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I was going to just bump my old thread but apparently it's archived. You can find it here and the one before that one here if you have archives I guess. Long and the short of it is that I raise sheep and post pictures of baby sheep (and sometimes goats if they cooperate). The spotty sheep are jacobs, the mostly solid colored sheep are cormos, the ones with angry eyebrows are cvm/romeldales. I mostly sell yarn and wool and breeding stock but I do eat some so don't worry about making eating jokes. Things got off to a little bit of a rocky start. Three of the jacob ewes aborted about 2 weeks ago and sent me into a panic. I had to have the vet out to help pull one of the dead lambs so we did a necropsy (nothing was obviously wrong) and sent in bloodwork to look for contagious diseases. Finally got the results back yesterday that said they're disease free and it was probably some combination of genetic whoopsies, random happenstance, and bad coincidence. It left me pretty terrified that I was going to be digging tiny sheep graves every day during lambing season though. Big sigh of relief today when I came out to a bright and happy little jacob lamb! It's a girl!  First timer Katelyn, who originally came from a farm in NC, had her all cleaned up and ready to go but wasn't sure about nursing. I held mama still a few times and baby caught on really quickly. They're totally fine together now.  The lamb is super active and vigorous already and has bouncing around the pen like crazy. With plenty of nap breaks of course.  I really like how these two have mirrored wonky blazes.   Despite the losses I still have 12 ewes due this week, with probably most of them coming between now and Monday. Then I have a goat due April 24th, a sheep due May 2nd, and two more sheep due May 19th. There were some synchronization hiccups this year. Based on the ridiculously huge udder Aster will probably go later today. Also I love Daisy's horrified face, she's due today too.  I keep thinking Valkyrie is in labor but I'm pretty sure this is just the only comfortable way for her to lay down.  I will update as things happen but feel free to ask questions or share your own baby farm animal pictures!
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Mar 30, 2019 22:17
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Yayyyyy ground floor and bookmarked. This is one of my most favorite threads!
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Mar 30, 2019 22:52
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Have a video before I forget. She is a super active newborn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR5_A-Jq5u0
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Mar 30, 2019 22:57
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I'm just over here smirking at your sheep and going "wow guys who's not weaning in March" This will bite me in the rear end here at hairy and hornless come next year when everyone has them in april and I'm weaning in june and screaming. (I'm glad you got bouncy beeb though man)
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Mar 30, 2019 23:14
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:I'm just over here smirking at your sheep and going "wow guys who's not weaning in March" If I lived in America's taint I'd lamb in January too 
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Mar 30, 2019 23:17
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Instant Jellyfish posted:If I lived in America's taint I'd lamb in January too Who even has choices on where they live I mean 
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Mar 31, 2019 00:06
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Hell yeah this thread rules
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Mar 31, 2019 00:14
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Yesss I love your threads. Gotta see all the good girls and their little ones 
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Mar 31, 2019 02:13
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As I said elsewhere, this is a thread I look forward to every year. Baby animals are a good way to help my mood even when things are otherwise on the rough side.
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Mar 31, 2019 04:44
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Lord Zedd-Repulsa posted:As I said elsewhere, this is a thread I look forward to every year. Baby animals are a good way to help my mood even when things are otherwise on the rough side. This is not an empty quote. I love sheep babies! 
