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A lil white baby!!
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Mar 16, 2020 15:57
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ILL Machina posted:I'm also glad for the serendipity of the moment that brought him to life. I second this but probably only because I have a male cockatiel named Serendipity. I call him Sera. He doesn't mind.
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Mar 16, 2020 20:02
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Is Jaffa's progeny all white?
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Mar 16, 2020 20:38
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Glory to Italia!
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ILL Machina posted:Is Jaffa's progeny all white? Yep. Jaffa is a cormo and her mom is black and her dad is white. Black is dominant (in this case, there's a recessive black in sheep too) so when Jaffa is bred to a white ram she has a 50:50 chance of producing a black or white lamb. I'm excited because that line of my cormos are really nicely built but never seem to have white ewes, the other line has white ewes all the time but they're never as nice as the other line's lambs. If she stays looking good I'll probably keep her, Jaffa is one of my nicest cormos. Re: names. My jacobs have always had a plant theme (at least since year 2) because there are so many plant names and having a theme makes it easier to narrow down names for everyone. I'm thinking about changing it up this year though so if you have name theme suggestions let me know. They need to have enough material that I can get multiple names for just about all the letters of the alphabet. There's always more plants though so I might just stick with it! Instant Jellyfish fucked around with this message at 21:14 on Mar 16, 2020 |
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Mar 16, 2020 21:12
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In honor of the plant theme I would suggest Bamboo, like lucky Bamboo.
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Mar 16, 2020 21:47
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I like the plant theme!
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Mar 16, 2020 21:56
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Plant theme is good. Do you have a list of the names you've used already in the plant theme so we don't just keep suggesting some you've already used?
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Mar 16, 2020 21:59
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Chaosfeather posted:Do you have a list of the names you've used already in the plant theme so we don't just keep suggesting some you've already used? This wasn't as huge of a list as I thought! Here is my big giant list of name options (feel free to suggest more) plus names I have used. It has all my plant names for the jacobs and the cormos have pastry names. Edit: I might do apple varieties? There are lots of those.
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Mar 16, 2020 22:38
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Instant Jellyfish posted:Edit: I might do apple varieties? There are lots of those. Calling a sheep "Golden Delicious" might raise a few eyebrows  .
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Mar 17, 2020 02:42
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Calling a sheep "Golden Delicious" might raise a few eyebrows I currently have at least 60 lbs of lamb in my freezer  I don't mind being honest.At least I'll have plenty of curry and knitwear when the world ends.
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Mar 17, 2020 02:46
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Mmmm it's a good end-of-world position to be in. Warm and fed, with some low-level entertainment (knitting/crochet). Some names of local plants that I enjoy, that you might be interested in sometime. Not sure how many would make for good names? Buckeye, Buckwheat, Cedar, Checkerbloom, Cholla, Clover, Dodder, Fiddleneck, Foxtail, Gentian, Ginger, Godetia, Goldenrod, Hazel, Juniper, Manzanita, Milkweed, Mugwort, Nightshade, Oak, Peony, Poppy, Primrose, Sequoia, Sunflower, Thistle, Willow, Yew, Yucca Chaosfeather fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Mar 17, 2020 |
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Mar 17, 2020 05:00
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Could name the one you rescued Jericho, after the "Rose of Jericho" a type of "Resurrection Plant", which feels rather relevant to the lamb in question
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Mar 17, 2020 05:47
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Name him Tiger, as in the Eye of, as in the song by Survivor.
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Mar 17, 2020 07:21
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Is there anything cuter than a lamb sleeping in a dish? I don't think so.  Everyone else decided to take the day off yesterday without telling me, so of course I was out doing barn checks all night for nothing. Lots of dropped bellies and missing tail ligaments today but no one wants to commit to having a baby yet.
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Mar 17, 2020 15:43
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Instant Jellyfish posted:Gross lambing story This isn't the happiest subject, but I'm wildly curious. Is it common for people to not seek help soon after it's obvious that something has gone haywire with their animal's birthing process? The case you described seems like certain doom for both mother and baby.
