High Pressure Tactics Used By Livestock Buyers

When many people think of high pressure sales techniques they think of the techniques that sellers use to pressure people into buying things, or into paying a high price.  In my experience selling sheep I have actually encountered a few buyers who use pressure to try to get me to lower the price.

Of course typically I will lower the price a bit on sheep from time to time, but what I am talking about is when I have already negotiated a price and the buyer then comes up with some reason why I should lower it further.

I had one jerk that I actually did let myself get bullied by several years ago.  It was winter.  One of my ewes had got herself stuck in a feed trough and died, leaving two orphaned lambs (about 2 weeks old).  Another ewe had rejected one of her lambs, so I had 3 bottle baby lambs in the middle of winter and I was working away from home at the time too.  It was simply too much work for me.  I had other ewes for sale at the time too because I was very short of cash and needed to pay some bills.  I had negotiated a price for all the sheep over the phone with a buyer.  He lived 2 hours away, and while he was on route to come and get the sheep I actually turned away other interested buyers because to me they were "sold".

When the guy got here he said that I should lower my price because he had to come from so far away.  Then he said I should lower my price because he thought 2 of the ewes were older than I had stated, which I know was false.  I had already caught all the sheep and put them in a pen ready to go.  Catching and separating sheep is a lot of work, not something I wanted to do again.  I did not keep the phone numbers of the other buyers, I was at a loss.  So I gave in.  I was furious at myself for allowing him to bully me like that.

Just recently I had another potential buyer call about the sheep I currently have for sale.  He too tried to bully me.  I only have 3 lambs for sale at this time and he said that since he had to come from far away I needed to make it worth his trip so should lower my prices.  To note I had already offered the three sheep as a package deal for a price lower than if a person bought them individually.  Then he said I needed to sell more sheep to make it worth his trip.   Needless to say, this time I as firm with the guy and said "NO".

I really do not mind being fair to other people, offering a reasonable price, but it is not my fault if a buyer lives far away.  It does not lower the value of my sheep if a buyer lives father away.  I just do not like bullies!

Surprise Triplet Lambs Born at the Wrong TIme of Year

On Sunday, November 23, I went outside to feed the sheep as usual.  We had known that at least one ewe was pregnant but did not expect lambs for another month at least (ideally later than that), so when I went out to feed them in the morning and found one ewe with triplet lambs following behind her I was quite surprised.  Especially since the weather had been below freezing and there was snow on the ground.

I got them into a stall in the barn and made sure they were okay.  They were already dried but the tails on two of them were frozen and I expect may fall off due to frost bite.  I tried to warm in my hands but it could have been too late.

After a day it was clear that the ewe, named Girlie, was not producing enough milk for all three lambs so I went to the feed store and bought a bag of lamb milk replacement formula which cost around $50.00.  I also bought more nipples for the bottles.

Two of the three lambs, the one in front is not being bottle fed, the one in back is.

I am currently bottle feeding two of the three lambs at least three times a day, four if I am home from work.  Unfortunately the weather only got worse, we have a huge amount of snow now and the temperature fell to -34 C (including windchill) which is about the same as -29 F.

The lambs are doing okay and I am monitoring the other ewes as well, it looks like 3 of them are pregnant too, so we have started giving them extra rations and bringing them in the barn for the night too (mind you with the cold temperatures I would have started to bring them in the barn at night anyhow).

Selling Lambs via Private Sales

As there are no regular sheep auctions near me and as I only have a few lambs (so not worth it to drive to a farther place where there are regular sheep auctions) I sell my lambs privately if I can, taking them to the odd and unusual sales if I cannot.  I prefer the private sale, you get the money yourself (no worries about unknown prices and commissions) and there is less work.

I have had ads for my lambs for sale for a while now and had only a little interest.  However since yesterday I have had at least 4 people call and ask about the ram lambs for sale.  One person has already come for two, others have asked if I would hold them until this Friday, or next.  I generally do not like "holding" sheep for anyone, even if they pay in advance, it is just not worth the hassle.  So many times people insist they are coming and do not show up.

I have had people say they would send me the money in advance, but what if they do, and then something happens to the sheep I have reserved for them (a coyote, or if they suddenly cannot make it to pick the sheep up).  There are also lots of scams in which supposed buyers pay by check, then cancel the check, or make an "overpayment" and ask you to give them cash back due to their "error" then cancel the check too!

Now my rule is cash only, first come, first serve, I will not hold sheep for people, nor take advance payments.  If you want it, get here, pay for it, and take it!

Ram lamb in front, some of my older ewes behind.

Some buyers come prepared, with a couple people to help load. That is always the best, or at least people should ask if they should bring help.

I have had people call and ask if they can butcher the animals on the farm, even though my ads always say they cannot.