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Mar 31, 2019 05:03
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I'm glad people enjoy the sheep as much as I do Long, long night. I got two non-consecutive hours of sleep so forgive the potato pictures. First timer Ladyslipper had a big single two horned ram lamb around 11. First timers having single two horned ram lambs is my least favorite thing because the lambs get giant horn buds and can be hard to get out. She needed a bit of help but managed alright and they figured out nursing right away. I've been really happy with the mothering ability of my first timers this year.  I noticed Jewel was in early labor so I decided to stick around in the barn until she lambed because she usually progresses pretty quick. Whenever she wasn't pacing and stretching and nesting, her daughter Clementine would rush over to snuggle her. I'm not sure Jewel actually appreciated it but it was very cute.  Around 3 am I decided I was frozen and Jewel wasn't doing anything so I went inside for an hour powernap, back out for an hour at 4 before wimping out at 5 and going back in for another hour. She hadn't even gotten to the dripping goo part yet so I figured I had time. Back out at 6 and there were lambs. Oh well, Jewel's a pro and they were clean and nursing and doing great. I was thinking she might have a 3rd set of triplets this year but it's a lovely pair of ewe lambs.  One has boots the other has a dipstick tail both are ridiculously adorable.  Clementine decided they were also her babies so I had to kick her out of the pen, which freaked her out until she popped out her own ewe lamb. She's still pretty sure she would rather have Jewel's lambs so they are penned up on opposite sides of the barn. The lamb isn't great at nursing and clearly had a stressful birth because she pooed herself so I'll be keeping an eye on her.  Aster is in early labor now and a couple others are looking suspicious so it will continue to be a long day. Of course it had to snow too! If I had known I would have waited to pull CIDRs for like two days and avoided all this.
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Mar 31, 2019 14:27
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Yay, more newborn lambs!  What's the difference being a first-time mom makes with the two-horns? Do they just panic more or something?
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Mar 31, 2019 14:30
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Yay, more newborn lambs! Everything is just way more tight and first timers don't push as hard because they don't know what's going on. Ladyslipper especially would push a little bit then work on nesting for a while then push a little bit more and just wasn't getting down to business despite having a nose and toes sticking out of her back end so I just went head and gave a hand.
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Mar 31, 2019 16:02
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BOOKMARKED AND FIVE'D, really glad to see the babies coming along so well. I hope to make it to this year's Shearing Day!!
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Apr 1, 2019 13:59
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Aster had a ram and a ewe. She was freakishly large but they're just dinky little 5 lb babies so I guess she's just fat. I was really, really looking forward to going directly to bed after my 11 pm barn check but I got there and Poopers (her real name is Hi-Jinx but around here she's always been poopers) had a single leg sticking out the back. Went digging around for the other leg but the lamb was too huge so I just rotated it a bit to get her shoulders out of the pelvis and delivered it with the leg back. Baby wasn't sure if the whole being alive thing was for her but I persuaded her to give it a try. She's 10 lb 14 oz! That's a real big baby for a first timer and I even tried to keep her a little lean so she wouldn't grow an extra large one.  Poopers got it all cleaned up like a champ and was talking to it despite being slightly traumatized about having my hand up in her. Then she remembered food existed and she no longer had an 11 lb baby squishing her stomach and hosed off to eat, which I feel on a personal level but is not how we do things around here. I penned them up and she doesn't hate the baby but she just pretends it doesn’t exist so I have to go and hold her every couple of hours so it can nurse. I’m hoping she’ll get with the program today or one of the cormos will have a single and I can persuade her that she actually had twins. No bottle babies allowed!  After all that I managed to get in bed by 1 and woke up at 4 for another barn check to find Juniper in labor. I stuck around to make sure everything was ok because June has a habit of having twins but then just picking one to actually care about but she saved herself the trouble this year and just had a single ewe lamb. We're at 7 girls and 2 boys so far this year.  7 ewes down, 6 to go. I'm going to start squeezing cormos if they don't start popping out lambs soon. They just want them good and giant so they can get stuck for me. Also, I don't think I shared this with my last thread but Mina's mom had another litter over the winter and the breeder sent me these pics of all her fat baby siblings cuddled up with goats   
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Apr 1, 2019 20:29
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Fresh potatoes and potatoes on stilts! Hope the rest go smoothly.
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Apr 1, 2019 20:53
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Welp I just made an embarrassing squee noise in the middle of a crowded restaurant, how 'bout y'all.
