lambing contest

All posts tagged lambing contest

Well under way…

Posted by kenleighacres on January 27, 2014
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . 32 Comments

With 19 lambs on the ground, we are in the full swing of lambing now.

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The first time mamas are doing a fabulous job!

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My son is thrilled with his lambs.

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We have been enjoying some lovely weather!  This is Susannah and her lamb, Magique.

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She is such a serious lamb.

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Scout has the exact opposite type of personality…she is silly, silly, silly 😉

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I love the interactions between moms and babies.

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…and of course it wouldn’t be lambing time without babies calling for their mamas!

Up to this point, all of the girls have had their lambs on or close to their due date.  How did I know what their due date was???  We used marking paint on the rams during the breeding season.  I would do my rounds in the morning, take a note as to which ewes were bred the previous day and write their name in my calendar.  I then calculated 149 days (average gestation for our Jacob Sheep) and mark that date in my calendar.   It has allowed me to take a little bit of the stress out of lambing time.  A lot less wondering and waiting.  It has been GREAT!

Unfortunately, I took a week off and took a road trip with a friend and attended the Jacob Sheep Breeders Annual Meeting in Missouri during breeding season.  My husband did an AWESOME job of holding down the fort, but he didn’t write down the dates like I do…I admit, I am a bit of a type A 😉  So, we now have a week of lambing with 6 girls that look close, but no dates written down.  I thought it would be fun to have a little contest and have you join me in my guessing game.

*** I wrote this blogpost last night and am now revising it because 4 new lambs greeted me in the barn this morning 🙂 ***

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Ailsa had a set of ram lambs.

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Liberty had a couple of lilac ewe lambs…

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such a good way to start the day 🙂

So, there are 4 options now, they are….

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Mollala

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Canby

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Avalon…biggest girl of the season

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and Legacy

Now to make it totally fair for the people who don’t know what to look for, I am including photos that don’t hold very many clues.

To enter, leave a comment on who you think will be first to go.

Want to know what I am giving away…

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One of these little guys…your choice.  I made them while creating my felting kits and would love to have them bring a smile to someone’s face.  Feel free to comment here or on my Facebook page.

The answer is 11!

Posted by kenleighacres on March 5, 2011
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: , , , . 14 Comments

Lambing season is all wrapped up!  The last 5 girls had 11 lambs and 7 of those lambs came within a 1-hour time frame! 

Jonquil was the first to lamb with a healthy set of twins…

her ram lamb, Lionel

and her ewe lamb, Amelia.

The next 3 girls decided to stir it up some!  This is the scene that greeted me after I picked my son up from school on Wednesday…

unfortunately, it wasn’t so organized 😉  There were 7 lambs being mothered by 3 ewes.  A little chaotic! 

I was able to sort them by size and markings and fleece and everyone seemed happy except for Veronica.  She really wanted Sahara’s ram lamb in addition to her 3.  I told her that she needed to be happy with what she had and not be greedy!

Here is Veronica with her triplets. 

Roland – ram lamb

Catherine – ewe lamb

Second ram lamb – Chaucer

  

Veronica is quite proud of herself and her brood, as she rightly shoud be!  I checked the girls at 2:00 before I left and she didn’t look close, I returned at 3:00 to triplets.  They aren’t exactly small triplets either – 8, 9, and 10 lbs.! 

This is Sahara’s ram lamb – Windsor

and her ewe lamb – Jasmine.

The other girl that lambed with them is Amber.  This is her ram lamb, Galahad. 

These are the first lambs by Blue Ewe’s Ringoes Albus ‘Ringo’. 

Here is Amber’s little ewe lamb – Arabella.  She is so petite and cute and pretty…

I just want to hug her and snuggle her and carry her everywhere. 

She is not a snuggly lamb though.  She wants to be with HER MOM!  A very oppinionated little thing 🙂

The last girl to lamb was Star.  She kept me waiting and waiting!  Finally she lambed yesterday afternoon.  She had twins!  It was apparent at birth that the ewe lamb had some issues.  The lower half of her face appearred to be deformed.  She had to be put down and once again lambing season has reminded me of how precious life is.  There will be an educational post coming.  The lamb had what is called ‘Monkey Faced Lamb Syndrome’ and it is caused by the ewe eating a poisonous plant early in gestation.  You can always count on lambing season to further your education!

 

Here is Star’s ram lamb.  I am so thankful she has a lamb to care for!  This is Ringoes other set of lambs.  The fleeces look very promising.

Thanks to all who participated in our little lambing contest!  6 of you guessed 11.  We have a winner……..

Tisha!  I know you are off having fun in California, but I will send you an e-mail and find out what you would like.

A little teaser…

Posted by kenleighacres on March 2, 2011
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: , , . 6 Comments

The lambs are starting to arrive…

a nose…

a pretty fleece…

and a spotted leg.

That is all you get until all 5 girls have lambed 😉 

The contest will stay open until then.  If you want to play along, visit this blog post.

Amber was busy this afternoon, dressing up for the arrival of her lambs.  I hope they appreciate her effort when they get here 🙂

Poor Veronica – I think she still has a day or two to go…ugh!

Seeing the new lambs makes me realize how big the older lambs are getting…horns and all!

How many lambs…A little contest!

Posted by kenleighacres on February 27, 2011
Posted in: Farm Life, Felting, Jacob Sheep, sheep. Tagged: , , , , , , . 33 Comments

At the start of lambing season, I thought it would be fun to have a lambing contest.  Unfortunately, with the number of ewes we have, it seemed a little overwhelming and I couldn’t figure out the logistics.  We are down to 5 ewes left to lamb and they are due within the next couple of days…perfect number and time for a little contest!

Here are the girls in all of their pregnant glory…

Sahara

Jonquil

Star

Amber

and Veronica

Veronica says that I am going to owe them some pretty good treats after posting the above photos 🙂

If you would like to play along, leave a comment here with how many lambs you think these girls are going to have.  The cut off will be when they have all lambed.  Jonquil and Star are due today and the other three are due on the 1st of March.  I will have my son draw names from a hat of all the people that guess the right number.  There will be two winners! 

Now to the important stuff…the prizes 😉

The first prize is one of my needle felting kits to make a little sheep…

 

The second prize is one of my wet felted soap kits to make your own felted soap…

If you aren’t the crafty type, no worries…I will be happy to send you an already made felted sheep or felted soap!