I have had people call and ask if they could "fit the sheep in the back of their SUV" to take it home!  When I say "NO, he has horns and will break your windows", they say "but we will tie it up!".   Of course I would not allow an animal to be transported like that.

For sure selling sheep privately, off the farm, is easier in some ways, but there are complications a person needs to be aware of when selling their own animals and not using an auction market.

Fall is Ram Lamb Selling and Buying Time

I find that lambs tend to sell best in the spring.  People either want them for Easter, or other religious festivals, or they want them for pasture control.  Breeding in order to have spring lambs means lambing in the winter which is hard work but profitable.

Normally I breed my sheep for spring lambs and have them sold quite early in the summer, however this summer was crazy and I only started advertising them a few weeks ago.  I had one fellow call and say he wanted all the ram lambs.  He was busy and asked if I could hold them for him for another week. I agreed, but after 10 days passed I got a hold of him and I guess something came up and he could not make it.

Normally I get tons of calls for lambs, but normally I advertise them a lot earlier than I did this year.  I am in Canada and find that kijiji.ca is a good place to advertise livestock for sale, however they list sheep in with horses and get a lot of horses, so my sheep ad was soon bumped to page 7 and appears to be lost...

Another site I use to advertise sheep for sale is Ropin' The Web which is strictly for buying and selling livestock in Alberta.  I use to get a lot of inquires from this site, however it seems to be less popular now than a few years ago.

Above is one of my more interesting looking ram lambs.  The angle of the photo is awful, please forgive me for that as it does make him look a bit distorted, but his coloring and markings are cool... too bad I have a shadow on him too, I really must get better pictures!  He is a Jacob x Katahdin. 

I am hoping to get some inquires soon as fall is typically the time of year when people buy rams for breeding.  Sheep are pregnant for 5 months and most ewes come into season only in the fall (from early August to December) so now is the time for breeding.  Next year I will not put off advertising them for sale so late!  At least the pasture is good this year as we have had loads of rain, so their is plenty for all to eat. 

As my regular readers know I have mostly hair sheep as I find them a better sheep for the hobby farmer but they are also becoming increasingly popular for meat too.   Hair sheep tend to have a better resistance to parasites and they do not need shearing which can be a lot of work and a major expense which is not justified in areas where wool is not valuable.

Three Different Lambs, a Summer Surprise

Last fall, in October, three of our ewes gave birth to lambs.  We knew that two of them had been rebred and they had their lambs in April, but it did not look like the third ewe had been rebred.  Sheep are pregnant for 5 months and we had been told the ewes of most breeds only come into heat in the fall, so the fact that we had October lambs was already a surprise.

At any rate, we thought we were in the clear with the other ewe and as such were just getting on with the summer.  We have had rain almost non-stop and the pasture has grown so tall we almost do not see the sheep at all.

We went away for four days and when we came back I noticed Girlie sheep suddenly looked different.  While she did not look pregnant, her udder seemed fuller.  The next day I was out filling  up the water and she was missing.  I found her in the old barn, she had three little lambs with her.

I went to get my husband to help me get them into the barn, I also wanted to grab the camera!  My husband picked up the lambs and carried them towards our larger barn, which I thought would be a better place for them to spend their first night.

Girlie has had triplets in the past but never produced enough milk for all and we have always had to supplement one by bottle feeding.  As such it was a good idea to get her into the barn so we could check that too, and give her a bit of oats.

She has a black ewe lamb, a brown ewe lamb (the smallest lamb) and a larger white and brown ram lamb.

Well that was all just over a week ago.  She is so far doing great with the three lambs.  I did have a bit of an awkward moment though...

On the second day I noticed a bit of her placenta was still hanging out of her (and covered in feces too).  I called the veterinarian.  It was July 1, which is Canada Day here (a holiday).  He suggested I could fix this myself, I just had to wash my hands really well, cover one hand with vegetable oil, and go insider her to gently remove it, and to feel just in case she had another lamb still inside.  He said since she was still eating and acting normal it was not an emergency in which he needed to come.  So... ya, I did that, while my husband held her, and thankfully there was no fourth lamb and I got the placenta out okay. 

Triplet Lambs Being Born

I knew Blackie as pregnant but didn't think she was due for another week or so, so I was rather surprised when I found her in the pasture with a newborn lamb.

The cool thing was that I had my camera with me because I was going to be taking some pictures of the other sheep, and as it happened Blackie lay down and had two more lambs while I was outside with her.

She had separated herself from the flock and was in a nice sheltered area of the pasture, I had seen her alone in the old barn earlier in the day so knew something was up.  How thoughtful of her to go out into the sun!

Within a short time of me being out there, a minute or so really, she lay down to have her second lamb.

Blackie started to lick it off, and before I knew it she laid down again.  Triplets I thought.  In the past Blackie has had triplets twice before but always lost one each time.  She did not strain with this lamb as much as the earlier one.  And was busy licking the first too at the same time.  I saw the third lamb come out most of the way (keep in mind they are born in a clear sack so you see the sack and lamb within it and fluid. 

