there are some exciting things happening on the farm lately! we are fairly confident that our three ewes are pregnant! betty, bae bae and bab’s are all growing large and in charge and as we approach lambing season (march/april) we are sure at least betty and bab’s are pregnant via stan (the red head pictured below on the right). last summer we were told that our sheep were to young to breed so we left them together. turns out stan and bab’s had a lamb but she was too young and delivered early and the lamb didn’t make it. that was a super sad day because you as the care taker are responsible for that sort of thing. it was a very real experience. because you could tell that she was really confused by the whole situation and then she got sick and we had to monitor her for 24 hours and give her shots every four hours. but we all came out on top and all 5 sheep are super healthy and we hope ready for an official lambing season.
just in case you don’t know who is who…
betty is pictured below. she is kind of the dominant one of the group (stan just thinks he is). she is always the first to see if we have sweet oats and fresh hay and is always the first one to check out the new people out in the pasture. she is also the one who taught binks and butters not to mess with her buddies. she head butted them clear out of the pen. they don’t really mess with the sheep anymore (even though ironically enough they are sheep dogs).
stan is our ram he is pictured above on the right. he is a sweet heart of a ram. sometimes you can get males that are all insane and mean but he is very docile and we have never (knock on wood) had an issue with him. he is the one who took the longest to welcome farley (the newbie) into the group. every now and then we still have to feed farley separately from stan.
babs is the black sheep. her full name is barbara. she usually is found following betty around and is kind of betty’s hype girl. she just kind of minds her own business.
bae bae is our white and brown polka dotted sheep. she is the runt of the herd and is also stan’s twin sister. she is by far the shy one. very timid around everyone even joe who she sees everyday. when sheep are uneasy or sense someone new they will stomp their feet and kind of lick the air. she does that like… all the time.
farley – farley is the newest addition to the farm. he is a fixed male (sorry buddy) that is meant to just kind of hang out with stan if we ever need to seperate him. sometimes rams can get a little a hole ish when the ewes give birth so if we need to separate stan he will still have a buddy. farley has really nice round horns kind of like betty and is usually hiding behind her.
we are going to have a vet visit here soon to give them a check up and hopefully tell us how many they are each having. since bae bae and stan are twins and stan bread with all the ewes we are hoping for at least one set. (i know i know stan is quite the ladies man). (he needs his own sister wives show). (tlc you interested?) the next steps are getting everything ready for lambing. We need to shave them down and start building huts for them to lamb in. since we cannot bread stan with his children. (i guess THAT’s when it gets weird, not just with his sisters just his kids). we are going to sell the babies. we were going to raise them for meat (don’t hate me) but we just can’t do it. they are too much like pets. so we are going to sell the lambs to other people who want pet lambs and use the money to buy meat from S & S lamb out of mcbaine. I can’t do anything once it’s already butchered right?
i’ll keep you in the look once we hear more from the vet. is it weird if i throw them a baby shower?
