My day started at 2 a.m. with the arrival of a pair of Cormo ram lambs, Valentino and Armani. By dinner time, another six lambs had landed: Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin & Blass, Polo & Hilfiger joined newcomers Lagerfeld, Karan, Burberry and McQueen. The idea to name this year’s lambs for fashion designers came to me while watching this season’s Project Runway program on Bravo. I don’t want much t.v. at all, and trust me, I am no fashionista, but I became hooked on this show last year and tuned in each week to watch Heidi Klum announce who was "in" and who was "out". I thought this would be a fun theme, with lots of great names for sheep. Now that I am about half way through, I am fishing a little bit for names, especially good ones for rams, since that seems to be this year’s gender trend (sigh). So, if you have any suggestions, let’s hear them.
I thought I would share a few moments from a busy day in the birthing barn, to give some sense of how hard a ewe works in the process of delivering.
This is Carrera (taken this afternoon). At 1:45 a.m. this morning I awoke to the sound of her snickering to lambs who hadn’t yet arrived. She delivered her first lamb shortly after I entered the barn, and then a second not long after.
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This picture shows the series of birthing pens that line the east side of the barn. New arrivals are tucked inside a 5 x 5 foot pen with their mom so they can bond, learn to nurse, and adjust to their vast new surroundings.
Some of the pens have fancy heat boxes, which the lambs adore. Twins bond really well with each other when they share a golden pool of warmth in the corner of the pen.
Lambs and ewes stay in the pens for about 3 days. Then the lambs are ear tagged and docked and sent out to the large nursery pen.]
Carrerra and her first lamb, taken at 2:30 a.m.
Later . . .
Mid afternoon, Holly called me to the barn. First-time mother, Verbena, had been in labor for an hour and was having strong contractions. Here she is in the early stages of pushing. The reddish bubble is the sac of water emerging as she has a large contraction.
Her Lamaze coach arrives.
Fifteen minutes later, here she is with a little ewe-ling, "Dolce". Holly was so pleased.
Within the hour, Cayenne, another first-timer began labor. Having delivered one lamb, here she struggles to deliver her second. (easier to see if you enlarge the image) Birthing is incredibly tiring for the ewes.
Although exhausted, a good ewe will lick each lamb all over its body, which cleans and dries the lambs and also stimulates their suckling instinct. A soft dialog of snickers and cries accompanies the process. The bonding between ewe and lamb strengthens. In a barn full of 40 nearly identical lambs, ewes and lambs rely on scent (and voice to some extent) to identify each other.
The afternoon wound down with Ursa’s twins, one solid black and one white ram lamb. My hands were pretty full by then, so no pics right now.
I am always grateful when lambs arrive in the light of day. As I write, I can hear many new voices over the baby monitor. Maybe I will get lucky with a solid night’s rest tonight.
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copyright 2008 Barbara Parry, Foxfire Fiber & Designs. All rights reserved.
