Spice lambed around 2 a.m. Sunday morning, officially ending our 2018 lambing season. Her due date had been marked down as Friday, but +/- 2 days is completely normal. I had noticed she was acting a little differently Saturday afternoon, and towards evening felt confident that lambs were on the way, but there was still no active labor going on. A check around 8:30 p.m. revealed the same, as well as right before bed. I set the alarm for 12:30, dragged myself out of bed, and still… the same. Because she wasn’t in active labor, I didn’t necessarily think there was an actual problem, and I really hoped I wouldn’t have to bother the on-call vet at this time of night, just to have the situation resolve itself in record time (as had been the case with both Tinkerbell and Alice). I set the alarm again for 3:00 a.m., knowing that if nothing had changed, I would need to make that call. Sleep did not come easily in the interim – thank goodness these were the last lambs of the season!
At 3:00 a.m., I went out to the barn, full of anxiety, but that was quickly relieved when I saw Spice with a little black lamb! I’m still not sure where the other one had been hiding, because as I readied the jug for them, I realized there were two! Spice has beautiful twin ewe lambs, and three days later we are still trying to decide which spice or herb we will name them after! (Chamomile, Cinnamon, Cilantro, Cardamom, Coriander, Clove, Cajun, Cumin…???)
So here’s the official stats and rundown of the 2018 lambing season:
10 ewes, 16 live and healthy lambs (19 total): 9 ewe lambs, 7 ram lambs born over the course of 2 weeks and 5 days. 2 singles, 7 sets of twins, 1 set of triplets. 12 Romney lambs, 11 live: 7 ewe lambs, 5 ram lambs, 3 recessive, 3 likely extension dominant, 6 white color-carriers. 7 Romeldale lambs, 5 live: 2 ewe lambs, 5 ram lambs, 2 moorit, 5 black-based moorit-carriers. Whew!
As they say in all the Little House books, “All’s well that ends well!” We’ve had some bumps, some tears, some worry, but lots of joy and an exciting and satisfying lambing season – the best we’ve had yet! And lots to look forward to! We will most certainly have some lambs for sale this year – keep an eye out for updates – and shearing is RIGHT around the corner (early April) – so keep an eye out for those luscious fleeces as well!
