The first lambs have arrived

Emma and her charcoal-gray ewe lamb "Miss Bates" (left) and her ram lamb, both born about 16 hours earlier. The orange glow is from a heat lamp that we use for the first couple of days in cold weather to help keep the lambs warm. 

Probably within minutes of our most recent post discussing the lambing season vigil, the first lambs of 2012 arrived Saturday, Feb. 11.
After serving dinner to our B&B guests, Chris went to check on the ewes about 8:30 p.m. He heard the telltale sound of a lamb bleat and knew we had new arrivals. Once he turned the light on in the sheep barn he saw two dark-colored lambs being mothered by our ewe Emma.
Chris went inside to let Sherry know and she came out with our guests, who took some video and photos of the newborn lambs. We used our new vacuum milker and after a few minutes we had collected enough colostrum -- the mother's first milk. Because the temperature was about 10 degrees with a wind chill well below zero, we used a feeding tube and gave each of the lambs -- one boy and one girl -- a feeding.
We then put the lambs and their mother into a pen and hooked up a heat lamp. We checked the lambs at midnight, 2 a.m., 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. We milked the ewe again at 2 a.m. and gave the lambs another feeding, just to be sure they had enough nutrition because their body fat only maintains them for the first five hours of life. They will now nurse on their own, hopefully.
Today the weather is starting to warm and the lambs both seem to be fine -- their mouths are warm and their mother is doing well.
Sherry has named the ewe "Miss Bates" from the Jane Austen novel "Emma." The ram will be called Scalawag -- the generic name we use for all of the lambs which will later be sold for slaughter.
We noticed this morning at least two other ewes that will probably deliver within the next 24 hours. Perhaps we'll sneak in a nap in between deliveries.