This lamb was black so it was hard to see well, and there was no movement.  As long as the umbilical cord is still attached it is okay that the sack is not open because the lamb gets the oxygen from the blood in the umbilical cord. This usually breaks when the mom gets up or the lamb moves around.

 I was waiting for Blackie to get up and check the third lamb but she just lay there licking the first two. I am sure she was tired but I grew concerned.  I could only detect small movements from the third lamb from inside the sack.  I moved my position just a bit to go around to check closer, and in an instant the third lamb broke open its sack and started to breathe on its own.

Blackie was not really noticing so I moved this lamb closer to her nose and she did start licking it right away.

 

At that point I left her for a short time, I wanted to make sure I had a stall prepared for them.  It was warm and sunny outside, but it is best to allow small family groups to bond in the safety of a stall for a while, especially in the case of triplets - not to mention the fear of predators attracted by the smell of blood from the process of lambing.

See other pictures and read more at my original post, here.

For the record these lambs were born April 27, 2013.  I have Diamond sheep on my radar too, she is huge and expecting lambs now as well.

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.

About Cruelty to Livestock

One of the biggest debates in the food industry is around the cruelty to livestock. Vegans, vegetarians, and animal rights activists, often condemn the livestock industry as being cruel. Livestock keepers, and those involved with livestock, often deny any cruelty. In a case of one extreme to the other with neither one willing to bend it is hard to see sense of it all.

I feel it would be better if the livestock industry were honest that some cruelty does exist and that there may be room for improvement. It should also be noted that a lot of the cruelty is related to keeping costs low and this is in fact being pushed by the consumer.

It should also be noted that most of the incidences of cruelty are not simply the result of a farmer wanting to cause pain and suffering simply for the sake of causing pain and suffering to the animal. While this sort of thing does occur on occasion it is rarely by the farmer, or owner, of the livestock, and is more often done by employees.

Since I keep sheep I have taken a part of an article on cruelty to livestock and reposted it here with a link to the whole article below.

 

"Sheep are one of the few livestock animals not commonly kept in a factory type setting, they usually are kept on pasture had have a fairly ideal life, although often cut short for lambs headed to slaughter.

Their lives are not without some cruelty, the worst of which is mulesing. Mulesing is common in Australia and done to Merino sheep. The lambs are hung upside down by their feet and a dinner sized chunk of their rump is cut off without painkillers or antiseptics.

Docking of a lamb's tail is not particularly cruel, in fact because of the social uses of a dog's tail, docking a dog's tail can be considered more cruel than dockinga lamb's tail with the note that docking lamb's tails is done to keep flies away from the dirty tail. Flies can cause fly strike and can kill a lamb. Mulesing is done for the same reason but takes off the rump of the lamb.

Pregnant Karakul ewes are reported to be kicked to induce abortions or early labor. Others are slaughtered right before lambing so their fetal lamb can be harvested for its pelt."

For the record I am not a vegetarian and I am not against the meat industry as a whole, but I strongly dislike some of the “factory farm” methods of keeping other livestock, such as chickens, swine, and dairy cattle.

Cruelty can be reduced and one way of reducing it is to spread awareness to the consumer so they demand better treatment of farm animals and become more knowledgeable about where the meat they buy comes from.

To read the full article click here.

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Please use the comments area to share your opinions on cruelty in the livestock industry and how we can improve things.

Mysterious Hair Loss on Lamb's Ears

I seldom blog about health worries, I once had a lamb blow up to the size of a balloon with bloat, I was too scared to take a picture thinking that if she died it would be too sad to look at the picture (yes I was not born a farmer and my sheep are more like pets than livestock)... That lamb did live and in fact is Blackie sheep whom you may have read about.

I have an odd health worry now, but not one that is too serious, it is mostly just puzzling. 

As you recall I had 7 lambs born in October. It is now January. A week or so ago I noticed two lambs (different moms) had some hair loss on their ears, just about where their ears attach to their heads. No other lambs had any such problems. The only thing the two lambs had in common was that they were white and black;  I also have 3 other lambs that are all black, one white and brown, and another black and white (unaffected at that point).

I thought.. hmm, maybe they need a new mineral block, so got that, but nothing seemed to change. I do not know if the lambs even lick it.

Well a couple of days ago the other black and white lamb also is showing some signs of hair loss on the ears, and he is also showing small areas of hair thinning on the sides of his nose.

The other 4 lambs are fine and show no hair missing.  There is no hair loss on the ewes either..  They are all wool sheep x hair sheep.

The areas of hair loss are too even and symmetrical to be anything such as ringworm or mange. 

I have found nothing online except one post that suggested an allergy to food combined with sunlight.

