Friday, May 20, 2016

Day X and XI: Lambs everywhere

Hello Everyone!
 
Bottle feeding is soothing
My baby Eurydice has a twin here in Vatn!!
     


















        It has been a while! It seems that I am following Becca's posting pattern, but I think that is the sheep's fault more than mine as they keep us super busy and tired all the time. At this point we only have about 150 ewes still left to lamb, most of which are in that outside pen that is impossible to catch them in. The busiest time for lambing is at night and early morning, the sheep think that this is a good time to have their babies. Maria also thinks that they hold their lambs in if its cold and as soon as it warms up they all decide to pop. Yesterday we had a relatively warm day so there was just one after the other, but there wasn't much to help them with. Most of the ewes had no trouble in labor.
 
And the worlds best mom award goes to...
        Today has been a tiny bit more exciting. We had one ewe early this morning give birth to quadruplets! That's right! QUADRUPLETS!!! It was crazy! She had her first two and they were regular twin size so they didn't think anymore were coming but then they came back to check on her and there was another! The same size as the first two, they were surprised to say the least but then they were SURE that was it over so they left to go check on other sheep, but when they came back there was ANOTHER! and it was just a tiny bit smaller than the first three. That one was definitely a surprise.
This ewe is also very protective of all four of her babies. She will actively attack anyone that goes near her brood. She also has a HUGE udder and Maria thinks she is able to feed all four of them. Right now we are just watching them to make sure they are all getting fed equally.

      Another interesting thing that happened this morning is we had a ewe that was supposed to have twins but after her first lamb, she passed an under developed fetus. I wasn't there for it but Maria saved the fetus for me to see because it was interesting that one lamb made it to term but the other just stopped developing.

   On to other news, today around 5:30pm I got a message from the Lovely Becca telling me that I was to tag along her and Scott's trip up north to Akureyri! So Snaedis called Siggi and I was told to catch the bus at the intersection of rt 1 and rt 60. So I hopped on the bus and here I am!!

We have big plans for this weekend! We will keep you all updated!
Love
-Anastasia

1 comment:

  1. Did you get to name Eurydice's twin? :-) Reading the great posts from you guys is the high point of my day -- even yesterday when Krissy and I inventoried all the fleece bags in the lab! Now that was a HIGH point!! Can't wait to see everyone again. Nonni

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