Asha's Lamb-Along Spring 2026

[Asha_Gail]

Finally going to actually get stuff done! Only took all day lol

 

[tlcmurphy]

All very fascinating! I had to look up jugs, you have A LOT of work ahead of you, but all those sweet little lambs must be a wonderful reward!
I think you’ll see some tomorrow

 

[Asha_Gail]

All very fascinating! I had to look up jugs, you have A LOT of work ahead of you, but all those sweet little lambs must be a wonderful reward!
I think you’ll see some tomorrow

Well apparently the sheep heard me talking about tomorrow and decided to plan a surprise on me! The first ewe just started, I'm gonna have baby pics in about an hour or two!!!

 

[Asha_Gail]

As always with farm based projects, things don't always go to plan.

Ewe 1 had to have her lambs pulled. They're big and were tangled, both coming at once. She's older and has no milk, so now we have twin bottle lambs.

Ewe 2 had a stillborn and a live. So half a set of twins. She currently has the twin orphans, temporarily.

Ewe 3 popped up within the last few minutes, haven't even brought her into the jugs yet.

In a couple hours I'll have a few fuzzy lambs to hold and snuggle and it'll ease a lot of the frustrations and worries. Fuzzy lambs fix everything in case you haven't heard

 

[Asha_Gail]

Start Date: Thursday, March 12th
# of Ewes: 248 (count was off lol)
# Left to Lamb: 244
# of Lambs: 6

All the jugs are set up, and we decided to try number tags this year so those are now screwed on, and I bottle fed our two orphans who may or may not successfully get grafted onto a ewe who lambed at the same time. Thawed out and warmed up some saved colostrum for the soggy gremlins to have.

We also had our first set of triplets already, no singles yet.

"Jugs" are basically little pens (ours are 6x4ft) that are temporary for ewes and their lambs to stay in to get to know each other. They say for singles they need one day, twins two days, and so on and so forth. Realistically, if a ewe is having trouble or her lambs look small, we give them as much time as possible.

(Pictured: Ewe and her triplets + the barn at night/my jugs... wait a minute I meant lambing jugs)

 

[Asha_Gail]

# of Ewes: 247
# Left to Lamb: 241
# of Lambs: 8

Got a down ewe we're treating for milk fever atm, and we had 2 new ewes lamb. Ewe 1 had twins and one may have a slight deformity and ewe 2 is low milk but she had a single so theoretically she may be able to handle it on her own.

Seems we're in for a weird lambing, normally it's not so eventful but we've already had to pull lambs, bottle a little bit, and all 5 of the lambed ewes are around 8 years old! Thankfully, the ewe from yesterday accepted someone else's lamb so no permanent bottle lambs yet! We haven't even gotten the milk replacer yet for the future bottle lambs.

Did get some stuff done today tho. Water buckets have been distributed, hay was distributed, jugs were bedded down, etc.

 

[Asha_Gail]

# Left to Lamb: 236
# Lambed: 10
# of Lambs: 18

Hey God, it's me, Margaret....

Welp I'm in bed early tonight, but that's because things are quiet and we have a Family Function tomorrow so I rest now, check in around six in the morning then I'll go back to sleep if all is well. Probably get up around 11 and check again before getting ready for the Function.

5 ewes today, more babies. Its only gonna pick up speed from here. My body hasn't gotten the memo on the whole 'new sleep schedule' thing yet but we're working on it.

Vet was out today and says our down ewes have a calcium deficiency. We've been treating for it already but it feels like it isn't working. The vet also took care of a ewe we had with cancer! That was a new one for us. The procedure was simple really, Vet knocked the ewe out with some meds then with our hot knife we cut off the tumor which was located on the edge of the ear. The vet loved the hot knife lol It was quick and minimized pain and healing time which was great. The ewe is already better and I'm praying we got all the cancer.

Pictured: a lamb stealing milk from a lazy ewe who didn't feel the need to get up

 

[Asha_Gail]

# Left to Lamb: 236
# Lambed: 10
# of Lambs: 19

Turns out one I brought into the jugs decided to have more than one, other than that, no new so back to bed I go!

 

[Asha_Gail]

Welp it happened...



I lost count...



Technically, I could go out and do a quick count of Lambs and use the jug numbers to count ewes however I've given up the ghost for this year.



Maybe fall lambing will do better counting wise but alas I just don't have the will to count anymore. We've had so many down ewes, which have ultimately resulted in losses of the downed ewes. Our sheep are very well taken care of, we think it could be something in their diet though I fear it's something contagious. We just sent in the last of the living down ewes to be posted by the Vet to hopefully get some answers.



