Grove Farm Coloureds

Lambing

I wanted to write something here about our experiences of lambing this year. It's 2010, and it's our second year of lambing. I thought it would be informative to try and show what happens just before lambing, how to spot the signs and follow through with some photo's taken of one of our ewes.

We had previously noted down the general time of lambing, which is more or less 147 days after the ewe has been served by the ram. So we keep an eye on the ewe for signs of 'stressing'


The ewe will walk around, paw the ground, lie down, get up again...and so on. She is uncomfortable and does not really know what to do to stop this strange feeling she has. You may notice her rather loose and floppy behind too..!

Stressing can come in the form of grunting, groaning and in a number of strange facial expressions such as the one shown. The ewe is gritting her teeth and lifting her head into the air. She is star gazing..!

Here the ewe is lifting up her top lip, almost curling it upwards. Also see her back leg stretched outwards as she pushes. She is very close to lambing at this stage.

You should see a small fluid filled bag appear from the business end of the ewe. This does not always happen, but more often than not there will be some bag or 'bubble' appear prior to the lamb. This bubble will burst and this is an imminent sign of lambing.

OK then, here you see the first lamb has poped out.! A nice easy lambing here as she did not need any help.

Sometimes the ewe may look in a bit of discomfort, and if after 30 - 40 minutes there has been no sign of a lamb coming, then some human intervention may be required.


Before you intervene you must firstly make sure you understand what you need to do, secondly you must make sure you either wear latex gloves or wash your hands and arms thoroughly.

I do not want to go into too much detail here on what may need to be done, but make sure you read your lambing book very well..!!

No sooner than one comes out than there is a second on the way..! This ewe had a great lambing with the second lamb coming about 10 minutes after the first one.


As normal the two feet show first, followed by the head and then the body. We have had a birth where the back feet have come out first - I did think that the lambs head had disappeared..!! until I saw it coming out last with a plop..!

"Hello World..!!"

Lamb number three..!!

And number 3 popped out about 10 minutes after the second.

One thing to look out for is more of those 'bubbles' or water sacks. As they appear you can be more than certain there is another lamb on the way..!

The ewe should lick each newly born lamb, removing all the after birth, jelly and goo which sticks to its little body.

Sometimes the lamb may require a little help to get dry, especially if it’s a cold evening. The quicker the lamb is cleaned off the better. You can give it a good rub with a dry towel if you need to.

So the ewe had triplets in this case. Unexpected, but by watching the ewe we were able to notice the signes that more than one lamb was on the way.


And as you can see the triplets are doing fine and are taking up their new job as mountain climbers..!!