Chris and Sherry Hardie

B&B homesteaders

Opening up a bed and breakfast was the realization of a dream for us. Our long-term goal is to be self-sufficient (we're well on our way) and to be able to share the earth's bounties with our guests.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

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.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Lambing season means little sleep

This is the time of the year when we expect our first lambs of the season. While we've certainly had a mild winter this year, Murphy's law will surely prevail and we'll probably get a cold snap as our first lambs are born.
We've prepared the sheep barn, with lots of straw and the individual sheep pens are ready. Sherry kept track of when the ewes were bred by the ram last fall, so we know roughly when the first ones are due. We check them at least every three hours to make sure there are no birthing difficulties.
The ewes have their lambs in the open area of the barn and then we move them into the individual pens so that the mother can take care of her lambs and we can take care of both. This year we've purchased a special vacuum pump milker that should help us a lot in the event that lambs have difficulty sucking.
It's essential that a lamb get some of her mother's milk within the first few hours, so we may milk the ewe and tube feed the lamb right away just to make sure.
It's not fun getting up every few hours in the middle of the night to check the sheep when it's cold and the winds are howling, but we don't want to lose any lambs.
Besides, sleep is overrated, right?