Acorn’s Arrival

 Acorn’s Arrival - The Valentine’s Day Surprise 

And Building the Creep

February 14 brought little Acorn to our farm.

This little girl came at 1:00am in the morning. So it was really the day after Valentine’s daythat she was delivered.  Acorn’s mother is Natalie, our brown Katahdin.

Natalie was going into labor around 10:00 at night so Nala and the twins had to move to the other pen.

In order for Charm and Lucky to be safe while in the older sheep’s pen, they had to have a creep to have their own space.  A creep is basically a little fence where the lambs can fit through but not the bigger sheep.  It allows the lambs to get space away from the big sheep.

  Heat lamps  were hung above the creep to keep their area warm. We added the bales of hay for a wind breaker. The creep was made of equal length and sized prices of wood  that were screwed onto the long board with only enough space between each for the lambs to fit through.

While Justin worked on this project late into the night, I assisted him and monitored Natalie’s progress.

This is Natalie when she was in labor.

This little lamb was coming out head first.  While that is good for human babies, lambs need to come out front hooves first and head right behind.  She needed assistance.  I had to glove up and push that little snout back in her mother’s womb and at the same time snag one of her little legs and reposition it straight ahead instead of bent.  Phew: first leg in correct position, so we tied it with a little noose to keep it from curling back the wrong way as we pushed the little lamb’s snout back in her mother again to reposition the other leg.  

Writing this now makes it seem easy, but it was tricky and stressful. She was still slow to progress, but we got Acorn out after moving her around and she’s doing great.  This big little lady weighed in at 18 lbs on her day 3 of life! No wonder her mama had a hard time.

Natalie started licking her little lamb the second she was out. She let little Acorn drink her milk and snuggle with her right away.  It’s super important for the mother’s to bond with their lambs. This way, we know the ewe will take care of her young.  But in the beginning, we keep a close eye on them to make sure mama doesn’t reject her lamb.

Carla helped “man” the lamb camera.  We can keep an eye on them throughout the next few days. This was Alexia’s idea and purchase for our homestead. It makes a great deal of difference being able to keep an eye out for ewes in labor and the newborn lambs.

I love this photo because it captures the 3 day old twins  Lucky and Charm checking out their newborn cousin being cared for by her mother.

Mommy and baby Acorn.

Lambing Twins 

 First time mama “Nala”  one of our Katahdin sheep had twins this evening!   This was amazing and scary. 

 

First born came with his back feet first.  This is backwards.  Nala labored for some time and then I called the vet.  I needed to help her.  It was tricky and I had never done this assisted birth before.  After a lot of pulling by me and pushing by Nala, a little boy “Charm” was born. I quickly wiped his nose and face clear, but he continued to have mucus breathing. He was struggling.  The lambing book had prepared me for this. I took him by his hind legs and swung him in a low arc for the centrifugal force. We wiped some more and he was clear.

I put the baby lamb next to his mama’s face but it was clear that Nala was not interested; she was going to birth another little lamb. So Alexia started drying the first baby with the towels while I evaluated the position of the new lamb on the way.

This lamb was coming in the correct position with front two feet first and facing down, her head was right behind and not too long after, “Lucky” the little female lamb was born.

Nala was exhausted and even though it was clear she was done with birthing , it took a few hours to show interest in her babies.  We held her still while they took their first feeds.  

Charm shirt for Prince Charming 

Their dad is our Southdown ram “Lambert”.  Thank God these beautiful twins were born safely and are thriving. Thank God as well that we were blessed to have lambs born this week when the weather has finally risen above freezing.

“Lucky”

Other ewes in our flock are pregnant, but not sure yet if we’ll have any more twins.  Visit us back on our this’n’that farm blog soon to find out. Also add yourself as a follower and/or add us a comment while you’re here!

Nala has turned into a terrific mother.  The “twin fatigue” only lasted an hour or two.  After nursing them a couple times, she started licking them and was gentler   with them. 

  

We weighed the twins with our hanging scale on day 3 of life.  Charm was 12 lbs and Lucky was 13 lbs.

There ended up being some cold nights, but they did fine snuggling together in the corner with their heat lamp up above.

Here they are in their playpen, called a creep for the first time.  The video of their jumping and exploration.  Check out this project in my next post. Coming soon… 

Along with the introduction of our biggest lamb yet!

Born Valentine’s Day 2022.