The Fast and the Furious.

As anticipated we had to wait nearly 2 weeks before the first batch of lambs were born. As I mentioned in my previous post, we put the ram in with one ewe and a couple of wether lambs when he first arrived to get him used to his new surroundings. After the two week period we let him loose with the rest of the flock.

Our first lamb was born on February 9th, our next ones were born last Saturday, February 21st. This was a set of triplets to one of our favourite older Dorset ewes. Unfortunately one of the ram lambs from the triplets died that first night. Sunday and Monday things are now starting to snowball. Twins from an East Friesian Sunday (Male and Female), twins from another East Friesian Monday morning (2 males), and a single ewe from another East Friesian this afternoon (Monday).

For all the stories we have heard about East Friesian lambs being quite weak, these ones are showing remarkable hardiness and this afternoon's one was up and walking within a few minutes of birth.

UPDATE: 27th February
I added some pictures of the lambs that are now with the rest of the flock. The bottom image of the three above is a lamb we have called "Noisy" because he can be heard from the house. I had to deliver both him and his sister. On 25th their mother we believed gave birth to a ram. The lamb was by itself in the field and when we picked it up she was the only ewe to come running, so we led her into one of the jugs. Yesterday morning she was on her side in labour. Believing that it was 48 hours after the first lamb in all likelihood this was a still born finally making its way out (sheep can lamb 24 hours apart but 48 is we believe unheard of) I donned surgical gloves and began to help with the birth. to my amazement it opened its mouth so I realized it was alive so as the placenta membrane had burst and its nose was barely exposed I had to pull it.

It was a little girl and she was perfectly fine. 30 minutes later and mama goes into labour again, so I assisted in a second birth, this time a little boy. We are now unsure as to who the mother isof the original lamb we attributed to this ewe, but it is likely an East Friesian who lambed in the morning. we tried to see if she would nurse the little boy but she wasn't having it so we returned him to his 'foster' mother and her two newborns.

Lambing Season Underway

This morning, just after 8.00am we were presented with our first lamb of the season. The mother was one of the older ewes we had kept from the original 50 that were acquired when we bought the farm in 2007. The lamb is a ewe, which is of course what we hope they all will be, and she has the East Friesian characteristics from the delicate little hooves to the narrow pointed head. If we have another dozen or so exactly like her I will be extremely happy.

Our timing was off by six days (the first was due to be born on the 15th), but this ewe was the one we had penned up with our ram for two weeks prior to him joining the rest of the flock, so we expected at least one early one.

When we arrived last year we got here right in the throes of lambing, so it seemed as though, apart from a steep learning curve, the lambs didn't feel truly ours. This year it will be different, knowing we specifically bred the ewes with the East Friesian ram we acquired, for the specific purpose of building a milking flock. Well today seems as though the hard work has begun to pay off and it feels as though we have taken another giant step forward.

In honour of the first lamb's birth, we wanted regular visitors to the blog to suggest a name for her. Post your suggestions in the comments below or email me at dherber@catesbyfarms.com.