Our first spring lambing begins on 18 March and our second at the end of April. You can see in the first picture, while it's not too pretty, shows a couple of our big mamas. All are healthy with a good body condition score, so it's wait and see.
We start gutting our barn tomorrow and will be building gates that we'll put together for lambing jugs. (I’ll post some picture as it takes shape.) During the past few years we lambed right on pasture. We moved the sheep to new a paddock every other day during it all, but this got to be too much. We tried to time the move when it didn’t look like any lambs were going to be born that day, but that too often didn’t work out. Then we always have the elements to contend with, be it the rain or worst in some cases a big jump in temperature, which really stresses out the birthing ewes, not to mention the new born lambs. So this year we are fencing in two pastures, one they’ll stay in while waiting to drop, and other they’ll move into after they’ve spent a few days in a jug bonding with their new lambs.
I was hoping the last picture came out a little better, but if you click on it you can see the line of little flocks alongside the road. Closest are the pregnant ewes followed by our market lambs, and then furthest away are lamb ewes. It worked out pretty well from a management standpoint because all were close to the house but with enough separation and pasture to keep them from plodding down the over winter areas and turning them into mud bowls. At a minimum, it gives the folks that drive by something to look at.
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| Mamas getting big |
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| Mamas lounging in the sun |
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| Flocks along the road |
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