We have another house lamb, April. She's very frisky, eats well and pisses all over the house :(. She was shouting her little head off under the Japanese maple on the morning of the first. Herbie was the first human she imprinted, when he picked her up and put her back in the sheep enclosure. I took her down to the lower barn where Ruthie and her 1st born lamb, Eve, had spent the night, rubbed Ruthies placenta all over her, rubbed Eves' and Aprils' bums together and tried to get Ruthie to feed her. The minute my attention strayed, Ruthie tried to take April out ! Went and fetched Lacey, Aprils' mum, but she was only interested in eating, her bag was soft and she was totally disinterested in her lamb. Strange as this was her 4th lambing and she has always been an exceptional mother. The only thing I could think is that she cleaned April, who then slipped under the fence spending the night on her own, and mum thought she had died. About 3 hours later I stepped down into the lounge after doing the morning chores and trying to get April fed, looked out the window towards the pastures and saw another white lamb lying in the middle of the back yard. Went out, a dead little boy, Aprils' twin brother :(. She was about 15ft from where I found the placenta, he over 60ft on the other side of the house !
Learning experience for me. Should have realised that there was a twin as April was so small. If I'd gone looking for him to start, I may have found him alive :(. Shoulda, woulda, coulda ! So we have 2 very similar looking girls so far. They both have Sockeyes' markings, so I'm wondering if Prince is their daddy, or if it was Saturn, 1 of Sockeyes' ram lambs. Ruthie is Sockeyes' ewe lamb, so Eves' markings could come from her, but Lacey wasn't related to Sockeye at all.
April has doubled in size in her 8 days on earth. Fed her Jersey colostrum for the first 2 days, and now it's pure Jersey milk. Holding thumbs, but she hasn't had the scours and is doing really well.
Expecting Buttercup to lamb still, but not so sure about Liqourice. Thought Prince had gotten her preggars before / while he broke her leg, but when I returned her to the other sheep after a month in the barn, he jumped her again. She's my favourite ewe and I hate that she doesn't have full use of her leg. Will have to wait and see if / when she lambs and then make a decision. I'm starting collecting replacement ewes.
Have the vet coming for the horses next Wednesday. John thought it was his hooves that are bothering Max, they're long so we shall see. Will have him check Missys' too, and probably do their coggins too, which will give us more options. Getting unbroken horses was probably not the brightest move we've made.
I'm just geting over the flu, 1st time since leaving the corporate world that I've gotten sick. Pretty grim having to do chores feeling like this, but Herbie did everything except the milking the past 2 days.
The rains have come. Rained nearly constantly over the last 24 hours and we have a lake out back. At least it's warmish, but then I'm running a fever so maybe it's just me.