After having one set of twins born for 18 days the rest of the ewes have finally decided to start having lambs. We did lose one of the first twins. It was a lot smaller than the other and did not survive. We have now had six more ewes give birth in the last five days and have already had our first set of triplets born today. Annmarie said that all three of the triplets are big and strong. I am doing the morning chores this year so that Annmarie can get to work on time. She is doing the sheep chores in the evening and I am feeding the cows in the evenings.
I only feed the cows every other day and the new tractor is able to lift a large bale a few inches off of the ground so I can move it around easily. We have had so much rain in the last couple of days that I almost got the tractor stuck in the mud tonight feeding the cows. I had to finally turn toward the grass to get out of the mud then drive up to the road.
- Date of update- Dec 11 2023
- # of Lambs born – 13
- # of ewes who have delivered babies – 7
- # of ewes still pregnant – 23-30, I don’t think they are all pregnant
- # of single lamb births – 2
- # of twin lamb births – 4
- # of triplet lamb births – 1
- # tagged male (weathers-neutered) lambs-3
- # tagged female lambs-0
- # of bummer lambs – 0
- # of lambs who died in first two weeks – 1
- Total # of lambs on farm -12
- % birthing rate- 186%
- % production rate -171%
- % survival rate at birth – 100%
- % survival rate at 2 weeks (bummers count as death as they need help and leave the farm) – 92%
I have seen three rabbits in the last week in various places all over the farm. This is the first time I have seen more than two and the first time all of the sightings have been spread out. We may have more rabbits than I thought out here.
The new chicken yard door is working great! Eventually, we will get the chicken wire spread over the top of the yard and nothing will be able to get into the yard if the chickens are too stupid to get into the coop before the old automatic door closes. Backup protection is a good thing as the chickens are not very smart.
Stewart Creek Somethings 