Friday, May 25, 2018

New Twins

Toward dusk on 2018-05-18 the ewe with tag MS1312 had twins.  Except for a another ewe that had a single lamb the week before, the ewes in the spring lambing flock all had their lambs in the late February through March timeframe.  I think we missed getting one of the rams out of the flock last fall.  But in any case, these are welcome additions to the flock, except that the flock is way out in the lone pine field and about to be put out into the brush of the 60 acres where it will be hard to keep an eye on her and her lambs.  Plus, I would like to give her a little supplemental feed while she is nursing.
So I decided to bring her back up to the barn area and the holding pens where we have the other ewe with her single lamb.  All the flock was gathered around this small tree, so I began encircling them all with a section of electric fence netting.  Once this activity started, the sheep became suspicious and mostly started moving away, which was okay.  The lambs stayed with the ewe in the shelter of the brush.  There were a few tense moments as I was trying to close the circle, all the other ewes were out and the mom and lambs wanted to follow.  I could have quickly closed the circle of net fence except a dead branch lying on the ground tangled the net and I couldn't get the fence pulled over to close the trap.  So there was a bit of waving around and threatening to convince the ewe and lambs to stay in the protection of the tree.  With some fussing with the fence and branch, I finally got it clear and closed the fence, containing the sheep to be moved.  I think that is Whitey in the left background, she had trailed out with me.
Once contained, the transport trailer is moved into position and the fence is gradually moved inward to crowd the sheep toward the trailer.  However, in this particular situation there was a big bush in the middle of the project that the lambs and ewes could hide in.  If I came at them from one side, they went to the other, and so on.  After flailing around with this for a little bit, I managed to grab the two lambs and hauled them over to near the trailer.  The ewe followed and I put up another section of fence between them and the brush.
So here we are with the ewe and lambs at the edge of the trailer ramp.  I started closing the fence in toward them a little bit and the mom did good and walked up the ramp with the lambs behind her.  The sheep generally volunteer to go up into the trailer as long as we go slow and she doesn't get into a flight panic.
So, with ewe and lambs in the trailer, I lift up the ramp, tie it off, pick up all the net fence and make the trip back to the holding pens up near the barns.
In holding pen 2 there is still quite a bit of tall ryegrass for the sheep to work on.  The other lambs that had weaned about a month ago now are in the background.  With the ramp down the sheep are allowed to come out of the trailer into holding pen 2.
Ewe comes off first leading the lambs.  In background is other ewe with her lamb.
Mom looks back, ensuring lambs are coming.  As I write this about a week later, mom and lambs are are doing good.

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