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Apr 1, 2019 20:55
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Gosh they're so cute Though I am wondering about wild sheeps and goats because how the heck did their species survive?
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Apr 1, 2019 21:01
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StrixNebulosa posted:Gosh they're so cute I'm always amazed that goats are such a terrible invasive species in so many places despite being so stupid and dying so easily. I think the key is just having a large enough population that individuals dying in idiotic ways doesn't impact the group that much. I knew this year would be a challenge because my mature ewes are all getting up there in years and I needed to start keeping back more youngsters so almost half my bred ewes are lambing for the first time this year. If any ewe is going to have a problem lambing its a first timer so it's not unusual that I've had to pull a few lambs and work a little harder at making sure they're being good moms.
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Apr 1, 2019 23:18
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Good luck getting Poopers to recognize that she has to care for her huge baby!
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Apr 2, 2019 01:14
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when i go to the family farm from time to time i get to see those cute little babies. love to see baby goats sheep cows and chickens. 
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Apr 2, 2019 02:05
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Monday night was a night of giant white rams as the cormos finally relented. Started off with Eclair and her 9 lb 10 oz boy.  Then I came in to find our new megachonk of the year winner. Valkyrie had to push so hard to get this dude out that she cast herself over on her side and couldn’t get back up. When I came out he was happily nursing with her flat out. Rolled her back upright and just like Poopers she went straight for the hay. Unlike Poops she brought the lamb with her. He’s 13 lbs 2 oz.   And while I was making sure they were ok, first timer Jaffa had a more reasonable sized 8 lb boy. It took her a minute for the hormones to kick in but she's been a good mom since.  In other cute news, Jewel and Clementine have formed a loose lamb raising commune and they like to sleep in big piles together.  The two lamb one dish look is very adorable as well.  And Juniper's girl has a mustache. 
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Apr 2, 2019 17:54
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A) holy poo poo big lamb B) I've been reading the old threads because I'm addicted to baby lambs now, and at the risk of opening up old wounds, could someone fill me in on the Weebles ordeal? I'm seeing it referenced but I'm not sure where to look to find answers.
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Apr 2, 2019 21:04
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StrixNebulosa posted:A) holy poo poo big lamb Aww, it's ok to ask. Farming is about loss so I don't mind sharing even though its still pretty sad. In 2012 I got a new ram named Windsor. He was a big handsome boy from a highly regarded breeder and I was very excited.  The following year I had a bunch of stillborn lambs. I had necropsies and testing done convinced it was some sort of disease but never got any clear results. Some ewe lambs survived but none of the ram lambs sired by my cool new ram. That year Jewel, my not so secret favorite ewe, had her first lambs, a dead ram and a premature ewe. With a lot of work Clementine survived and grew into a lovely girl.  The following breeding season I vaccinated everyone for every abortion causing disease I possibly could and hoped for a better outcome. Unfortunately I came home from a fun vacation to find all my ewes lambing a week or so early, most of them delivering at least one dead lamb. I dreaded going out every day and seeing more babies I had to bury. When it came to Jewel's turn she had a ram lamb and miraculous it was alive! I was just so happy to see a baby that was alert and breathing but he couldn't stand at all, which meant he couldn't really nurse. I tube fed him for days until he could wobble to his feet and nurse by himself. Jewel was a real champ and took care of him the whole time. I called him Weebles because Weebles wobble but they don't fall down.  He was never quite right but he was mobile and eating well and growing. Then at about a month old he started going down hill. I'd find him in the pasture fallen over and unable to get up. Eventually it was summer and he would get caught out in the sun and overheat. Finally he could barely stand and we decided the kindest thing was to put him down. He was only about 2 months old.  After that I started looking for patterns and reading anything I could get my hands on and discovered that jacob sheep can have a genetic defect called Occipital Condylar Displasia (OCD) that causes skull malformations. It doesn't usually present with stillborn lambs but I think for some reason my sheep were just especially effected by it. I culled my ram and any of his daughters (except Clem because I worked too drat hard to keep her alive to then butcher her later). A couple other ram lambs developed wobbles and were butchered so I cleaned the skulls to find out if my guess was correct. Check out how malformed these skulls and spines are.   I have a suspicion that might have been what happened to a couple lambs I lost this year too. My new boy, Garth, is very distantly related to Windsor but it was so far back that I figured it wouldn't be an issue. Two of the lambs I lost were 4 horned ram lambs sired by him. The other was a ewe sired by a different ram, who produced a lovely ewe lamb with the same mom last year. It could be that the two sets of abortions were just coincidence and they have different causes or they could have all been caused by something else but I probably won't be using Garth again just in case. Anyway, that's the long sad tale of Weebles. He tried so hard and I tried so hard and it just wasn't enough for the little guy but sometimes that's just how life goes.
