This’N’That Family Farm: 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.