Asha's Lamb-Along Spring 2026

[NatJ]

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.

Do you keep some kind of records, so you know to watch for similar problems next year, or so you can choose to get rid of her?

 

[Asha_Gail]

Do you keep some kind of records, so you know to watch for similar problems next year, or so you can choose to get rid of her?

Yep! We used to do all paper (think printed Excel Spreadsheet) and it worked for decades till we came across a ewe who we'd had for 7 years and she never once lambed.

So we moved to RFID tags. (Digital) Its been a few years and we like it mostly, a few gripes but it allows us to easily see progeny and leave notes. It also allows us to note low producers, problem ewes, or ewes that are exceptional. We currently have a ewe with no milk, she'll be getting sold this year but we'll likely keep her progeny as she has a good history, age has simply caught up with her.

As for that ewe that just. Doesn't Care. I'm going to push for her being sold. I want our sheep to be self sufficient with reasonable exceptions. I shouldn't have to hold their hands- er, hooves to make sure they can keep their lambs alive. For both the ewes and the shepherd's sake I won't tolerate low quality anymore lol

I want our lambs happy and healthy, and our new records system is a stepping stone towards that goal I'd like to think. I've already made a lot of mental notes of 'keep her' 'sell that one' 'label her a good ewe'.

 

[Asha_Gail]

Feeding the 4 bottle babies is going surprisingly well! Sometimes they don't like the rubber nipple, especially if they've had a chance to be on the teet. Teet? Teat? Eh, I never claimed to be great at spelling...

Things are still slow, not many ewes giving birth a day, under 5 a day. During peak we could have up to if not 20 ewes a day. I suspect that the rush will come on Thursday.

Bottle Pen is partially up, though we have no milk replacer for our machine. My dad is making the calls about it. I'm looking forward to letting my little quartet roam once they're confident on the bottle. Honestly they already are! They've taken to it so so well which saves me so much headache lmao

We brought in a young ewe today who bit off the tails of her twins. It happens, we see it maybe once or twice a lambing. They get overzealous and excited, especially first timers or young ewes. Their instincts go nuts and they just. Chomp. This particular case was easily the worst I've ever seen. She really did a number on the poor things. The lambs seem fine, checked on them periodically and gave the ewe hay to hopefully get her to chill out. We decided to name her Hannibal!