5 February 2008
The First Lamb
Posted by Richard under: Sheep; Smallholding .
***STOP PRESS***
First lamb (single ewe) born to Millennium Fay at 16:30 hrs today.
Kate noticed that Fay was acting strangely, and suspected that the onset of lambing was just around the corner. She had been keeping an eye on her most of the day. When we went to check at around four-thirty, Fay had already done the business and there was a healthy lamb trying to stand and bleating away. It was luck she had no problems as we missed the delivery - but based on the times between checks she must have gone from pushing to delivery pretty damn quick.
Last week, Andy said that Fay was the furthest on - so again the expert was right.
11 Comments so far...
colour it green Says:
5 February 2008 at 11:04 pm.
excellent. Thats the way we want it.. the ewe managing it all unaided.
farmingfriends Says:
6 February 2008 at 12:07 am.
Fantastic news and glad the lamb and ewe managed ok.
Sara from farmingfriends
Jo Knight Says:
6 February 2008 at 10:12 am.
Congratulations!
Just the way it should be. To be honest most of the time you should find the ewe will manage everything unaided (although this can depend on the breed to an extent) - but it’s nice to be there just to witness the magic of the miracle. And it’s a girl…has to be the icing on the (birthday) cake.
Poppy Says:
6 February 2008 at 12:14 pm.
What great news, we have our first lamb as well yesterday. A Cotswold cross eve lamb, born all by itself.
P.S. Really enjoy reading your blog, I’ve been lurking for a while now.
kate Says:
6 February 2008 at 2:59 pm.
Not sure what to call her yet, I told the kids they could only name her after 24 hours, just in case, I make the kids use food names if the lambs have been bread for meat, (our last larder lambs were Lamb chop, Roastie and Hot Pot, but this girls for breeding, so they can give her a proper name.
Pancake is a good suggestion, The kids suggestions so far have been - Spider pig??? and Little fluffy!!!
Lucy Says:
7 February 2008 at 10:56 am.
Congrats on your new arrival 
And well done to the Mum for such a good delivery!
kate Says:
7 February 2008 at 11:39 am.
Kids loved the suggestion Pancake, so Pancake she is. We have had some difficulty with the mother being a first timer and not letting her feed, I think this could also be down to one of the other ewes possibly licking her clean when she first came out (lamb was clean, but not with ewe). Fortunatly Pancake seems to be a fiesty little madam, but for the moment we are keeping a very close eye on things checking every 3 hours and holding the ewe so the lamb can suckle. There has been some improvement in that the ewe is no longer butting her away all the time.