April Fools Surprise

[Deleted member 995608]

I have three of my ewes bread and weren't supposed to pop until 2 weeks from now. I run Autumn up the road and drop her off at school and when I get back, I've got motel guests yelling at us from the pasture. Low and behold, my crossbred squirted out two little ones all on her own. Thankfully, no problems and she's mothering both equally. Although it's sorta fun the first day to bottle feed, it get's old quick. These lil girls are about 3 hours old.

 

[promisedland]

Hey, that sweet! Luv it

 

[Grizzly]

WOW, that great, congratulations.

 

[RUSSELL5000]

Thanks for sharing.

New critters being born is one of those things that is just always great.

 

[jhenderson]

All his time I thought you were the black sheep of the family.

 

[Deleted member 995608]

Here's the lil girls on day 7. Healthy and happy as could be.

Welcome Jazz to this world. Born at 19:25 April 7th, 2016.

Kind of a bummer knowing these cute lil ****s will load on the kill truck this September.

 

[Deleted member 995608]

And now we have one more, almost two hours later..

 

[BSeyler]

So you're at 150% now. Maybe your last ewe will come through with twins.

 

[jhenderson]

1st rule. Don't give them names. No livestock allowed at my place. I'd love to have some but my wife would have those lambs in the spare room before sundown.

 

[Regcabguy]

Wonderful. Gotta love nature!

 

[promisedland]

1st rule. Don't give them names. No livestock allowed at my place. I'd love to have some but my wife would have those lambs in the spare room before sundown.

Guess we bucked that rule.... our 'butcher' steers names have been = jerky, or burger, etc. Our pigs have names like smokey [lil hot dogs] porky, ........helps us keep focus! But yes, it is hard to lead then to the butcher block.

 

[Deleted member 995608]

1st rule. Don't give them names. No livestock allowed at my place. I'd love to have some but my wife would have those lambs in the spare room before sundown.

Oh no. This isn't our first go round. All of ours go to the kill truck. Our eldest showed lambs since age 9, all the way through high school. Now it's Autumn's turn. Our family is is full blown AG oriented.

The ewe that birthed last night ended up with a full uterine prolapse this morning when I checked after the sun camp up. She was spiting out afterbirth last night when we left them so we thought all was good. No dice. A friend of ours came over this morning to help me attempt to reinsert the goods after a mild does of Ace, but there was so much distention and she just couldn't relax enough to allow us to do any work. I've helped do this on a bunch of mother cows with decent success but not today. I put the ewe down this afternoon. Now its bottle baby time. Yea for us.

 

[promisedland]

HEY, THATS GREAT! Good to see whos telling me how to get my Ram to prrr forever. Once a farm boy, always a farm boy.

 

[Deleted member 995608]

The 11pm and 3am bottle feedings is getting old fast. They orphaned twins get fed every 4 hours. I should have a 2 gallon bucket/nipple feeder here tomorrow that I'm hoping they will take. Last night and today, the orphan lambs fed pretty well without being held.

Started building the 3rd pen today. My last ewe to drop has requested a private room....

 

[Deleted member 995608]

Got the 3rd pen just about wrapped up. After lunch today, I welded up the panel that will be the entrance into the 3rd pen. Tomorrow, I'll finish welding the gate that will hang in the panel center section and get an auto waterer hooked up.

The lil ones really enjoy the extra space for now....

 

[Grizzly]

JHawes, I have enjoyed all your post and pictures. You have a nice family.
george

 

[Deleted member 995608]

Thanks Griz. I'm a little hesitant to post pics of the family, including myself, but what the hell. I thought TDR could use a little pick up with some family fun.

 

[Deleted member 995608]

So I got the entrance panel wrapped up today and with good timing. I lag bolted the panel in, threw in some straw and our last ewe to spit out, walked right and started labor. This is this gals 2nd year of birthing. Last year, she used the pen next to the one I finished just recently. Maybe sheep are smarter than we give them credit for?....... Na, they're pretty stupid animals if you ask me.

Either way, she spit out one, and I left for the hardware store for some parts. When I got back, my wife called and told me to bring more towels as this ewe just pushed out triplets! We have had multiple twins over the last years, but never triplets. I'm gonna let them feed on the colostrum until tomorrow afternoon and then pull one and buddy it up with the orphan twins. No way this ewe has enough to feed 3 nipple grapplers for the long run.

I got the orphan twins started on the bucket teat today. I think they would rather be held and have a bottle stuffed in the mouth, but we can't keep up this 4 hour rotation much longer. Just too tiring.

 

[Grizzly]

You do have your hands full. I suppose congratulatipons are in order. Great pics.

 

[Wayne M.]

Been lurking on this one. Enjoying and thanks from a city boy needing to get out of the city.