Anticipation!

Ginger, one of our crazy little one winters

I'm beginning to get a little worried. I hadn't intended to breed any of my ewe lambs this year. Grady, our ram lamb had other ideas. He broke into the non-breeding pen 3 times this fall (the little booger!). Rams will be rams, that's for sure. The ewe lambs all look to be in good condition and not overly fat, so I'm sure they will be fine. I just wonder how many there will be.....

Delphine and her daughter Geranium

I've been doing udder checks when I feed in the mornings, and it looks like we'll have lambs in less than a week! I need to do a bit of prep work in the barn. We don't jug everyone, we really only have one lambing jug for 30 some ewes, then a larger pen for maybe 3 ewes and their lambs. Some don't go in at all. I keep a dry erase board handy, and record lambings as they occur. A baby monitor is on, so I don't normally do midnight barn checks, even though I'm a bit of an insomniac and sometimes wander out in my boots and robe if I'm up. Can't resist!

So many shepherds shear their ewes before lambing. We usually wait until April or May to do shearing. With Icelandics having their wool break post lambing, that's the best time to do it. The ewes do seem to shed the wool around their udders and belly, so the lambs never seem to have a problem finding their milk. Such anticipation!