Flock Check @ Evening Feeding

Wild Rose Farm - Did You Say Feeding Time?

The ewes are now grazing in the bottom half of the pasture behind that gate and over the hill. Their bottom water tank is just over to the left near that blooming dogwood tree. While their fresh section of grazing is being set up, they come up to the barn for their evening grain ration.

Snow White Says "Meh" ...

The Ewes Keep Coming! 

Once they've reached the barn, they are completely occupied with eating.  I can do a check of everyone to see if there is any chance of a ewe that is close to lambing in the group … nothing tonight, so they all went back down to the fresh break of grazing!

Wild Rose Farm Evening Feeding

Snow White Feature!

Wild Rose Farm - Radar Llamas - Radars Snow White 

We moved the grazing flock today and that provided a chance for some close-up pictures. Snow White's flock is down to the ewes that haven't lambed yet, plus the ewe lambs that she wintered with in the barn. Here she is in the paddock as I'm looking over the ewes … notice her eye is always on my position!

Snow White Watching Behind Herself ...

She was dewormed yesterday, so she has reason to be suspicious! Now that she's out grazing again, she gets dewormed mainly as a preventative for the deer meningeal worm.

Evening Parting Shots ....

Ewes Munching Fresh Hay in Mixing Pen Feed Racks

Here are a couple of shots from the shed roof side of the barn, aka the "mixing pen". Lambs & ewes go over here once they are bonded and moved out of their lambing pen. These feed racks are a great addition to the barn. We had a chance to buy some sturdy used galvanized equipment last fall from another local farmer … very nice and they are set up as a divider.

Wild Rose Farm Lambs Resting in Mixing Pen

Right at their feet, off to the side is a group of lambs resting in a sunny area. Just back in now from a pasture check, all is quiet for the evening. We had a hard freeze last night … even caused the rhubarb flower stems to flop over (got to get those cut off anyway!). And yes, there was a dusting of snow on the roof. Pretty late for snow around here!

Another Set of Triplets at Wild Rose Farm!

Wild Rose Farm #142 Cleaning Her Ewe Lamb!

Both of the ewes that we put in the barn last night had lambs early this morning. When we went out to the barn around 6:30 AM, ewe #142 was standing there with her head in the corner. Hmmmm ... that means she's thinking of something! We let both of them out into the hospital pen and after about an hour of grazing they separated. Ewe #142 went into labor and within an hour had delivered this first lamb in a nice clean grassy area. Here she is earnestly cleaning her lamb and "chuckling" the whole time.

Wild Rose Farm #142 Tending to a Second Ewe Lamb!

In a little over an hour, she delivered a 2nd ewe lamb. At this point we can see that there will be another lamb coming as she continues to work on the two lambs that she has now.

Wild Rose Farm #142 Turns Her Attention to the Ram Lamb!

Within 15 minutes of delivering lamb number two, a third lamb easily joined them! Wow. We were very lucky to have a trouble free birthing on clean pasture to such an attentive ewe.
All three were moved up to the barn and are doing well as of 9PM tonight.
Meanwhile, as we moved this group to the barn, companion ewe #152 was restless and starting into labor nearby. Her she is circling & then laying down to deliver the first of what turned out to be a set of twins.  They are also doing well tonight!

Wild Rose Farm #152 Just Before Delivering Her First Twin

We've Been Busy ...

Wild Rose Farm Sunny Pasture Scene Today

We've had several sets of twins born since our last post and today was no exception. The weather has been mostly "decent" and no one has tempted fate by lambing outside in the rain.  Snow White & the ewes can take shelter underneath the pine trees and they do have access to the barn if we expect a heavy rain.

Wild Rose Farm #141 & Her Twins

Around noon today we found one of our crossbred ewes, #141, in the pasture delivering a ewe lamb. She looked like she was going to have another lamb and we moved her up to the barn. Checking on her later around 2PM she hadn't delivered a second lamb, so an investigation was in order. Yep, there was another lamb in there and he was presenting back feet first. It was time to put on gloves and the long OB sleeve to help and pull the lamb. This must be done carefully, but very quickly. Once the umbilical cord breaks, it triggers the sharp intake of breath in the newborn and the head must come out and be cleaned off immediately ... all's well that ends well! That's him on the left after we wiped him off and now the ewe is taking over. It's also a good idea to towel some of the birthing fluids from him onto the first born lamb to make them both smell similar to the ewe.
By now it was around 3PM and it was time to make the daily pasture fence shift ...

Wild Rose Farm #129 & Her Triplets!

I was puttering around in the barn working on getting a couple of the pens ready when I heard a call from outside. Mr.Wild Rose Farm said that there were more lambs & to get a pen ready while he brought them up. Whoa! Our crossbred ewe #129 had delivered and cleaned off a set of triplets sometime after we brought in #141 and I took that banner picture above.
She followed right up to the barn and into the big corner pen that we have reserved (just in case) for triplets.  She has two ewe lambs and one ram lamb and is taking care of all of them. As time goes on, we'll watch them carefully, but for now they're all active and nursing.
Since the whole flock followed the triplets up to the barn, we did some other work with them & replaced a couple of missing ear tags.  Then we sent them back out to pasture for the evening with Snow White.
The temps are dropping overnight with high winds, so we have 2 ewes that look to be very close to lambing up in the barn tonight … you never know!

Two Sets of Twins!

Wild Rose Farm #151 - Twins!

Time to catch up on the lambing season … we had two sets of twins born on the 27th. Our pretty horned crossbred ewe #151 has a ewe lamb & a ram lamb. We just tagged & vaccinated them this afternoon & the ram lamb will have horns too.  Both are doing well!

Wild Rose Farm #144 - Twins Too!

Late in the evening, and actually a few minutes into the 28th, #144 delivered a set of twin ram lambs. She seemed to be "thinking about" lambing for a couple of days as you've seen.  Here she has them cleaned off ... the one lamb has his head down searching, but he needs to go towards the other end!
Snow White continues her pasture duty with the rest of the flock.  This is the first time I've ever seen her munching on the white pines …

Snow White Snacking on the White Pines

Still Waiting ...

Wild Rose Farm - #144 Thinking & Chewing Her Cud 4-21-2020!

As of this morning, April 24th, none of the other ewes have lambed.  Like we said, our breeding records were  predicting April 20 to April 21 for the start of our lambing season, but our first was on the 16th. Wrong on both accounts so far ...  Stay tuned because we sure are!