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Apr 2, 2019 23:13
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Poor Weebles  That sucks - I'm impressed by your detective work, though. A genuine medical mystery and you cracked it and figured out how to save more lambs from Windsor's poor genes. It's also super neat to see Clem doing well - even if she needs to not try to baby Jewel's kids, haha.
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Apr 2, 2019 23:20
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StrixNebulosa posted:That sucks - I'm impressed by your detective work, though. A genuine medical mystery and you cracked it and figured out how to save more lambs from Windsor's poor genes. It's also super neat to see Clem doing well - even if she needs to not try to baby Jewel's kids, haha. I used that medical mystery story to get into grad school  It was a lovely time but I learned a lot and I always tell new jacob breeders about the possibility of OCD because I think it doesn't get talked about enough. The 4 horns are super cool but with that much skull weirdness there's going to be some that end up with issues.
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Apr 3, 2019 01:13
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Poor Weebles. Animal husbandry is messy business. I hope you'll have a relatively smooth ride this season.Instant Jellyfish posted:Mina's mom had another litter over the winter and the breeder sent me these pics of all her fat baby siblings cuddled up with goats
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Apr 3, 2019 07:05
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I will fully admit that the whole Weebles situation made me break down crying with how it ended back then, have only had two other animal related things make me that sad in comparison(my cat dying back in 2016 and when Grape-kun died)
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Apr 3, 2019 07:12
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Oh wow, I forgot all about poor Weebles  .Wasn't there also a ram at one point who was such an rear end in a top hat he won a trip to Freezer Camp?
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Apr 3, 2019 07:17
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I think it was Windsor that won an all-expenses-paid trip to freezer camp. I believe the comment was 'turned the ram pen into a re-enactment of Oz.
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Apr 3, 2019 08:15
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drrockso20 posted:I will fully admit that the whole Weebles situation made me break down crying with how it ended back then, have only had two other animal related things make me that sad in comparison(my cat dying back in 2016 and when Grape-kun died) I cried writing it up and it's been 5 years now. I'm pretty desensitized to losing livestock at this point but the babies still get me. GoingPostal posted:I think it was Windsor that won an all-expenses-paid trip to freezer camp. I believe the comment was 'turned the ram pen into a re-enactment of Oz. I did eat Windsor and he was quite possibly the most delicious mutton I've had. Was it because mean sheep are more tasty? I don't know but I was much happier with him dead than alive. While I don't have a commercial flock and meat sales aren't the main source of income here I do sell quite a few for meat or eat them myself. I have the pelts tanned and give the organs to a friend who makes dog treats and at some point I'll get around to cleaning and selling my piles of skulls so nothing goes to waste. I thought I would feel more bad about it than I actually do. I've got two ram lambs from last year right now named That Fucker and That Other Fucker that I can't wait to send off to be special guests at a feast my friend Abdullah is having. Mizuti posted:Augh my heart! Is Mina excited to see the lambs? MINA LOEV A BABY  She's like 10x larger than them though and is still working on controlling her enthusiasm so supervised visits only from the giant puppy. The end is in sight, two more ewes lambed this morning. Daisy had twin ewe lambs but one was dead when I found it. I'm not sure exactly what happened but only one side of Daisy's udder works and I was just hoping to get a ewe lamb to replace her so I guess it all worked out? This is the only surviving Garth lamb so far. He's bred one other ewe who isn't due until the end of May so it will be interesting to see what happens there. She's very pretty at least!  Petitfour had a big chunker ewe lamb that must have been hard to deliver because she's all poop yellow but she was born and fairly dry when I got out there so good job P.  Just waiting on Maddie now and I can actually sleep through the night again!
