Pictures of My New Friendly Roosters

We just bought three young roosters.  They are Ameraucanas.  Ameraucanas are the ones where the hens lay blue or green eggs.  Our roosters are 11 weeks old, so they are not fully mature.

For the first two days they pretty much stayed in their shelter but by day 3 they were walking around and exploring their enclosure.  We have them in a geodesic dome starplate aviary for now but after they are bonded to the area we will let them out to free range in the yard.

I did not get any good pictures of them on the first days as they stayed in the shelter, but I thought I might get some pictures today.  For a few minutes the sun was out and I gave it a shot, but it would seem the roosters are too friendly and stayed too close to me for me to take a good picture.

Most of my pictures were blurry and totally unusable.  Thank heavens for digital cameras rather than wasting film like in the "old days".  I did get one okay picture, above, but I nearly cut off one rooster's head, and we know chickens are not too keen about having their heads cut off!

I tried for more pictures but mostly got blurry images of them running back and forth in front of the camera.
In fact of the dozen or so pictures only two were not blurry, here is the other.

This is kind of cute as it shows how cute chicken rumps are.  I think a cat walked past the enclosure and got their attention for a moment.

I will try to get more pictures in the next week or so, and of course later when their tail feathers get longer and more showy, by then I am sure they will be out free ranging and eating lots of grass hoppers! 

It is nice that these roosters are friendly, we hope they stay friendly and do not become aggressive.

Lambs Born on St Patricks Day

March 17 was St Patrick's Day and the day Patsy sheep finally had her lambs. Patsy is an unusual looking sheep, she is part Jacob, part Barbado, she use to have 5 horns but knocked one off leaving her with 4. She is part wool sheep, part hair, so she sheds – sort of.

Three other ewes had their lambs last week, when the weather was good, but a nasty storm had blown in a few days earlier, dumping new snow and sending temperatures well below freezing. At night the moms with lambs are in a stall in the barn, the other sheep are loose in the rest of the barn, and I would let them outside for the day, while leaving the moms and new lambs in the barn. 

I knew Pasty was due any day, but in the morning she was eager to go outside.  She ate her oats and then snuck away as I was putting hay out. I noticed her standing in a shed to the back of the pasture. Sheep are herd animals, they do not go off on their own except for when they are lambing. I had to bribe her (with oats) to get her back into the barn because at -15 celsius it was much too cold to have lambs in a three sided shed.

I left the mom to be alone for a while going out to check on her a few times. At about 11:00 her amniotic sack was out (you can see it in the picture). I left her alone again, going back at noon. At noon I walked into the barn, Patsy was standing near the back of the barn was having contractions, her head was held up and she was straining. Having seen ewes give birth before I noted she looked to be having a harder time of it, so I turned to latch the barn door shut behind myself so I could get a closer look, but in the moment it took to latch the door, by the time I turned around her lamb was out!

Patsy stood up, turned around, and started cleaning off her lamb right away. I waited at the far end of t the barn for a few minutes. Her location at the back of the barn was not great, there is a gap around the back door which let in a cold draft so I wanted to move her, and her wet lamb, to a drier stall. I picked up the lamb and carried him to the stall and Patsy followed. I gave him a quick drying but mostly left the rest up to Patsy and I went back to the house.

I returned an hour later (bringing water with me as we do not have running water in the barn) and as expected she had an other lamb with her. The second lamb was larger, and white. Although Patsy has had lambs before I think this was her first solid white lamb, most have been spotted like her.  The brown lamb does have white spots on his side.  Both lambs are male, ram lambs.

After another three hours her placenta was shed, I picked it up and took it to a place away from the barn area where I know ravens will come and gobble it up, and then added new dry straw to the stall. 

All sheep are doing well and hopefully the weather will improve.  

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Other Reading

My Husband's Account of the Lambing  - with some information on lambing in general

Four of Last Week's Lambs

Four New Lambs in Two Days

Yesterday, March 5, 2013, I was home and expecting that one of our sheep would have her lambs soon.  I was on the computer helping a worried girl whose dog was showing signs of going into labor.  At one point I told her I knew what she was going through because I was waiting for a ewe to lamb.

Two Lambs

Not long after that, around my lunch time, I went out to check and sure enough there she was in the shed with two new lambs.  I went out to get her and bring her into the barn.  The weather was just around freezing and there was a breeze, no place for wet lambs to be outside.  I got them in and dried them off.

