My first lamb arrived this morning with such a minimum of fuss that I didn’t notice the birth until I heard his high-pitched bleating.  Cass was moving sheep away from the feeder so I could put out corn without getting mauled, and then suddenly we had a very different project.  I had Cass push the rest of the sheep out of the way so I could take a look at the newborn critter and figure out what I needed to do.

first lamb-5089I think this image shows the lamb less than a minute after his birth, still covered in amniotic sac.  The mother ewe seemed to be paying lots of attention to him, the first and most critical determinant of a successful start in life.  However, a couple of the other ewes were showing inappropriate interest in the new lamb (pregnant sheep are apparently prone to stealing others’ lambs, resulting in chaos worthy of G.B. Shaw when their own lambs are born), so I hustled ewe and lamb into their own enclosure, and mom took over from there.

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I escorted Cass out of the barn while I was rearranging sheep, as I wasn’t sure how she would react to a lamb or how a new mother would react to her.  She stayed right outside the barn, howling in indignation that she wasn’t in on the excitement.  After things settled down a bit, I let her take a look.

first lamb-5168The ewe almost immediately started stamping her foot and making moves like she was going to head-butt the enclosure, so Cass got only a brief look at first.  By evening, I was able to use Cass to hold the other sheep off the feeder without  such a strong reaction from mom.

 

I was really pleased to see how active this first lamb has been today.  It seems that he will be able to vigorously advocate for himself, even expressing interest in his mother’s stash of corn.

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And finally, since the first-born is always over-documented, a couple of video snippets of the lamb getting cleaned and then finding milk for the first time.