This post is all about… you guessed it – LAMBS! A bunch of random items.
Every sheep raiser is bound to have a few of these eventually…
Yep, we have a couple bottle lambs. I used to think bottle lambs were so much fun, that was until I entered the crazy world of raising 34 of them at one time! That is right – 34!!! I learned a LOT about raising bottle lambs and the biggest thing I learned is that you should do everything you possibly can to have the mom raise them 🙂 Sometimes that isn’t possible though. Since you can’t physically feed 34 bottle lambs by yourself, my awesome brother made me the following bottle racks –
They come in really handy. The lambs can eat while I am busy doing the rest of the chores.
This is the most popular way of feeding the bottle lambs though 🙂
The 34 bottle lambs that I raised a few years ago were commercial lambs from a local producer and I was shocked at the reasons they were bottle lambs – they don’t leave triplets on a ewe, they always pull one off, lost lambs in the field are brought in instead of finding the mom, etc. Our bottle lambs are the result of first time moms having twins and forgetting about the first lamb while having the second lamb. I’m not sure if the mom wandered off or the lamb wandered off, but the ewe in both cases was sure that the lamb was not theirs. I tried pursuading them and used all of the tricks in the book, but in the end it just didn’t work.
Some lambs whisper…
and some lambs scream!
This is Flirt and she is one of the loudest lambs of the year. It really doesn’t surprise me because her mother is a ewe that walks around bellowing for no reason! It looks like her daughter is following in her footsteps 🙂
I don’t know how other farms work their compost pile, but we use lamb power. Our pile is compacted by 160 little lamb feet running up and down it. Now if we could just get them to turn it as well!
I wish all of my ewes were easy keepers like this girl. That is her lamb next to her and she still looks like she is pregnant. This is one of my frustrations at the moment, I have girls that look like this and others that I would like to hide behind the barn because they are skinnier than I like to see. In a perfect world, I would have three different pens – one for the skinny, medium, and fat girls.
I took pictures a week ago and hadn’t gotten around to posting them yet. They change so quickly in a week…
The lamb in the back is the same as the lamb in the picture above. The little boy’s horns grow so fast at this age!
Poor Petunia isn’t due until March 31st. She is going to have to be a very protective mother to protect her little babies from the big bullies!
Stories from the Farm 
Lambs, I love em’. You know, I could stand outside my front porch and gaze at lambs…but here I am, smiling at your pictures of lambs!
I too have the fatties ( ewes) and the ewes who once they start nursing lambs just slim right down. I am over feeding them because I am always concerned in this day and age that some well meaning person will view a skinny ewe and report me to the powers that be….so since I do not have multiple pastures, my fatties will remain fat.But hey, they have no self esteem problems and are very content to fat, sassy, and happy!
Bummer dude! 😉 LOL Okay, that was tacky. Nice looking lambs though! They’re all so handsome and look so mature all of a sudden. I really like your bottle feeders too, those look great! It’ll be nice when Annie can concentrate on feeding the lambs as well, right now she’d rather run with them and force them to sit on her lap. 😀
lovely pictures. any idea of how to wean a ten day old lamb off the feeding tube and get him to suck and swallow from a bottle or cup? the little guy was hypothermic and we barely saved him but I think he’s neurologically damaged and I can’t keep feeding him with the tube forever. Any advice would be appreciated.
Those two bottle babies have to be the cutest lambs of all time!!That one with the single eye patch is SO adorable!
Cute, cute, cute! I love them all. I was wondering if you could comment on the appearances of the lambs that I got in my recent blog post. What do you think of them, conformation wise? Do they look good, bad, awful? I mean, all lambs are cute, but looking at them with a critical eye, what do you see? I note that one has the much looser but wavy fleece, while the other is quite tight and has tiny curlicues up by her neck. Which fleece is preferable? Don’t be afraid to be critical – I can take it! I am just learning, so I will know what to look for if I get another one!
Such sweet lambs!! I want to hold one!!!