The mom is a Katahdin sheep, her sister was the ewe that gave birth only two days earlier.  I moved the sister and her lambs into a larger stall and put this new mom into the small stall.  Of course I got some new lamb pictures too!

Sadly she did have a third lamb, I found it dead in the stall later that afternoon even though I had been checking regularly.

New Lambs!

Then today, March 6, I went into the barn in the morning to find another ewe had lambed.  I was a bit surprised, we knew she was pregnant, but I still thought she had a few more days to go.  I moved the other mom into the large stall with her sister to open up the small stall for the new mother, Dark Brown Barbado, and her two lambs, one girl, one boy.

This is the ewe lamb. As you can see, she is still a bit wet, I dried them off more.

This is the sleepy ram lamb.

Well now we have just one ewe left to lamb, that being Patsy the part Jacob ewe with 4 horns.  I think she will be another few days, but she might surprise us too.  Today is a bit chilly so I do hope it warms up for all the ewes and their new baby lambs.





Join WebAnswers and get paid using Google Adsense, to ask and answer questions, as I was doing the day I found the first lambs.  Click here.

Cute Lambs Born in March

We have had mild weather for several weeks so we have been keeping our sheep (and lambs that were born in October) were outside all of the time, but on this particular day (March 3, 2013) it was a blizzard, with some wind gusts and 6 inches (15 cm), so decided to move the sheep into the barn for the night.

We knew that four ewes were expecting lambs.  We had bought a ram in October, ewes are pregnant for 5 months.  We did not think he had bred the ewes right away, but apparently he had.

As I was bringing in the sheep I noted one ewe was missing. If you have sheep it is very important not to assume all are there because it is sometimes easy to miss one, and a ewe that is thinking about lambing will separate herself from the others so might not come when called.

I went looking for the missing ewe, Mrs Brown Katahdin, a Katahdin (her breed) hair sheep. I found her standing in the old shed. She stomped her foot to try to keep me away, but I had no choice, she could not lamb out there in the cold. She was clearly in the process of delivering, her placenta was already out. I got her into the barn and left her.

After about an hour my husband and I went out to the barn to check her.  Sure enough there she was in a back corner with two little, and damp, lambs.  We had to hustle to get them into a private stall away from the other sheep.  We set her up in the stall with hay and water, and made sure the lambs were dry.  I took a few quick pictures, and sexed the lambs (both ewes) and left them alone for the night.

Cute Lamb Pictures!

Above is one of the ewe lambs, she is still a bit damp and you can even see the umbilical cord hanging down.  She is probably only an hour old (at most) in this photo.

Below is her sister, although these pictures were the following day, with this lamb being about 22 hours old or so.

She is perky and alert but still a bit wobbly on her feet.  The ewe and lambs will stay in the stall another day, they we will let them run around the whole barn, but it is much too snowy for them to go outside right now.

I will let you know when the other three ewes have their lambs.

Disappointing Pictures of Lambs

Well I guess the title is a bit of a giveaway!

A couple of days ago the weather was good so I went to take some pictures of the sheep. There were two images I really wanted to capture, one being the difference in the coat of a wool lamb and a hair lamb, and the other was a picture of Diamond's twins (born on October 17) and Girlie's triplets (born onOctober 8) to show how much bigger Diamond's lambs are.

I was able to get one picture of a wool lamb and a hair lamb but the picture won't be winning any awards for cute lambs because I was never able to get them close together until they were walking away from me. These two are twins, their mother, Blackie sheep is part wool but has a bit of hair sheep in her too. The father is a hair sheep. You can see the lamb with more white inherited more genes for the hair coat, while the other lamb inherited genes for wool, and his coat is much shorter, and the poor guy has a harder time with the colder days.

The other planned picture of Diamond's big lambs next to Girlie's smaller lambs did not happen, the sheep were not cooperative. Diamond is a larger ewe but I think there were also other reasons why her lambs are so massive; she produces the most milk of any of our sheep, and with her lambs being twins it is normal they would be larger than triplets. I think Diamond may have been over due too. The white lamb is the ram lamb and he is bigger than the black ewe lamb.

At any rate I was a bit disappointed with my photography that day, but as the weather has turned worse (today was –12 C with a bitter wind) I will not be going out to take more pictures for a little while.