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Mar 17, 2020 16:02
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Mizuti posted:This isn't the happiest subject, but I'm wildly curious. Is it common for people to not seek help soon after it's obvious that something has gone haywire with their animal's birthing process? The case you described seems like certain doom for both mother and baby. This particular situation happened when I was in Mongolia last summer. The person called my house and my mom, who was watching the farm for me, told them to call the vet and even gave them the vet's number. The person also talked to the breeder they got their sheep from who, without actually looking at what was going on or giving any follow up instructions, just told them it was probably pregnancy toxemia and to just give the ewe a few ounces of maple syrup a couple times a day. The person diligently had been giving the ewe her syrup but it didn't improve and the owner never followed up on what to do next. When I got back in the country the person called me because they needed me to do some shearing and also the ewe was still down. They just had no idea what to expect or when to try something else because it was their very first lambing and no one said "well if she's still down tomorrow/the next day you really need to do x". That being said that particular farm is terrible about just...not doing stuff? Like they will ask for advice and I will tell them specifically what needs to be done right then and they get around to it when they get around to it. Last year it took them almost 3 months from someone showing them how to check for parasites and telling them their sheep needed to be wormed to them asking me what wormers to use to them actually buying the wormer to finally giving it to their sheep and they lost one to parasites in the process. Part of it is them reading way too much Joel Salatin and not understanding that even if you cull animals that have problems you still need to treat those problems or else the animal is just going to die and you lose all your money on it. Part of it is just them. I wouldn't say its super common for people to not at least ask a facebook group or text me a butt picture but it is very common for people to either be unwilling or unable to call the vet for their sheep in an emergency. Sheep are cheap and livestock vets are expensive and hard to find. I told people in my lambing class that if they were unwilling/unable to have the vet out they need to be prepared to put a ewe down in a situation like that. Its ok to not be able to swing vet care but it's unacceptable to let an animal suffer because of it.
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Mar 17, 2020 16:19
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I looked up how much a sheep costs. It's a lot cheaper than I expected, even for nicer quality sheep.  If livestock vets are anywhere as expensive as pet vets, I can see why people are reluctant to shell out. Still, like you said, they should be ready to euthanize animals that are far over their budget to save.On a happier note, how is Mina doing? Is she any more graceful around the lambs this year, or is her Big Puppy Energy still too strong?
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Mar 17, 2020 16:42
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Mizuti posted:On a happier note, how is Mina doing? Is she any more graceful around the lambs this year, or is her Big Puppy Energy still too strong? Baby puppy doesn't spend a lot of time around tiny lambs just because of the way my farm has been set up but she's really calmed down a lot. Her one weakness is trying to lick butts too much. No one needs a tongue the size of their whole body up the rump. She knows mom sheep don't appreciate her attention though and mostly steers clear. Apparently my nagging worked because I went out to a lamb hot out of the oven. Eclair the cormo had a huge giant white lamb that I was sure was going to be a ram but is, in fact, a ewe. 9 lbs 14 oz! She's the last cormo until April. 
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Mar 17, 2020 17:22
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I'm surprised by how clean they look so quickly...
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Mar 18, 2020 00:39
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Mizuti posted:This isn't the happiest subject, but I'm wildly curious. Is it common for people to not seek help soon after it's obvious that something has gone haywire with their animal's birthing process? The case you described seems like certain doom for both mother and baby. In that case, the vet absolutely should have been there. In some cases, vets don't service the area or they get stuck in traffic. I had a ewe prolapse something the size of a coconut through a prolapse harness and it sent her into labor. My vet was 2 hours away because of traffic. I slit her throat, dug through her guts, and delivered twins that were underbaked. Then spent the next two hours digging a hole while my mom sobbed over the phone at me about "that poor sheep", instead of putting her meat to use. Still kinda did. She got planted between the fruit trees and they're blooming great. E: The sheep's meat, not mom's, though some days I am tempted.
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Mar 18, 2020 14:06
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Wonderful pictures, thank you for the thread! Those four-horners are very striking. I grew up around my parents' flock of a few hundred sheep, so these pictures and videos throw me right back to childhood. Every spring we'd build a "barn" with straw bale walls and a rough fencepole & tarp roof and pen the sheep next to it, then park our little old camp trailer nearby. Mom and dad would trade off spending the night at the camper so they could handle night births. I'd frequently wake up to find a lamb or two in the bathtub after a ewe died on a cold night. At about 6 years old, I was pulling lambs... I think my small child hands were able to get in there and straighten out hooves/head pretty easily. The worst job was fixing prolapses, because it took a lot of work and you were always afraid they'd just prolapse again when you removed the retainer. I don't remember exactly what breeds we had, just that there were some with bald black heads and some with white heads & wooly foreheads... maybe Suffolks and Columbias? My folks got out of the sheep business when I was still in elementary school (switched to cattle) but my sister is currently lambing out her small flock. It's funny how 1) everyone uses those same black rubber feed trays, and 2) all lambs love to lay in them.
