have set up lambing jugs, as we mentioned in our last post. When we see signs of impending labor, we will bring that ewe in to the barn and isolate her in a quiet stall so that we can keep an even closer eye one her, and where she will be on camera for us to watch from the house on our wireless barn camera set up.
As for now, all had health checks today. Some udders are much larger than others, and some ewes are waddling a bit slower than others, but none are showing any signs of labor. They are happily chowing down on hay and minerals, and getting used to their new location.
This week we also started to learn the process of examining their manure for evidence of harmful parasites. Generally we check each animal’s mucous membranes for evidence of anemia using a color chart. This is a quick and easy way to assess parasitic disease when we bring them through the chute . But some sheep actually have more parasites than their membranes reveal. When we do a fecal exam for parasite eggs, it takes a lot longer and requires a microscope and a special slide that allows you to count the number of eggs per gram of feces, but this added procedure gives us a much better picture of how big a worm burden the animal has. More eggs shed by the animal does not necessarily mean an animal that is sicker. It can mean an animal that has a high resistance to the worms which can be an asset passed on to their offspring. Of course some will show extremely high numbers of eggs, and sometimes a shepherd will cull (remove) that animal from the flock because they are source of parasite exposure to the rest of the flock. Our counts today were low, which we expected for this time of year. The parasite we worry about most, the barberpole worm (named for it’s barberpole appearance due to the sheep’s blood in its alimentary canal), goes into a sort of winter dormancy, but will soon be making it’s presence known as the days get longer, warmer and more humid, and especially in the ewes after lambing when their systems are more stressed.
Well I won’t bore you any further with manure and worms! Time to get some rest before our days and nights start to blur into one when those lambs begin arriving! I’m hoping to get some great photos and videos to share with you all! If we had better internet (which I was able to actually get set up in the barn today using our wireless camera system!), I would definitely do a Facebook live for you! Sadly, the quarantine will keep us from having guests here for lambing this year. I love sharing the moment of birth of an animal – it never fails to amaze me!
Amidst a pandemic, the world seems to stop, except on the farm
As much of the world hunkers down in fear, isolation and quarantine in the midst of a global pandemic, we feel so blessed to be (mostly) together as a family on our 35 acres.
We have been home here for over a week, with only the occasional venture over the ridge and through the woods to Grammy’s house to exchange food and hijack her more reliable internet. If we weren’t watching the news, we would have no idea about the pandemic affecting the world, except that our mailman is delivering packages with gloves on today!
The animals continue their daily routines, the chickens are giving us more eggs as the days lengthen, the spring flowers are opening, seeds and onion sets are waiting to be planted, the rhubarb and garlic is sprouting, and soon we’ll see asparagus break ground. We must continually remind ourselves that outside of our little haven, the stores are empty, many businesses are closed, thousands of people are laid off and struggling each day, and more people are getting sick from COVID-19.
We are trying to stay healthy and keep ourselves ready for caring for newborn lambs and their moms in about a month!
Today we rounded up the ewes for the first time since late December when we separated them from the rams after breeding season. They have survived a very mild winter. Most of the time, when they weren’t gorging on round bales of second cut hay or ruminating near their shed, they were taking themselves out to enjoy the stockpiled pasture. Sometimes it’s difficult to say what they enjoy more, but it is safe to say that grazing is a strong instinct, and they will keep grazing even when presented with an abundance of hay.
Roy has been setting up the barn with lambing jugs to contain a ewe as she approaches her time. These will be bedded with straw. There she can be separate from the flock, undisturbed as she labors and delivers and cares for her new lambs. She will remain there for a day or two after giving birth, and then another ewe will take her place.
And no, I didn’t climb up in the rafters to take that picture! I took that picture as a screenshot on our IPad which now bears a program that communicates with a camera in the barn! Yes, we are going high tech with our new farm (or lazy, you might call it) and instead of wandering down to the barn many times through the night, we will be watching our sheep from the house! I know – some shepherds WE are! Imagine that Bible story retold, “While shepherds watched their sheep at night, remotely from their tent on their IPhone 11, an angel appeared to them!” Yeah – just doesn’t seem right, does it?
So our goal today was most importantly to vaccinate the ewes prior to the birth of their lambs. The ewes were due for their annual booster vaccine against clostridial diseases, including tetanus and a few others that are dangerous to sheep, and this vaccine will carry immunity into the colostrum that their lambs will drink and thereby receive what is called passive immunity for their first weeks of life. The lambs will then need a vaccination when they are ready to produce their own immunity at about 4-6 weeks of age.
Also, to prepare these girls for the big day, we trimmed hooves and gave them a dose of a vitamin/mineral paste which includes Vitamin E and selenium, which is very scarce in the soils of our area, and therefore in the food that they are eating. Deficiencies in these can cause problems for the ewe and for her newborn lamb.
We also weighed them all, checked their eyelid color for signs of parasite caused anemia, and checked their udders for signs of development indicating possible pregnancy.
As you can see above, Roy also tried ballottement of their abdomens to try to feel lambs in the uterus. He holds his hand firm on the animal’s left over their rumen, and then bounces his hand over the right side in an attempt to rock the uterus in the fluid of the abdomen in hopes that a lamb in the uterus would bounce off the inner wall of the abdomen under his hand. One day I hope we will have an ultrasound machine so this all becomes a lot more definite and scientific!
The ewes have returned to their winter pastures, and in a few weeks we will move them closer to the barn. At that time we will bring the rams in for vaccinations, hoof trimming, weighing and physicals.
While we continue to quarantine and wonder what the future holds for our country and for this hidden enemy virus, we wait not with fear but with hope – and with joyous expectation for the new life that will hopefully grace our farm in a month’s time! We ask that God protect you all — that you stay safely away from ALL illnesses – and that you stay tuned for many photos and hopefully videos of the miracle of life on the farm!
The Nuptuals!
Well, you can see from the photo above that the weather was absolutely perfect for today’s nuptuals! Above you can see Romeo pursuing one of his harem. She looks totally unimpressed! Everything went fairly well. We did have one “runaway bride”, but I think she’s learned now to stand by her man and hopefully won’t stray again!
In the video below you’ll see us bringing the rams over to the “meet up” venue first. It’s only right that they be waiting for their ladies, and not the other way around.
We set up temporary fencing to help guide them across the driveway, then pushed them right up into the handling yards.
After getting them into the race, we marked them each with a homemade version of a raddle marker. This will serve to mark the ewe when she is served by the ram. That helps us when we can’t keep eyes on them all the time so that we can try to establish breeding dates. In the past I’ve made this by mixing powdered tempra paint with vegetable shortening, but this time the store didn’t have the paint, so I went with the next best thing – Koolaid! Just a note, though — Koolaid powder does not readily dissolve in Crisco, so I had to wet it first! At least this smells more interesting – cherry and raspberry!
We then put each ram in their own pen using the sorting gates as they come out of the chute. They really didn’t like being separated, but they soon won’t mind one bit!
Here come the brides!
And, keeping it friendly for all audiences, here’s Romeo with his girls in their new pasture. There is so much lovely stockpiled pasture there for them to eat that he’s torn between chowing down and making himself better known to his brides!
And now we will watch and wait. Hopefully the girls will take a shine to the boys and all will be over quickly and without a hitch!
Morning Star Meadows Farm 