good enough for me!
take it easy and recover from that Ann

This is Caramello. She is due to lamb in 2 weeks and usually has twins but when she lays down it looks like there could be more in there.

Aw Caramello looks like she is ready now! I look forward to seeing how many lambs!

Looking forward to seeing her lambs!! I have a couple of golden retrievers who have had litters of 8-13 puppies, and they looked about like that!

Caramello looks like she's about to pop! Can't wait to see her lambs.

This is Sweetpea. She carries a lamb on each side and when she lays down she looks like a ball of wool. Her udder is quite full so I may have to rethink her due date.

Poor thing! I can't believe those legs can even hold her up. Did I say Carmello looked about to pop? I take it back. Sweetpea is truly going to pop.

The only one I have a definite date for is Lily. She is only having one lamb which is due around the 7th of July. The ram only worked at night so I can't really say when the others are due. I wrote 'look for lambs' on the calendar for the 16th of June but I can't remember what it was that I saw to made me write it.

I will be keeping 3 ewe lambs this year and I told Lily that if she has a girl she can keep it. She gets very attached to her lambs and it is like she gives birth to a new best friend each year. I really hope she has a girl.

@LolaTasmania

Awwwwww, Lily sounds like a real sweetie.
Lola, how many sheep do you have? All ewes or do you own a ram as well?

I have 6 ewes and two wethers. My ram died a couple of weeks ago but I won't replace him until early next year. It is only because of his death that I am able to keep some ewe lambs this year as new blood will be added with the new ram. Twelve sheep is all my place can take. The wethers were kept because they were hand-reared and one of them was born blind so he is extra special. They come when I call their names and 12 is as many names as I can remember these days.

Lily has a girl!
Sorry about your ram. Hope you get a good 'new' one.
I can hardly wait to see the lambs.
Sweetpea is gonna 'splode soon

They all look very happy!! I too hope Lily has a girl.

Sweatpea looks like her name suits her.

We're ALL hoping for a girl for Lily!

Thanks for the info. Lola. I had to look up what a wether is. You learn something new every day. Awwww, all your sweet babies know their names & come when called. Can you tell us how many acres it takes for each sheep? Or what area do you guys measure land size in? Do you have them shorn & sell the wool? Does one have to supplement their feed or is it strictly grass they eat & that's good enough for them?

I'm just full of questions.

I have 6 acres and 2 sheep per acre is best for my place. They just eat the grass but we are in drought so if I need more food I will give them a bale of silage in August. I also hand feed them sheep pellets every morning. They wait at the gate next to the house at dawn and as soon as it is light enough they will call me to come feed them. I get to check them for any problems at that time and this morning Ray, who is blind, had a long cane of blackberry stuck to him and I had to pull it out of his wool very carefully.
They get shorn in November with the wool going with the shearer as part payment. After shearing they get a lice treatment down the middle of their backs and a dose of drench down their throats to kill any parasites.
Two weeks after the lambs are born they have their shots against pulpy kidney and other diseases, and they get their tails and testicles marked. Marking is where you put an elastic ring around the bits and they eventually drop off. It is not legal to just cut them off anymore even though it is quicker and more humane.
When the lambs are around 9 months old the biggest will go to market and the smallest 3 will stay for a month or two before going to the butcher for slaughter. The next time I see my lambs is when I help the butcher cut and pack them for my freezer. Last year was the first time I was able to bring myself to put my orphaned hand raised babies in my own freezer. This year I will also keep 3 ewe lambs for breeding so I am allowed to fall in love with them because they will be staying with me for the rest of their lives.
I now have two more weeks of quiet until the bleating of lambs keeps me awake at night. My neighbour has thousands of sheep due to lamb between August and October so I don't get any peace until December. To make up for ruining my sleep, the lambs delight me by seeming to have springs for legs within hours of birth so the fields are full of leaping white lambs. Just before sunset the lambs all get together for races. I go out with a glass of wine to watch dozens of lambs racing and they run until their mothers call them, then it takes an hour of devoted crying for each lamb to find its mother. I go inside once the crying begins.

Fields full of leaping white lambs and lamb races
What a picture that paints in my imagination, with lilting symphonic background music
Followed by the devoted crying crashes in cacophony--sorry Lola, I know what you mean, and I do feel for you with the racket of lambing season, but that was dang funny.
Interesting that it is legal for you to band them but not to cut them what in the world?

I could not have said it any better than Dirt.
You described it all so wonderfully, I was there seeing & hearing it with you.
I too was like wuuuuuuutttttt? Band but not cut??????? Really??? Sounds crazy to me. What is the particular reasoning they have for that?


Also, once again, thank you so much for the learnings.

I think the reason behind the marking rules is because an open wound can invite infection. Mainland Australia has farms that are hundreds of square miles of arid country and sheep are only seen once or twice a year so any infection means a slow painful death for livestock. The bands put in place by an 'elastrator' hurt the lambs for half a day but they don't let infection in. Here on our lush green island of Tasmania our farms are smaller and we see our stock daily but we are still required to use the bands instead of cleanly cutting things away. It is sometimes difficult to get both tiny testicles in one hand and put the elastrator over them without one of them pulling back into the body. Any semi-intact young rams can't go to market so they have to go in my freezer. They are also a pain because they mount and butt all the other sheep.

I see, and I understand on the one level--lambs that are processed and then not seen again for a long time...
Sent you a Tmail so as to not descend into technicalities of castration and somekinda harangue about stupid laws

We are very close to lambing now. Sweetpea is probably in the early stages of labor because she has taken herself away from the flock. I had to take this shot from a long way away so as not to disturb her.

I think Lily is over this whole pregnancy thing too.

no kidding!
Hope all goes well