Mother's Day Barn Action!

Kitty & Mountain Lion - Let's Stay Out Here - It's Way Too Busy In The Barn!

It started out with nothing happening at the 5AM pasture check ... there were no lambs born yesterday either.  Mr. WRF said, "I get the feeling that we're going to suddenly end up with a pile of lambs.".  Guess what's happened since he made that comment?
3 sets of twins at 8AM, 11AM, & Noon.  One of the older ewes, #39, was trying to steal newborn lambs from a younger ewe.  Then her water broke & now she's in labor.  Since she was so interested in those lambs, we let her follow that little family as we brought them up to the barn.  Ha!  We outsmarted that sheep ...
Meanwhile, I'm working on fleeces for the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest next weekend.  Here is a special request Suffolk fleece from a nearby farm --- we don't have that breed of sheep here at Wild Rose Farm.

Suffolk Yearling Fleece With Washed Samples

Suffolk Sample 1 - Grease Fleece "Before"

Suffolk Sample 1 - Washed Fleece "After"

OK - the break is over - it's back to the barn and pasture to see what's going on now!  :~0

Mt. Llama ...

When you're a llama in a pen of lambs, you're the highest point!  And ... lambs want to play king of the mountain.  To be fair in this story,  we all know that they climb on the ewes too.

Hey Llama, Wanna Play With Us?

After the 5AM pasture check, the #99 lambs decided that climbing the llama might be fun.  Snow White was not interested in lamby acrobatics ...


You Guys Are Starting To Bug Me!

Basically, after pawing on her and climbing over her, the lambs leave when she turns her head towards them ... good riddance she seems to say.  We had some rain off and on today, so we didn't let the barn crew outside to graze.  By the 8PM pasture check, a new crew of lambs was back at it ... scaling Mt. Llama.

How Many Of Them Are Back There???

With her "barrel clip", the lambs can't get any traction on most of her body ... and she put up with it for quite some time ... getting used to her scappy little pen mates.

After A While, You Get Used To Them ...

The lambs either wander away or the llama gets up and walks away, ending the fun.  Animal dynamics ...

Llama & Sheep First Outing ...

Radar's Snow White - Heading Out To Graze

The mixing pen ewes and lambs were out grazing today with the llama.  The ewes were thrilled to be eating green grass and Snow White was munching away too.  This was the first outing where we get the ewes and lambs out of the barn together.  There's always lamby confusion as the ewes are preoccupied with grazing and ignore their bleating lambs for a while.

Snow White with Sheep Underfoot

 Snow White spotted Glenda the donkey in the next paddock & couldn't take her eyes off of her.  Her home herd had just learned what horses were recently, so she didn't send out an alarm call although she kept a close eye on Glenda. 

Watching The Sheep Return To The Barn

Then there was the return to the barn accompanied by more bleating!   Once the lambs find their mother, the noise subsides and the barn becomes quiet.

What Lambs Are Learning ...

Wild Rose Farm Lamb Tasting Sheep Mineral Mix

Lambs learn to mimic their dams ... these lambs are sampling the the sheep trace mineral mix.  A perfect (perfectly lucky!) shot of the lamb sticking it's tongue out licking the mineral off of it's nose. 

Wild Rose Farm Twin Lambs Touching Water

We try to keep the buckets full to the top so that the lambs can touch their noses to the surface and learn to drink.  They tap the surface a few times and snort, but quickly get the idea.  
No lambs so far today - temps in the 70's, so mid-day is spent under the pine trees for the pasture ewes ...

Lamb & Llama Introductions!

Wild Rose Farm Lambs - Wow .... She's A Big One!

From the perspective of a lamb, a llama is a BIG thing!  These two lambs seem to be awestruck. :)  This evening, we removed the dividing livestock panels between Snow White and the lamb mixing pen.  No pressure, we just let the llama enter at her own pace.  It only took a few minutes and she walked past the hay bale feeder and started checking everything out.  The ewes were unphased ... remember, they know what a llama is, so they pretty much ignored her.  I stayed in the barn for a couple of hours watching the interactions while I was working on some fleeces.

Impressive ... Are You Our New Leader?

The lambs were comical when they randomly noticed what was on top of those legs.  Snow White wandered through the pen sniffing occasionally, eating hay out of the feeder, & drinking from the ewe's water buckets.  You can see by how she is carrying her tail up that she is interested in everything and on alert.  It will take a little while for the llama to get used to these little creatures brushing past her legs and scampering about ... wonder how much sleep she'll get tonight? 

Snow White Sniffing A Lamb

The lamb count for today is one single born this morning & a set of twins born in the early afternoon. 

Night Pasture Check

Join us on the Wild Rose Farm late night pasture check.  Here's what it looks like when we go out to see if there is any lambing activity going on out there ... let your eyes adjust to the dark (!) & click on pics for a better view.

Approaching The Ewes - We Sweep The Pasture Looking For Reflecting Eyes

Now that we've found them just under the pine trees, we scan across the group with a tight beam looking at each ewe.  I usually talk quietly to let them know it's just me out there ...

Wild Rose Farm - Looking At Each Ewe

Next a wide angle look to see if anyone is separating off or it they all look settled as a tightly flocked group bedded down or ready to bed down ...

Ewes In A Group With None Separated

Now back to the barn where the llama can be seen cushed, but watching us coming in from the field.

Wild Rose Farm - Barn Lights & Llama Watching

A Fairly Quiet Day ...

When we last left the sheep, it was Sunday evening and we didn't see any impending births for the near term ... we were at 22 ewes to lamb.  Here are 3 Rambouillets - gratuitous pic for Andrew if he's following along!  :)

Three Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet Ewes Due To Lamb

We didn't have any lambs at the 5AM pasture check, but we did end up with Rambouillet #405 having a set of twin ram lambs in the field around 11AM today.  The ewe & lambs are now in the barn and are doing fine. 

Rambouillet #405 Cleaning Off Twin Ram Lambs

Pasture check this evening was much the same ... no one looks like they're ready to lamb tonight.  Here is our smallest/shortest ewe in the flock, cross-bred ewe #34.  She's voted most likely to cross file as a Southdown!  ;)

Wild Rose Farm X-bred Ewe #34 - Low To The Ground!

Her triplet daughter from 2012, ewe #133, had a set of twins on Sunday.  Now here she is below standing next to, perhaps the tallest sheep in the flock, Rambouillet ewe #410 ...

WRF X-bred Ewe #34 And WRF Rambouillet Ewe #410

Finally, here's what happens when you pick up a feed trough ... Baa!  Where's the grain ?!?

Wild Rose Farm Bred Ewes Sounding Off For Grain!