I've been told not to be discouraged but I'll admit it hasn't been a full week of lambing and we've lost more ewes than lambs. And as of right now we have lost only 4 lambs and 3 were stillborn and the other one passed from birth complications. Its so frustrating not being able to save them all. Ewes, lambs, my sleep schedule, that muffin I dropped in a mud puddle.... if only I could save them all.

In slightly better news, I finally bit the bullet so to speak and pulled 4 lambs to be bottle lambs.

Two are a set of twins. I am wholly unimpressed with their mother who didn't clean them, or move to mother them, let alone nurse them. She's dead in half her udder so I pulled the plug and now her twins are my twins.

The other two are individuals pulled from multiples. One is from a set of twins. Weak, mom wasn't thrilling me either so I pulled it. The other was a triplet from a few days ago and mom just couldn't handle all three. The other two were getting most of the milk and their sister just couldn't keep up. So I pulled her.

All have adjusted to the bottle beautifully and I look forward to putting them on our automatic milk machine and seeing them thrive. Honestly I felt anxious pulling 4 lambs, especially that triplet who had been established on the udder, but sometimes it helps to remind oneself that it's more detrimental to them and yourself if you wait or become flakey about it.

For instance, say I left that triplet because it was still getting mom's milk. It would've eventually been outcompeted by its siblings and soon they would've been moved into the mixing pen where we would've likely found it too late to save it without extreme measures. Or, had I bottled it but left it with mom, I would wear myself out when I need to be functional for the others in my care. By pulling the triplet I've ensured that the remaining two don't have to fight over milk and their third can get all the milk she needs from me who will supply her. Plus I won't wear myself out nearly as much by adding her to the bottle lamb group.

Woah. Big ramble. Maybe its cause I got some rest last night! (My sleep schedule is in shambles. I'm sleeping in the late a.m., early p.m., late p.m., and early a.m.)

 

[tlcmurphy]

Welp it happened...



I lost count...



Technically, I could go out and do a quick count of Lambs and use the jug numbers to count ewes however I've given up the ghost for this year.



Maybe fall lambing will do better counting wise but alas I just don't have the will to count anymore. We've had so many down ewes, which have ultimately resulted in losses of the downed ewes. Our sheep are very well taken care of, we think it could be something in their diet though I fear it's something contagious. We just sent in the last of the living down ewes to be posted by the Vet to hopefully get some answers.



I've been told not to be discouraged but I'll admit it hasn't been a full week of lambing and we've lost more ewes than lambs. And as of right now we have lost only 4 lambs and 3 were stillborn and the other one passed from birth complications. Its so frustrating not being able to save them all. Ewes, lambs, my sleep schedule, that muffin I dropped in a mud puddle.... if only I could save them all.

In slightly better news, I finally bit the bullet so to speak and pulled 4 lambs to be bottle lambs.

Two are a set of twins. I am wholly unimpressed with their mother who didn't clean them, or move to mother them, let alone nurse them. She's dead in half her udder so I pulled the plug and now her twins are my twins.

The other two are individuals pulled from multiples. One is from a set of twins. Weak, mom wasn't thrilling me either so I pulled it. The other was a triplet from a few days ago and mom just couldn't handle all three. The other two were getting most of the milk and their sister just couldn't keep up. So I pulled her.

All have adjusted to the bottle beautifully and I look forward to putting them on our automatic milk machine and seeing them thrive. Honestly I felt anxious pulling 4 lambs, especially that triplet who had been established on the udder, but sometimes it helps to remind oneself that it's more detrimental to them and yourself if you wait or become flakey about it.

For instance, say I left that triplet because it was still getting mom's milk. It would've eventually been outcompeted by its siblings and soon they would've been moved into the mixing pen where we would've likely found it too late to save it without extreme measures. Or, had I bottled it but left it with mom, I would wear myself out when I need to be functional for the others in my care. By pulling the triplet I've ensured that the remaining two don't have to fight over milk and their third can get all the milk she needs from me who will supply her. Plus I won't wear myself out nearly as much by adding her to the bottle lamb group.

Woah. Big ramble. Maybe its cause I got some rest last night! (My sleep schedule is in shambles. I'm sleeping in the late a.m., early p.m., late p.m., and early a.m.)

I’m sorry to hear you’re losing ewes, I hope you’ve lost the last of them.
Very cute babies