For my friends and readers in the United States I wish to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. If you are a pet owner I want to share with you this link to awesome BlackFriday shopping specials and deals from many companies. Some of these deals start now, and others are good until December, while a few are strictly for the Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday (all dates are indicated).

Blackie Gives Birth to Twin Lambs that Look Like Calves

A few days ago Girlie gave birth to triplets. The next two days it snowed and we were quite concerned as we knew Diamond and Blackie were also due.

Normally it is best if sheep lamb in the spring, or at least later in the winter, but this spring we had an incident and did not quite get rid of our ram when we should have and he happened to breed three of the ewes while they still had their lambs with them from this past spring. We were not aware of this until a few weeks ago when it was quite clear that three ewes were getting udders.  Diamond was the largest.

On Monday, October 8, Canadian Thanksgiving, one of these ewes, Girlie, had triplets. The next couple of days were bad as the weather turned nasty and we even got snow. Today it rained. I was at work when half way through the day my daughter called to say that Blackie sheep (who had been a bottle baby lamb a few years earlier) had twins.  

My daughter said that one was a male (ram lamb) and one was female (ewe lamb) and that they were spotted and looked like cows.  The male has wooly hair and the female has more silky hair.  The female has more white than the male. 

My daughter said she knew there were some lambs because she could see Crystal, the llama, standing near the old barn with her head trying to poke into the barn. Crystal loves lambs, whenever there are new lambs she wants to get near and smell them. My daughter picked up the two lambs and carried them to the proper barn (where Girlie and her triplets have been kept indoors because her triplets are tiny and the weather is cold), Blackie followed well, which is good, sometimes the ewes panic and run around looking for the lambs.

When I got home from work I saw them, my husband tried to get some good pictures but the lambs were a little nervous. They are four days younger these two new lambs are larger than the triplets. 

Click here for a different picture of the lambs.

Sheep Trivia

Last Night Twins, Today Sleepy Lambs

Last night when we went to bring the sheep into the barn one ewe was missing.  We only had 2 ewes left to lamb but the missing one, whom we call White Katahdin (although she is really a light brown) was not big at all so it was a but of a surprise when my husband found her next to the barn with two lambs.

We got the lambs into the barn, one was larger, black and white, and the smaller one was orange and white.  I guessed the bigger lamb was male, and yup... that is what is was, the smaller one being a girl.  Momma followed close behind.

I did not want to walk to the house to get the camera, so we left them for the night and took pictures in the morning.  Here are the two lambs.

What I found most interesting is that their mother was particularly friendly with me.  She normally is quite nervous, and most mothers are especially nervous, but she was really good.

I kept them inside today, along with Favorite sheep who had her twins earlier yesterday, and put all the other moms and lambs out to play in the sun.  We still have snow on the ground but today was a bit cooler, temperatures hovering around zero. 

All the outside lambs seemed to have enjoyed running, jumping, and playing!  There are actually 10 lambs in this picture.

I am amazed that Dark Brown Barbado has not had her lambs yet, she is huge... perhaps tonight!

Lambing Makes Me Worry so Much

With triplets born only days ago, and the ewes actually not due for another day, I was a bit surprised by today's events.

As you may know from reading earlier blog posts I live in Alberta, Canada, it is winter, so the ewes are in the barn at night and out in the day.  I opened the barn door this morning to find one ewe, Mrs Brown Katahdin, with twins.

She would need to stay in, as the ewes with new lambs are kept in the barn for a while to bond with their lambs and so  the lambs get stronger before going out (after all there is snow on the ground). 

I went outside to throw the hay over the fence and noticed one ewe, Blackie, wandering off to the old barn.  It was pretty clear at that point that Blackie would be lambing today too.

I checked on Blackie several times throughout the day.  At one point, just before lunch, I found her with one lamb.  That make it easier to get her back into the other barn - I just picked her lamb up and she followed me.  I put her in a stall by herself. 

Blackie and the lamb I found her with.

I had lunch and went out a little later to check.  I am now feeling terrible for not going out sooner.  I found a dead lamb in the stall, a black and white lamb.  I noticed yet another standing with her, as well as the earlier lamb.  She had given birth to triplets, and somehow lost one.  Was it born dead?  Did she not clean its nose off in time?  Could I have saved it?  What happened?  I tend to beat myself up mentally in these situations.  Poor thing.

