Snow White At Your Service!

Wild Rose Farm - Snow White Watching Over Things!

We came home near sunset to see a ewe & lamb separated off in the pasture field with Snow White about a hundred feet away. She had ambled closer and stood watch for a while as we got our boots on and headed to the field. It was a nice breezy 60 degrees & perfect for lambing.

Hey, What's That Behind Ewe?

She gently checks out the lamb and sniffs around at her new pasture acquaintance ...

Time To Go To The Barn

Farewell, new found lamby friend ... Snow White watches her leave for the barn!

Wild Rose Farm #145 & Ewe Lamb 

Next Up - Twins!

Wild Rose Farm - 6:30AM Pasture Scene

The picture above is what it looks like when a "granny ewe" is hanging out with another ewe and her newborn lambs --- enlarge the pic & see them off to the far right?  Sure enough, Dorset ewe #116 had a set of twins and Rambouillet ewe #407 was hoping that they were hers!  She followed right along when they were brought up to the barn.

Wild Rose Farm - Granny Ewe Following Lambs Up To Barn!

In this case, #116 is an older, experienced ewe who's raised triplets in the past, so she isn't about to be run off from her lambs by another ewe. She is on the right in the picture and the plump #407 is coming along on the other side of Mr. Wild Rose Farm. We had to put the lambs down in the chute & close the gate behind them and #116 to physically separate them.

Ewe #407 Doesn't Want To Leave ...

It's mostly a case of hormones in an older ewe near lambing time - she wants a lamb! We sent her back out to the pasture & will continue to keep an eye on her.

Twin Ram & Ewe Lambs - Settled In Comfortably With Mom!

Nothing else as of 8:30 PM ...

First Lamb of 2018!

Wild Rose Farm #146 With Ram Lamb @ 2:30AM

The 2018 lambing season has started at Wild Rose Farm! Ewe #146 was standing off by herself at 11:30PM & circling. Her water hadn't broken yet, so we set the alarm for 2AM. It's about 34 degrees outside and dry.  We found her with a single ram lamb that was all cleaned off & he has nursed. She was also closely accompanied by a "granny ewe" (one of the older Rambouillets) who really wanted the lamb too. Both of them followed us up to the barn and we had to separate them and shoo the other ewe back to the pasture. Usually when that happens, the second ewe lambs later that day.  We'll see what happens!  Now back to sleep ...

Waiting For Lambs!

Wild Rose Farm 6:30AM - No Lambs Here!

Do you see what I see? That's right, a llama and a flock of ewes grazing this morning at 6:30AM. No lambs and no ewes separated off or looking anxious.  Last year our lambing started on April 28th. We put the rams in 2 calendar days earlier in November, so there was a chance that lambing could start a couple of days earlier too.  Not so, ha!  Anyway, we're nice and close to the barn now after grazing the "Back 40" for a week.  Stay tuned ...

Shearing Done!

Wild Rose Farm Horned Yearling Ewe Lamb After Shearing

Isn't She a Nice One? 

Wow - where did the week go? All 40 sheep and llama Snow White were sheared on Sunday the 15th. Of course, it rained for a couple of days and then we had snow and it stayed cool. We kept everyone sheltered and bedded down in the barn for the week.
Today we did the annual CDT vaccinations, trimmed some hooves, and generally looked everyone over. Snow White eluded capture today and stood outside in the pasture nearby watching the activities in the paddock.

Annual Vaccination - Barn Book & Notes

After we finished up, the ewes went back out to join Snow White and we moved all of them to graze in our "Back 40" pasture.  We'll start our lambing pasture checks tomorrow ... it's getting close!

Wild Rose Farm - Snow White & Ewes To Pasture

Before Shearing!

Dorset Ewe #118 Enjoys Spring!

It's almost time for the shearing ... stay tuned for the "after pictures! The ewes are very fluffy and they're ready to get all of that wool off ...

Saturday April 14th - "Before"