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Mar 18, 2020 15:47
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:Ewe story Oof, that's rough. You took the responsible and humane actions for her in that context and sometimes that's all you can do.
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Mar 19, 2020 00:16
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Related, I always found it interesting that the retainer you put in after replacing a prolapse looks a lot like a stylized female reproductive system:
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Mar 19, 2020 00:34
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Pham Nuwen posted:At about 6 years old, I was pulling lambs... I think my small child hands were able to get in there and straighten out hooves/head pretty easily. poo poo, if you had Columbias a 6 year old could probably just climb in and push the lamb out! Thanks for sharing your memories  I grew up in the suburbs so this was a whole new venture for me when I started in 2010.Sicily had a single ram. She totally psychotic so I could barely dip his navel and get a weight on him. I will be monitoring him from a distance I guess.  Katelyn had a set of ram/ewe twins. They're so fuzzy for some reason!  She had them all up and clean and nursing so I left them alone for a few hours and when I came back she had lost her dang mind. She decided those were not her lambs but some sort of horrible impostors. She would call and call for her lambs but when they approached her she would try to punt them away. They are currently in protective custody and things seem to be improving with supervised visitation only. She would prefer to just take the ram lamb but we do all or nothing around here. 
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Mar 19, 2020 01:02
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What a ding-dong  .
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Mar 19, 2020 01:38
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She seems to have gotten her act together after some tough love. I'll be keeping an eye on her and her lambs though. Meanwhile if Daisy doesn't hurry up and have those lambs they're going to walk on out themselves (watch her flank over her right hip). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez7DCURbJDQ
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Mar 19, 2020 03:43
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Daisy please let them walk free. You'll feel much better, too.
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Mar 19, 2020 03:59
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What does "dip his navel" mean?
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Mar 19, 2020 10:57
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StrixNebulosa posted:What does "dip his navel" mean? There's a couple inches of umbilical cord which remain attached to the lamb for a bit. You dip it in iodine to disinfect and, I believe, help it dry out faster. After a while, the cord dries up and falls off.
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Mar 19, 2020 14:03
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Yep! If you leave it dragging around it can pick up bacteria which usually travel to the joints causing “joint ill” or “navel ill”. Common practice is to clip the umbilical cord so it doesn’t drag if it’s particularly long and then dip it in a strong iodine solution to get it clean and drying quick. Clip, dip, strip (the teat to make sure the wax plug is gone and lambs can nurse) is what they tell you to remember.
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Mar 19, 2020 14:14
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Instant Jellyfish posted:Yep! If you leave it dragging around it can pick up bacteria which usually travel to the joints causing “joint ill” or “navel ill”. Common practice is to clip the umbilical cord so it doesn’t drag if it’s particularly long and then dip it in a strong iodine solution to get it clean and drying quick. Clip, dip, strip (the teat to make sure the wax plug is gone and lambs can nurse) is what they tell you to remember. How long does it usually take the cord to dry up and fall off? I don't remember after so long, although I know us kids tended to watch the process sorta like we'd watch a loose tooth getting looser and looser. Also, I didn't know about the joint ill connection, so thanks!
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Mar 19, 2020 14:19
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And now I know, thanks! Man, it is bonkers how aggressive these moms are when you're just trying to help them having healthy babies. I love animals, but I also wish you could just explain to them what you're doing...
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Mar 19, 2020 14:23
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Pham Nuwen posted:How long does it usually take the cord to dry up and fall off? I don't remember after so long, although I know us kids tended to watch the process sorta like we'd watch a loose tooth getting looser and looser. Also, I didn't know about the joint ill connection, so thanks! They're usually dry in 12-24 hours if you've used the strong iodine, it can take a week or two to fall off though. Did you band tails/testicles too? I know a lot of kids who like to wait for the tails to drop off. Grosses me out! I cut mine so it's just done and over with. StrixNebulosa posted:Man, it is bonkers how aggressive these moms are when you're just trying to help them having healthy babies. I love animals, but I also wish you could just explain to them what you're doing... You and me both! It's ok that Sicily doesn't like me because she's being a great mom otherwise. It's Katelyn and her pickiness that's driving me bonkers. First she loved both babies, then decided she hated all babies, now she loves the ram and just sort of tolerates the ewe if it doesn't get too close. You had them, you have to feed them! She's being real flinchy when they move to her udder so I'm going to treat her for sub-clinical mastitis and see if that helps. She'll nurse them if she has to and I've set things up so she can't hurt them so I have time to work things out at least.