As if that was not enough, later in the day when it was time to bring the other sheep into the barn, one ewe was missing.  It took a bit of searching (it was getting dark by this time) but I found Patsy standing with two new lambs.

And there's more.  When I got Patsy and her lambs back into the barn, I checked on everyone again, and decided that one of the triplets born days earlier was not looking too good, I would have to bottle feed it.  She drank good but this is an expensive thing to do, not to mention a lot more work added to the day.

Good thing I am unemployed!

Feathered Winter Vistors, Pine Grosbeaks

This winter has been pretty good, temperatures were actually well above normal, there was not much snow (I know, I know, bad for crops), but that all changed two days ago. A cruel cold wind blew in snow and drastically cold temperatures. We went from +5C to -20C in a matter of less than a day.

The wind also seemed to blow in some new guests, birds that we have not really seen here in the past, although they are not uncommon in the area.

We normally have black capped chickadees, waxwings, nuthatches, and blue jays, but over night we had a group of two new arrivals, redpolls (small birds), and some very attractive, robin sized birds.

At first we had only the female birds. I had a hard time identifying them because the bird book I have only pictures a male, and the females had what I would call an orange head, and the bird book said the females have an olive head (to me olive is greenish). So I thought I had a mystery bird at the feeder, eating sunflower seeds so fast I had to fill up the dish several times throughout the day.

It was not until the afternoon that male arrived (no surprise) and I was able to make an accurate identification; Pine Gosbeak, perhaps Alberta's equivalent for winter beauty to the cardinal, a bird that is rare to see here.

From what I read, Pine Grosbeaks are a forest dwelling bird most of the time but enjoy mountain ash trees (which I have always wanted but still have not gotten around to buying). They are slightly larger than finches and the defining feature is the white bars on their wings, which the females do have also.

The location, for anyone who is interested, is central Alberta, about 1 hour SW of Edmonton.

Other than the new birds, there is not much happening, the weather is frightfully cold so everyone is trying to stay warm.  I gave a whole bunch of chopped up apples to the sheep this afternoon, they liked that.  I suspect the birds might like some too, I shall put some out tomorrow.

Pictures are copyright © owned by me.

The Winter Flock and Guardian Donkey

The other day was warm, I thought it would be a good day to take pictures of the sheep, but they didn't seem t be doing anything too interesting, they were just standing in the sun, in the shed.  I still thought this would be a good time to take pictures since the pictures can be used to show people what a shed for livestock looks like.

At the time only the sheep, and donkey, were in the shed.  Crystal, the llama, must have been off somewhere doing her own thing.

The lambs are not due until March, which is much better than last year when they started delivering new years eve and continued through the cold months of January and February.  This year has at least been warmer, and lots less snow too.  I am sure the sheep are happy to have a better winter.
 

I took these pictures only a few days ago, everyone is on their best behavior, waiting to see what Santa might bring them for Christmas.

I had to take two pictures of my small sheep flock, and have no idea of how to splice them together to make one big picture.  In the first pictures we have, from left to right, Girlie sheep, Patsy sheep (laying down) and Aggie the donkey, as well as Mrs White Katahdin.

*Yes, some farmers do name their animals.

In the second picture we see, starting from the left, the as yet unnamed Dorper ram.  In front of him is Diamond sheep.  In front of Diamond is Blackie, and Blackie's mom, Favorite Sheep (the one that had the stroke a few years ago).  Back in the shed, behind Diamond we see Mrs Dark Brown Barbado (named Dark Brown because when we got her we first had two and she was the darker one), and to the far right, and still in the shed is Mrs Brown Katahdin.


I think for Christmas we will give them an extra snack of hay around noon and some cut up apples.  They really love those.  We buy the discounted apples at the grocery store as they make a nice treat for the sheep and Aggie.   We may even put a few out for the birds too.

On behalf of myself, husband, and daughter, and all our critters, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season, be sure to keep extra care of your pets over the holidays, so many times we get busy and forget about them out in the cold. 

