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Twin Triplets!
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Apr. 1st, 2008 @ 12:11 pm
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Lambing continues apace. And what a pace. Last year was the first year we ever had triplets. This year we've had two. And in between the triplets came twins so the maternity stables are somewhat full at the moment and we've had to take both stables from the horses.
Rhiannon is not amused at having to give up her warm stable but Saffron is the bigger problem. She likes sheep, she's curious and she has big ears - which block the LambCam when she pokes her head over the stable door to watch the lambs. And she's taken to nibbling the wooden box that houses the LambCam.
Anyway, here's the first of the pictures. These are the twins resting after a hard day being stared at by a giant horse's head.
Here are the second triplets when they were four hours old. We've got them pencilled in for the Olympic Synchronised Lamb event this summer. Two are naturals, the third needs some work.
Here are the twins trying out their new overflow accommodation - a summer house on the lawn.
And here's one of last week's triplets wondering where his summer house was.
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Triplets!
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Mar. 27th, 2008 @ 10:43 am
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The lambing season is officially underway. Nice Ewe, who was due yesterday and had been on the point of exploding since Monday, gave birth to triplets at eleven last night. For the interested, she had two girls and a boy weighing in at three tons each (according to the mother - who should know:)
Here they are at age nine hours and a quarter. Nice Ewe's eye says it all.
Even at nine and a quarter they're fast and inquisitive. Point a camera at them and one's off exploring and headless by the time the shutter opens. Here's one of the few non-headless snaps.
They're pretty much the same at ten and a quarter. Here they are outside on our lawn. We give them a couple of hours outside each day if the weather's good then release them back into the field when they're big enough.
And finally a close up. Note the patented newborn woolly jumper - several sizes too big to allow plenty of room for expansion. And in two months time they'll need it - they'll all be the size of large woolly beach balls.
Now I'm off to pack for my trip to Dublin. There'll be more lamb pictures on Tuesday.
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Lambing 2008
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Mar. 24th, 2008 @ 04:23 pm
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Lambing is officially underway. It's due to start Wednesday but as usual no one told the ewes who all look enormous. Yesterday we caught up Nice Ewe - who's due on Wednesday - and moved her into the deluxe maternity stable ward. Today we set up the LambCam so we can monitor her remotely from the house (and, as the camera has a microphone, listen to her as well. So for the next ten days* I'm going to have the 24 hour Sheep Channel live by my bed - and you would not believe how noisy a sheep grinding her teeth can be:)
Rest assured there will be lamb pictures.
*I do get a respite Friday thru Monday as I'm off to the Phoenix convention in Dublin where I'm a guest.
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A Surprise Ending to Lambing
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Mar. 27th, 2007 @ 12:51 pm
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Yesterday was a long day. And even longer for Scrappy - our last ewe to lamb. She started to lamb in the morning but by the afternoon still nothing had happened. She wasn't pushing, she wasn't showing any distress - in fact she was distinctly laid back by the whole affair. But she was lambing - in slow motion - and dilating even slower.
Hours passed. Something was wrong. Could it be ringwomb? Come eight o'clock we called in the vet and he gave her a calcium injection for ringwomb (a tightening of the cervix that prevents dilation) Two hours and one breech birth later she produced an enormous boy followed by a slightly smaller girl. By eleven our lambing season was officially closed and the lamb TV monitor, which has kept me awake for large chunks of the last month*, could be turned off.
Then we got up the next morning to find triplets. Scrappy had had another boy in the night. Somehow it had evaded Shelagh's final check of the night before. Either that or an opportunist orphan had snuck in during the night.
Here's a picture of mother and triplets. The oldest is less than twelve hours old.
*Ewes snoring, wheezing and grinding their teeth a few feet away from your ears is not conducive to a good night's sleep. The worst night was last week when the snoring and grinding was interrupted by piglike grunting and kerfuffling. It sounded like a wild boar - which do visit us every now and then. The horses, in the stable next door, panicked and came charging out. So, add whinnying, galloping and farting to the mix. And loud agitated baas from Scrappy. The boar, being at that time the least wild of the assorted animals, decided to beat a hasty retreat. How do you get back to sleep after that?
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Lamb Pictures!
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Mar. 15th, 2007 @ 11:08 am
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As promised here are some pictures I took yesterday. First up we have the oldest and boldest lamb - a three day-old girl born Sunday morning - who has already mastered the art of leaping on top of large rocks. She had some difficulty at first but now her favourite game is 'King of the Castle' and she stands on her rock - there's a granite block in her compound - and lords it over her brother who has yet to master the ovine art.
And now the youngest. This picture was taken minutes after her birth and already she's up on her feet. We had two lambs born Tuesday night and another two Wednesday morning. This is one of Wednesday morning's. They were both much darker than the others - we have a black-headed Suffolk ram so we get a good variety of markings from white through brown to black.
And here's a family group taken a few seconds later. Note the instinct to suckle. And if you can't find your mum you can always try a sibling.
Here's one of Tuesday's lambs smiling for the camera and showing the art of advanced ear control.
And here's her brother showing that the art of advanced ear control is not that easy to master. Both lambs are about twelve hours old in the picture.
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So much to do, so little time
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Mar. 6th, 2007 @ 02:15 pm
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A very busy week so far and more to come.
At the moment we're rushing to get as much done before Friday as possible. For on Friday I depart - before dawn even - to fly to Dublin for the Phoenix SF convention (aka P-Con 4) And lambing is due to start on Monday. And spring is determined to be extra early this year - which means the hundred or so saplings we have in our hedge plant nursery are all coming out of their dormancy early. Which means we have to plant the hedge in the next week or so - which means we have to prepare the ground, grub up the brambles, and erect the fence to keep the horses from eating the newly planted hedge.
And it won't stop raining.
So we've been busy - hacking and fencing in between the downpours and assembling promotional convention material (each page impregnated with 'buy me now' sigils) when the skys open.
Tomorrow, weather permitting, we assemble the lambing pens and set up the CCTV lambcams. Then we have to catch up the first trio of expectant ewes.
Always a fun exercise in the mud:)
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