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Mar 19, 2020 14:47
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Instant Jellyfish posted:They're usually dry in 12-24 hours if you've used the strong iodine, it can take a week or two to fall off though. Did you band tails/testicles too? I know a lot of kids who like to wait for the tails to drop off. Grosses me out! I cut mine so it's just done and over with. I know my folks had the bander and a big bag of bands sitting around, but IIRC they eventually settled on cutting for testicles and a hot knife for the tails. I think they considered the bands kinda risky due to infection, plus it took a long time and sometimes failed. We'd typically fill a gallon zip-lock or two with testicles because my folks knew somebody who ate them, but the rest + the tails went in piles on the ground for cleanup later. The dogs seemed to like grabbing the tails... not to eat, just to carry around for a little bit and drop somewhere when they got bored. If I had sheep now, I'd try cooking up some of the testicles. Have you ever tried them?
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Mar 19, 2020 14:59
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Pham Nuwen posted:I know my folks had the bander and a big bag of bands sitting around, but IIRC they eventually settled on cutting for testicles and a hot knife for the tails. I think they considered the bands kinda risky due to infection, plus it took a long time and sometimes failed. We'd typically fill a gallon zip-lock or two with testicles because my folks knew somebody who ate them, but the rest + the tails went in piles on the ground for cleanup later. The dogs seemed to like grabbing the tails... not to eat, just to carry around for a little bit and drop somewhere when they got bored. I haven't eaten any testicles but mostly because I don't usually eat rams. My meat buyer prefers intact rams so I put older ewes in the freezer for myself. In Mongolia we were at a restaurant that served a dish made out of the brains and face meat of a sheep served inside its skull. I was intensely curious but also prions terrify me so I passed.
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Mar 19, 2020 15:06
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Instant Jellyfish posted:I haven't eaten any testicles but mostly because I don't usually eat rams. My meat buyer prefers intact rams so I put older ewes in the freezer for myself. That's interesting. We castrated all male lambs, because that's what the meat lamb market wanted; I didn't know there were people who specifically wanted intact adult rams for meat. Brains are one thing I tend to steer clear of and I think it's a good policy. I had a lamb brain curry at a Pakistani restaurant and it was delicious, but that's my sole flirtation with the forbidden skull treats. Apologies if you've mentioned it before, but how much land are you using for the sheep? Based on your pregnancy test spreadsheet earlier in the thread, it looks like you've got about 20 ewes and some number of rams... which might suggest around 5 acres? but I have no idea if you're primarily grazing them or feeding them from hay most of the year. I'd like to eventually end up on 10+ acres and get sheep of my own, so I'm eyeballing your operation for inspiration since it's way more applicable to what I want vs. the way my parents fed their sheep. Your meat + wool + hides setup is very much the sort of thing I hope to get into.
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Mar 19, 2020 15:25
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I have 16 acres divided into 7 pastures and a barn yard plus my house and a side yard that I’d love to have fenced some day. If I had known what I was doing better when I started I would have set it up better for more intense rotational grazing but Ideally I’d like to get down to about 24 breeding ewes and a couple replacement lambs a year. Right now I’m a bit over 30 ewes plus a lot of last year’s lambs because sales were weird last year. Plus the 7 goats that I can’t bring myself to get rid of. Currently have 5 mature rams but I’m planning on bringing those numbers down as well. Hopefully there’s a market for starter flocks and breeding trios this year! Daisy had twin ewe lambs finally. Nice and big and raring to go. They did have a case of the blurs. I promise I’ll take my real camera out soon.  
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Mar 19, 2020 18:34
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Has Katelyn gotten the message on who her lambs are yet?
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Mar 20, 2020 03:30
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Things was earlier today:Instant Jellyfish posted:It's Katelyn and her pickiness that's driving me bonkers. First she loved both babies, then decided she hated all babies, now she loves the ram and just sort of tolerates the ewe if it doesn't get too close. You had them, you have to feed them! She's being real flinchy when they move to her udder so I'm going to treat her for sub-clinical mastitis and see if that helps. She'll nurse them if she has to and I've set things up so she can't hurt them so I have time to work things out at least.
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Mar 20, 2020 04:52
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She is letting them both nurse now without me forcing her. She still much prefers the ram so I’m keeping a close eye on them but I think they’ll be fine. Just Reba and Pansy left to go. I have go shear a bunch of goats several hours away so they’ll probably start pushing as soon as they see my taillights. My mom is going to check in on them though.
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Mar 20, 2020 13:51
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