The Triplet Lambs are Growing Up

If you are a regular reader,  you may recall one Barbado ewe had triplets in Januaray.  She was not producing quite enough milk and as a result we started bottle feeding one of her ewe lambs a few times throughout the day.  Well, as it happened the other brown sister also wanted to get in on the bottle action, so we shared one bottle between the two lambs.  Both were also drinking from their mother.  Their brother was much bigger in size, but the two ewe lambs are pretty much caught up to him now.

The two ewe lambs are brown, the ram lamb is white and even has small horns, the lamb furthest back looks extra small due to the angle of the picture but is the same size has her sister in front.

Now the lambs are just waiting for spring!

Diamond Finally has her Lambs

If you recall, Diamond was one of the ewes that has been big for a long time, she had a huge udder, and was waddling for a while.  I kept her in the barn for the past two days.. just in case.

Well, finally, on January 16, 2011, Diamond sheep had twins!  Usually she has triplets, and was certainly big enough I was expecting triplets, however I think she was just trying to hold off for warmer weather.  It has been colder than -20c for the past 10 days at least. 

Diamonds twins are as big as the 2 week old lambs born to Blackie sheep earlier, one is a ewe lamb (a girl), the other a little ram lamb (a boy).  Yes, that is me in the back.

An odd picture perhaps.  She has just had her lambs, so the blood is normal, her udder is huge, much larger than any of our other ewes get.  Diamond is a very good mother, and produces so much milk that her lambs will grow fast, and eventually other lambs will steal milk from her when she is eating (this is common with sheep when the lambs are a bit older and bold enough to leave their own moms).

You may note, she still has snow on her back even though she has not been outside for two days.  This shows how well the wool insulates the sheep, and visa versa, her own body heat is not even melting the snow.

You will also note that Diamond's tail has been docked, her lambs show a normal sheep's tail. 

Read about Milking Sheep here.

Read about Tail Docking here.

Patsy the Five Horned Ewe Has Twins

On the very cold morning of January 15, I went out to the barn to feed the sheep and check them as I have been doing every day now for over a month.  The last week has been particularly hard, temperatures have been well below normal, sitting at -23C on this morning.

If you have been following, you know that the sheep are brought into the barn at night and go out in the day.  They get oats in the morning before going out for their hay.  The ones with lambs remain in the barn, which is small and unheated but still far warmer than outside.

This particular morning Patsy was standing in a small corner there with two new lambs at her feet.  She is a good mother, not even leaving her lambs while I gave oats to the other sheep.

If you look close you can see that Patsy still has some snow on her back from the day before.  Her twin lambs are males, thus - ram lambs.   Patsy sheep also has 5 horns and sheds in a strange sort of way.

Patsy is a cross between a Jacob sheep (known for having many horns) and a Barbado sheep (hair sheep - thus the shedding, although a full hair sheep would not have the wool she does).

Read more about Jacob Sheep
Read more about Barbado Sheep

That brings our lamb count for 2011 to 9, with Diamond, Favorite, and Mrs Dark Brown Katahdin due soon, and Girlie and Baby Katahdin later in the spring.

A whole lot more Lambs, Cute ones!

Just last night, January 7, 2011, when we went out to bring in the sheep for the night there were a few more sheep.. little ones.. lambs.   Dark Brown Barbado - named so because when we got her we had another Barbado ewe who was slightly lighter brown in color, had triplets!

There was one larger lamb, a white ram lamb, who looks like he will get horns, and two tiny ewe lambs.  We will have to watch closely to make sure all get enough to eat.  They were all pretty confused at first, mom must have given birth right when the sheep were getting ready to come in for the night and they had been jostled around a bit. 

Picture taken the morning after their birth, you can see how much bigger the white lamb is, the smaller brown ones are ewe lambs, the one in the middle was still wet when we found her the night before, and had to be dried off.

What were those two thinking turning away from the camera?? How about some head shots?

When I went out the following morning to get these pictures, before getting the pictures, I saw that another ewe had lambed during the night.  So rather than putting this new one, and her twins, in with this delicate family of three, we put this family, known as Mrs White Katahdin's family, in with Blackie sheep and her two lambs.

One of Mrs White Katahdins lambs is a ewe lamb, one is a ram lamb.  I have forgotten which is which!

You may have noticed both these ewes, and their lambs do not like like "normal" sheep.  They are hair sheep, and will shed much like a dog. 

Read about Blackies Lambs born earlier - click here.

Read about the Advantages of Hair Sheep - click here.