Spring Time

Spring was long in coming in these parts. As mentioned in the previous post our syrup season ran very late, which meant lambing season started just when we were cleaning up at the sugarbush. Lambs come when they're ready no matter what the weather is like. Our first lambs arrived on May 24th courtesy of Hazel, a two year old ewe. Last spring she had two stillborns on a blustery cold day in April. This year she had triplet boys and they're all doing well. One of her lambs, Julio, is now being fed by bottle as he wasn't getting what he needed from mom.

Later that same day Freckles had her own set of triplets and suddenly we had three times as many lambs as last year. 

A quiet period followed until June 3rd when Mirabelle birthed her lamb and a stillborn ram lamb. Oddly, three weeks prior she went into what appeared to be labour showing all signs such as not eating much, spending time on her own in various corners. In retrospect I think she was indeed in labour but for whatever reason she didn't actually birth the lambs and one made it later on while the other didn't. Her single lamb is doing very well now though and has lots to eat! 

On June 6th the lambing season came to a close as Henny had her set of triplets! In all we have ten lambs; six rams and 4 ewes. 

A couple weeks passed without incident until last weekend when I noticed Freckles seemed to be in pain. It turned out to be mastitis and it came on rather quickly. What I think happened is her lambs were feeding so aggressively that they cut her udder with their teeth (she has scabs on her teats) and due to the pain of open sores she wouldn't let them nurse. When a full udder doesn't get emptied infection sets in and that's called mastitis. At the best of times it's a tricky balance getting feed right when ewes are nursing in order to produce enough milk but not too much. Freckles' lambs were growing really well and she's a terrific mom so it's too bad this has happened. Anyhow, we had the vet out and Freckles has been on painkillers (Flunazine) and antibiotics (Borgal) for a week and likely more. I was stripping the milk out of her udder for a few days until it hardened so much that I couldn't get nary a drip. Poor Freckles didn't look like she was going to make it but the drugs seem to be working now and she's been eating but isn't herself otherwise. 

Meanwhile this has meant I've had to bottle feed her lambs: Jerry, Jolene, Jasmine and Julio (Hazel's lamb). This is the year of "J". 

At first I was feeding them with a single bottle one at a time. I was getting to work late and up at night too late so something had to change. I started feeding them with four bottles in my hands, but this was difficult. 

Then I mounted six baby bottles onto a scrap piece of 2"x6" and lashed the bottles in with a strand of clothesline. The result is the multi-milker, until I come up with a better name, and it works amazingly well.