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Apr 3, 2019 15:43
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Are going to check the skulls on the dead lambs and see if Garth's passing on OCD?
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Apr 3, 2019 15:49
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Are going to check the skulls on the dead lambs and see if Garth's passing on OCD? The first aborted lamb was extremely rotten and I nearly barfed helping the ewe deliver it so it got buried ASAP. The second aborted lamb the vet and I did a necropsy on and I checked out its skull in the process but it had been a really hard birth and it was hard to tell if damage was genetic or from being delivered. I might dig up this last one once its all decomposed and do a check but that relies on me thinking of it in a few months and digging through the compost pile so we will see. Either way I think Garth has got to go, which is too bad because he's very handsome and came from a good friend's flock but that specific ancestor's genes just seem to really not work with my girls. Edit: And Maddie lambed! A big white ram. No pictures yet but I'm hoping to take my real camera out later when I dock tails so maybe some actually decent ones today?
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Apr 3, 2019 17:40
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Shame about Garth, but I sympathize and would personally avoid that ancestor's genetics like the plague after what you've seen. I'm glad Daisy's ewe looks good and healthy, but do you put a warning flag on her due to the possibility of having OCD in her line? Is that something that can be bred out over time, or does it end in culling (or simply not breeding the survivors)? Mutton is delicious and I hope the two Fuckers enjoy their last season(s) before serving Abdullah's fine meal on a very, very personal level. Who are the fuckers, anyway? I'm curious to know what level of dickery qualifies for "eh, rams" and what level is freezer camp. As someone who is interested in animal husbandry on a somewhat casual level, do you keep charts of the lines in order to keep everything squared away and documented? I'm guessing you are in good contact with the breeders of the animals you purchase, do you talk to them about your findings? How do they respond? I would like to think that they don't take the genetic fuckups that happen under their watch on a personal level and try to prevent them from happening in the future/continuing that line, but in my experience in seeing poorly bred animals this isn't as common as I'd like it to be. I hope there's another, healthier line available for you to get good rams from, as I think you have endured more than your fair share of scientific discoveries with your lambs. Also, did you get tired of dealing with Goats? Not that I mind baby sheep everywhere, but I still have a hearty chuckle about Heath and his dating difficulties once in a while.
