Thursday, August 31, 2017

here's a new one for ya....for me too!

Sometimes when things don't go well with one of those in our flock
we might not always talk about it on our blog post.
But I feel the need to explain this twisted turn of events
this year.
Above....Eve.  A sweet ewe that is so friendly and always looking 
to be touched.
...earlier this year, January 11, 2017 poor Eve miscarried her lamb(s).
I knew when I went out to feed in the morning that "things weren't right".
Some said, Oh, if you put her back in with the ram she may re-breed.

Well I didn't see the need to do this, I thought that if she did "act" as 
though she was in heat I would put her back to a ram.  But that day 
didn't come.

...moving forward to April...

April 18, 2017 I get a call at work from my dear husband, telling me that 
"you've got a ram in with the ewes and he's chasing them around!"
"He is breeding one of the ewes and she is standing".
Unable to leave work, I ask him to have our friend Dave come over 
and get our Black ram "Bian 1107" back into the ram pen.
...those boys can be magicians when it comes to really wanting to get out of their pen.
He slipped under a 16 foot wire panel that was clipped on either end as a gate.

So I made a note in my calendar on my phone that Eve was bred and to expect a lamb 
on or about September 12, 2017.  Well as you can see Eve, above
just really doesn't look pregnant.  

As I have been inspecting the flock to see who might be a little thin or need 
wormed before we go into another breeding season.
I notice #53 Oreo....
 Oreo with her lamb born March 29, 2017 behind her.
As she walked past me in the barn, I thought boy does she look awful big.
The others not so much.
I recall the conversation with my husband, who doesn't participate
in helping with the sheep too much.
We never discussed "who" was bred.
I assumed it was Eve...that was my logic!
But I am now looking and thinking that Oreo may be the one
that was being chased and bred on that day in April.
At the time Oreo had delivered a lamb just 21 days prior.
...how bizarre is this?????
I plan to get her in her own pen, away from her March lamb,
so "if" she really is going to lamb she will have 
colostrum for the new lamb(s).
I'll keep you posted on Oreo...
we have a tentative due date of September 12, 2017.