The movement of life

Day 9

Another day began here at Hestur at 8 am for a morning shift. Many of the yearling moms and babies were released out to the fields along with a beautiful leader sheep named Grace junior. Before sending them completely out they are placed into a larger pen to make sure the babies are keeping up with Mom and listening well. Once everyone is getting the hang of more space and keeping with Mom the gates are open and off they go. The morning was spent shifting everyone around and making space for the 200 ewes left to lamb. Here are several pictures of lambs who have arrived in the past few days. The colors are beautiful and rare First is a bager face ewe and her new lambs. 

Look carefully.That’s three lambs for mom. The black spotted one was adopted to a ewe who’s lamb did not survive birth. 

Another ewe had a set of triplets, one of whom was rejected as he was not able to stand. We all took turns bottle feeding him throughout the day and he remained in the pen with his mom, in a box to protect him for the most part from his mother's instinctual horns. He acted as though he was heat stressed, with short staggered breaths. Perhaps he has an issue with a lung or the ability to circulate oxygen. He was removed from the pen as his mother had rejected him completely.  Melissa and I carried him around for company, I took him out in the sun and showed him the view. He passed several hours later. 

Grace found another ewe had lambed in the group pen around lunch time. Here Grace is running down the wall with a lamb in the sack( nose cleared off) . It is important to remove the lamb from the group pen as soon as possible as the other ewes will remove the sack and sent and perhaps the mother will then reject the lamb. 

Upon moving her down the shoot she decided to turn around.. and rammed past Grace. I raced and met her at the corner where we had a stare down face off. I was ready for the worst as she tried to take me down but we wrestled and ended up in the correct direction and headed for the lambing jug. 

The lambs (in utero) continue to grow larger and so do their horn buds.  Melissa spent quite some time helping a yearling dilate. Together we pulled a ram who was close to 12lbs. It was an extremely difficult birth and he did not make it. In some way a lost lamb can be a blessing as the ewe was given another lamb who’s mother was not producing enough for a set of three. 

Here is a leader sheep lamb enjoying her long legs. This is not her mother haha. 

Here I am looking happily at a lamb who I helped treat for an eye infection. He is doing Great! 

Melissa and Grace took a short break before a night shift and I remained for the afternoon and evening. I had an amazing experience feeling the rings of the cervix. A ewe had dialed completely, except for the last ring, or the first ring the lambs needed to pass through. It was about the size of a quarter and one leg was popping through.  It was over half an hour of working my fist through and expanding the ring with assistance from dilating lube. A ram with large horn buds was found on the other side with both of his legs tucked underneath himself. After helping set the legs I flipped the cervical ring over one horn bud at a time. Then attached the wire for assisted pull.  It took a lot of focus and patience. The bouncing baby boy was happy to greet the world. 

Melissa and Grace arrived for the night shift at 8 pm, and I went down to see the horses. The dappled mom let me closer to her grulla foal and I was thrilled. He will be white one day, but for now he holds a beautiful dun stripe. 

I brought them apples. But they had no idea what they were. Next time I'll try carrots, sugar cubes, or possibly sunflower seeds? Im not sure they have ever been offered anything other than hay and bread.  

Melissa and Grace wrangled through the night. Melissa crowd surfed on several moms after sliding on the grates while trying to grab a mom in labor from the group pen. I was not there but I really wish I was! Another large single from a yearling needed help from both Grace and Melissa to enter the world, he is doing great!  No matter how much lubrication and dilation, tearing still occurs especially with a boy this big ( 12 lbs) and a yearling . This yearling had an outer tear visible to the eye and of course was in pain, yet got up almost immediately after giving birth, and allowed Melissa to milk her by hand while she got acquainted with her baby. These ewes are troopers to say the least. 

There is a reason for each job we preform. For the milk that Melissa collected a lamb got a boost of energy as it was dealing with the journey of adoption. A large white ewe had laid down and suffocated her lamb who was several days old.An orphan was in need of a mother, but adoption is not so easy. 

The timing is critical for a mother to be producing so many hormones right before birth or just after a birth to adopt a lamb who is not hers. The lamb must be covered with amniotic fluid that is warm enough( we keep a bucket of fluid that is collected from ewes with large water bags). Lambs that are dry have to be submerged in the fluid so that they can be licked clean by the adoptive mother.  Sometimes we add salt to the back of their head and spine to stimulate licking. The mother who squished her lamb is several days passed this peak in hormones. She would only take what smells like her lamb. To make this happen her original lamb who had passed was skinned. A coat was made and placed onto the orphan.  

Pictured is Snaedis assisting the lamb to nurse. All three of us learn so much with every birth. And most result in the begging of new life. What an experience, so many blessings, so much still to learn.