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Apr 3, 2019 20:45
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Chaosfeather posted:Shame about Garth, but I sympathize and would personally avoid that ancestor's genetics like the plague after what you've seen. I'm glad Daisy's ewe looks good and healthy, but do you put a warning flag on her due to the possibility of having OCD in her line? Is that something that can be bred out over time, or does it end in culling (or simply not breeding the survivors)? I've thought about it a lot and I've been culling almost everything Clementine produces but so far none of her lambs have had any issues and she has a granddaughter at another goon's farm that seems fine so I'm thinking if they're ok, they're just going to be ok? I definitely proceed cautiously though. I probably wouldn't sell any of their male offspring as breeding stock but at this point I'm pretty sure at least the ewe lambs aren't passing anything bad on. Chaosfeather posted:Mutton is delicious and I hope the two Fuckers enjoy their last season(s) before serving Abdullah's fine meal on a very, very personal level. Who are the fuckers, anyway? I'm curious to know what level of dickery qualifies for "eh, rams" and what level is freezer camp. Chaosfeather posted:As someone who is interested in animal husbandry on a somewhat casual level, do you keep charts of the lines in order to keep everything squared away and documented? I'm guessing you are in good contact with the breeders of the animals you purchase, do you talk to them about your findings? How do they respond? I would like to think that they don't take the genetic fuckups that happen under their watch on a personal level and try to prevent them from happening in the future/continuing that line, but in my experience in seeing poorly bred animals this isn't as common as I'd like it to be. I hope there's another, healthier line available for you to get good rams from, as I think you have endured more than your fair share of scientific discoveries with your lambs. There's plenty of good lines out there and the jacob sheep annual general meeting is happening only like 2 hours away from me this year so I'm hoping all those good lines are going to be showing up. I'm planning on cleaning house of rams I'm not totally in love with and picking up a nice boy. If I could place an order it would be a 2 horned light lilac with under 50% markings and clean legs but we'll see. Just no Michigan sheep because apparently they just don't mix with my Ohio sheep. I'll probably use Isadore again this year too because Izzy is great and I know he produces what I want. Edit: I do keep track of everything in a flock management program and a bunch of excel sheets. Plus the jacob sheep association lets you look up pedigrees on their website so you can always look up a pedigree before you buy anything. Chaosfeather posted:Also, did you get tired of dealing with Goats? Not that I mind baby sheep everywhere, but I still have a hearty chuckle about Heath and his dating difficulties once in a while. Despite my best efforts I still have 9 goats. They're like bed bugs, you never truly get rid of them. Dido, the last of my original goats, passed away over the winter. I came out 2 hours after feeding them dinner to find her down and bloated. I ran in to get my bloat meds and she was dead by the time I got back. She hadn't gotten into any feed or anything so I have no idea why she bloated. Just being a goat I guess. I plan on reducing my flock down to 5-6 this year because there are some that are just nasty and I'm sick of it. Abdullah has been begging me to sell him goats for years so he'll be happy this eid and I'll be happy to not be constantly yelling at goats to stop being loving bitches all the time. I'll have to take pictures of the goats soon, they refuse to leave the barn all winter so they're looking pretty trashy right now but they'll be sheared soon. Instant Jellyfish fucked around with this message at 21:49 on Apr 3, 2019 |
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Apr 3, 2019 21:44
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I said I'd get some lamb pics so here you go. Petitfour's ewe lamb.  Valkyrie's massive ram. All the white boys have temporary lamb tags so I can tell them apart.  Daisy's girl.    Juniper's girl with her Tom Selleck mustache.    Aster's girl   Aster's ram    Clem's girl  Jewel's girls      Maddie and her boy  KIWI! This is Katelyn's girl and she's so funny and sweet and will probably be staying. Her face looks funny sometimes because she sucks her tongue.    Hope you're all ok with big dumps, I can split them up in the future if people prefer.
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Apr 3, 2019 23:07
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Seems ok to me. This is basically a picture thread anyway. Before and after pics of the winter goat grooming?
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Apr 4, 2019 00:24
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Glory to Italia!
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Yessss thank you for the reply and the massive photo update. I love the sass Aster's ram seems to have - try not to grow up to be a jerk, dude. Hah, any chance you can get one last shave from those rams before they depart? Shame about the fighting, but you're right that's not acceptable, especially if you keep them around for breeding purposes. RIP Dido, you managed to not die from getting your head stuck somewhere. Hope all these little ones grow up big and strong. Thanks so much for a peek behind the curtain - I appreciate it, even if I am not in a position to study/practice animal husbandry myself.
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Apr 4, 2019 01:16
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Honestly the single best thing this series of threads has done for me has introduced me to the concept of spotty lambs I had no idea sheep could be colorful before this!
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Apr 4, 2019 01:36
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They're all excellent lambs but Juniper's is my favorite. I keep scrolling back to the pictures her and giggling at her silly mustache
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Apr 4, 2019 03:11
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