Lamb Care

Since there were quite a few comments about what is involved with the lambs I thought I'd write about that too.
Most of it is observation.  Observation and carrying buckets of water.   My hose is frozen and so I have to carry the buckets of water to them.  Even if I unfroze the hose, hooking it up and unhooking it and draining it after every use is just as much work, so I elect to carry buckets.  They generally get 5-6 buckets in the morning and another 4 at night.  I have them divided into two stalls right now, and then the boys are outside.

Observing the lambs is intensive at first, to make sure they are moving around well, eating normally and keeping warm.  If they are standing weird that can go from "looks weird" at one visit, to dead lamb at the next, so I really watch them each time.   If they get cold I bring them in the house to warm up.  If they seem lethargic I supplement them with a bottle at first, but I really want to leave them with their mom as much as possible, so I take the bottle out there to them.  

Then there is the cleaning out of the stalls when they get too mucky.  That's pretty heavy and long work.  I move the sheep into clean stalls, clean out the dirty. 

I feed them all hay twice a day, and some pellet food in the morning for the pregnant or nursing ewes.  

Observing the ewes is important too.  Anyone that isn't eating or is standing weird or rejecting her lambs probably needs extra attention.  

The lambs all get ear tagged and written down in my notebook so I can keep track of them.   The ewes get de-wormed.   Eventually the male lambs will get castrated.  Master has to help me with that last because it is a two person job.