Day 3: Attack of the Yearlings

The weather was a bit more spring-like today with rain instead of snow and hail. The fields are visible and the first group of sheep (non-pregnant ewes and rams) was let outside, as well as the mare and foal that were being kept in from the cold. 

We started the day with some cleaning. There were only a few ewes lambing and with everyone down at the barn we could get a lot of work done. While we cleaned, additional groups pen were put up, ewes and lambs were moved and more lambing jugs were opened up. I swept the yearling pens with a helper. While all the other yearlings panicked by my presence in the pen, she seemed curious.

Melissa worked on cleaning a pen with the older ewes, who are unphased by Melissa's presence and were more concerned about her attention not being on them and their need for scratches.

We were happy to see that in the early hours of the morning our orphans were adopted by a wonderful mother. I went to go see them, but with there new mother they could not care less about me and I don't blame them, she is an awesome mom. 

We got good news about the ewe that was not fond of her lambs and had one side of her udder that had blood clots. Helgi was able to get the larger clot that was blocking the teat and milk the majority of the clots out, by the end of the day her milk was flowing much more smoothly. She was also starting to tolerate her lambs, and maybe even liking one of them. She will continue wearing the rope on her head in the case she starts to become violent with her lambs again and we have to tie her to the side of the jug.

With so few active lambings, we spent some time checking in with some ewes and lambs that needed extra attention. I was tasked with milking out an older ewe. Snædis suggested I bring multiple one-liter bottles which I thought was funny. Just softening up one side of her udder, I milked out a full liter of milk. The ewe showed her thanks by pulling on my ponytail while I was looking underneath her. To her credit, my hair almost matches the haylage being fed to them. We ended the milking session with shoulder and chest scratches.

We had another ewe and lamb that needed some help. A ram lamb had yet to figure out how to nurse. His sister had figured it out first thing and was happily napping while we got to work. Mom was immensely patient and even positioned her legs so the teat could not be missed, but the little ram lamb went everywhere but the teat. Even after Melissa placed the teat in his mouth, he spit it out and searched up his mom's belly for food. After both Melissa and I working on this problem child, he eventually latched on and was able to nurse to everyone's relief.

Things started to pick up in the afternoon and we had a steady flow of those lambing out. Melissa was able to successfully use the patented loop technique Snædis had taught her, which she was excited about. She also had a case of triplets that made me do a double take. The 1st lamb to come out was good-sized and it was assumed the two following would be smaller. The last two were just as large as the 1st lamb making it a head scratcher... where did those lambs come from? There are two options, either the ewe had planned an elaborate magic trick to where Melissa finds out the 3rd lamb was an illusion or this ewe's uterus is the Tardis.

When we returned for our night shift, I helped an older ewe with her single lamb, and given her sweet mom skills, she was given a lamb from a yearling that had twins. First-time moms usually do best with one lamb to look after and feed... two can be a bit overwhelming. When I took the lamb, the mother did not notice. She was eating a snack, took a nap, woke-up 30 minutes later to realize she only had one lamb. She was distraught and decided to scream non-stop for the rest of our shift (which was until 2am). Not only was the lamb currently in her care clearly not the favorite, she got another yearling next to her to scream in unison for some time. We ignored her, so she climbed up the side of her lambing jug to announce to the whole barn I am a baby snatcher.

 We had a number of yearlings lamb out through the day and three that decided they wanted to lamb out together at midnight. Given the size of my hands, I am not helpful when it comes to yearlings until the lamb has passed the pelvis, so it was all Melissa, which she took in stride. This would have have been easy breezy for the two of us but we could not communicate with the angry yearling screaming over us. Also wanting to be part of the group an older ewe with triplets started to lamb out. The first yearling lambed out without any assistance unless you count us cheering her on and checking the lamb's position. The 2nd yearling passed a water sac, then got up and started eating, which was very concerning. By this time, Snædis's dad, Hallí, had come to switch shifts with us and decided to check things out. He felt two heads and four legs all trying to come out at the same time. With swift maneuvering, he had her first lamb out. After giving her some time to meet her lamb, Melissa went to check the 2nd lamb who turned out to be upside down. With a gentle twist and pull, the 2nd lamb was out. Triplet mom was also not concerned with the passing of her water sac which was because her 1st lamb was a stillborn in a tucked position, unable to move into the birth canal. Once the stillborn was removed she easily had her last two, very lively lambs. After all this action, we left Hallí to keep watch of the last, very shocked looking, yearling. We called it a night after saying goodbye to a two of our favorite lambs, Oolong and Xena Warrior Princess, who were very tiny lambs a yearling had yesterday but continues to need some extra guidance when it comes to nursing.

Þórhallur 
Þórhallur 
Þórhallu