Day 10: The Queen of Hestur Farm

Today was the hardest day at Hestur this entire lambing season. Late yesterday, Krúna went into "labor". I use quotations because her cervix was closed so the lambs could not enter the birth canal, which means the mother does not know to push. Helgi was there to help her manually dilate her slowly and to help get the lambs out, while Carly was there to comfort her. It was an especially hard delivery and her ram lamb cut her along the birth canal as he came out. Being the stoic and strong sheep she is, she was still able to stand and walk while he placed her and her babies in a deluxe lambing jug so she could recover. Given the amount of trauma and tearing, Helgi gave her a cocktail of medicine to help her recover. Her milk had not come in so I pulled out all the stops to find her babies the best and freshest colostrum and bottle feed them. She made her low happy mom baas as I bottle fed them next to her and she cleaned them. During our night shift, Melissa and I would regularly check in on her and the babies, she would still accept a nice handful of grain. We ended our night shift by giving her babies one last bottle and switched with Hallí. We arrived the next morning to see she had declined significantly. She had a heat lamp on her but her ears and legs were ice cold and she was unable to stand. We took shifts sitting with her, rubbing her back and making sure she knew we were with her. She made one last attempt to stand on her own when Snædis arrived at the barn, but that would be her last attempt. I was with her giving her cheek scratches and telling her she was loved when she took her last breath. She likely had a number of complications but what took her was, what we think, a blood infection. There was not a dry eye in the barn that day and even the sheep were very quiet and gloomy for the rest of the day. After her passing, her son, Scott Jr. was seen standing alone in the pouring rain at the very edge of the fence closest to the barn coming to pay his last respects to his mother. His group followed suit in a display that gave me chills. The group lined up along the fence looking into the barn as if they were saying their goodbyes. In honor of such an amazing leader sheep and reigning Queen of Hestur, this post will be about Krúna and her legacy.

Krúna loving her cheek scratches

When I arrived at Hestur last year I was not sure what to expect and how the sheep would react with a stranger coming to help them lamb out but when I entered the barn, I saw a very tall sheep reaching out her head to me looking for a scratch and some grain, and I am sure past students can say the same. She would part the sea of other heavily pregnant sheep with ease in order to get to where you are standing.

This is the picture of my first introduction to Krúna last year.

She knew how to get any bystander in the barn to come and give her scratches by maintaining eye contact with her person of choice. Nobody could deny that face scratches! Krúna was at Hestur before Snædís and Helgi came and when they met it was an instant connection. She would not accept scratches before they arrived but would still accept grain (who wouldn't?). Last year when she had similar lambing troubles she screamed until Snædis arrived to help her. There were plenty of other people in that barn that could have helped her but she only wanted one.
Although she did not complain while in the barn (though it was very difficult to convince her to get into the barn) her favorite place was out in the highlands during the summer. When she was outside, we did not exist. Once outside, to Krúna it was about her babies and adventure. When she and her lambs were initially turned out in the fields around the house, she would run (never walk) the perimeter of the fencing to survey her area, while also looking for some weak points in the fencing in the chance she can get out to the mountains early, with her babies always trailing behind her. I was able to witness her lead her group into a larger field (called the small mountains) where she also had to survey the perimeter that could take her days. The other sheep are drawn to her, she had some serious magnetism. We did not have any difficulty herding the first group into the next field because they had Krúna at the front of the line.
Krúna had many wonderful babies in her 8-year life, so she leaves behind many pieces of her to carry on her loving and caring nature, as well as, intelligence. She also leaves large boots to fill for Becca Jr. who we hope will take over for her mom.

She diligently watched over her flock in the spring and summer, then aided in leading the flock back to the farm in the fall. She was a vital part of the farm and will be greatly missed by human and sheep alike. ❤