I should add that it is winter here, temperatures have been below freezing, we have snow and the sheep are getting hay and grain (oats). 

If anyone has any ideas I would love to hear them. My vet is not as familiar with sheep as he is with cattle and nobody else here has a clue. 

I have not been out with the camera (when it is cold the battery freezes too quick and I have just not thought about it), but I have used a picture of a different sheep and drawn in the places of hair loss.

Update - Below is a picture I took today, it's pretty hard to get a good picture of a goofy lamb with a crappy camera, but I gave it my best shot - note that the lamb's are not itching.  It actually seems like maybe the hair is growing back in, it's hard to tell.

Solutions to Common Skin Problems in Dogs

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).

Lambs at Play on a Wintery Day

With winter underway (although technically it is still fall), the lambs are out in the snow, growing and having fun.  I am bringing them in the barn only at night so the moms can get extra oats and the little lambs are safe.

We did have a horrid cold snap a week ago along with a good amount of snow, but this week temperatures have been warmer - I even got out with the camera.

Here we see Girlie and her triplets that were born in October on Canadian Thanksgiving.  At first I had been worried that the black lambs might not be getting enough milk to drink because at first they were smaller than the white ewe lamb but after a few weeks it seemed the tables turned and one day I had to bring the white ewe lamb into the house and bottle feed her.

 I returned her to the barn that night and over the next couple of days I continued to bottle feed her, then I noticed one of the black lambs was also not looking good.  For a few days I was bottle feeding two of them.  Then suddenly the white lamb started refusing the bottle, for days I tried to feed her and she refused - the black lamb was fine and insisting on his bottle.  I was quite concerned about the white one so started putting her in a stall by herself with lamb starter crumble so she could eat it without being pushed out of the way by the larger lambs (we have 2 sets of twins born after her but they are larger).

As it is now I am just bottle feeding the black lamb twice a day, the other black lamb is fine on his own, and the white one simply refuses the bottle but is eating lamb starter twice a day.  She is now the smallest of the triplet lambs but is otherwise looking healthy overall.

To note - you can tell if a lamb is doing poorly and needs bottle feeding because it will often stand humped up.   If you think your lamb (or any pet) needs veterinarian attention  you can ask a veterinarian for free help by clicking the logo above.

New Lambs and a Heart Attack on the Farm

As you may recall, fall is not the normal (or best) time for lambs to be born. However that is what my husband and I have been going through for the past few weeks. Although Diamond sheep was the biggest, Girlie had her lambs first, and then Blackie did. Thank heavens it was only the three ewes that got bred in the spring, but we still were waiting for Diamond sheep.

On Wednesday, October17, Diamond had twins. My husband found them outside in the afternoon and got them into the barn (they were in a shelter in the pasture). She had one large white lamb with black tips on his ears, nose, and legs, as well as a slightly smaller, but still large, black lamb. 

My husband had to pick me up from work that day and upon returning home I went out to see the lambs and sex them; the smaller black one was a female, and the larger white one was a male. I was putting the tarps back on the bales of hay, as they had blown off, and my husband came out to say he suddenly was not feeling well. It had been such a good day and this puzzled him, I told him to go inside and I would finish with the tarps.

When I came in from fixing the tarps my husband said he still did not feel well and actually thought he was having lung problems from the wind, but asked to go to the hospital, about 40 minutes away.

When we got to the hospital they said it was a heart attack and that he would be sent to a hospital in Edmonton (over 1 hour away) by Ambulance.

To make a long story short, the hospital determined that his heart attack was probably stress related and not due to diet or other things. But what I must point out here is a warning to all readers. My husband was able to walk around and talk while in pain. My daughter was puzzled saying “That cannot be a heart attack because on television the heart attack person cannot walk.” This is very true and a problem in that many people do not think they are having heart attacks when they are.

Many people can even continue working after having a heart attack only to drop dead later. If you experience chest pain it should be taken seriously and women are at risk too. Do not assume a heart attack is like what you see on television, tv goes for the dramatic.  In life a heart attack may be only a sharp chest pain, my husband thought it was his lungs.

My husband made a great recovery and was just released on Sunday, however his hospitalization delayed me from being able to share the pictures of Diamond's lambs until now.

Both her lambs are already bigger than those born earlier, Diamond was so big we thought she was having triplets for sure (as she often has in the past). 

Her white lamb is plenty spunky, but her black lamb and week fetlock joints in her front legs making it hard for her to stand and walk. I spent a few minutes daily stretching these joints out (and my daughter did too) and today she is showing great improvement and is eager to play... too bad it snowed!

*Update - the lamb's fetlocks are now strong and they are going outside for the day.

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

Surprise Triplets Born on Canadian Thanksgiving

In my last blog post I mentioned we just got a ram for the fall breeding season and had suspected some of our ewes were already pregnant... well as it turns out we were right!

Canadian Thanksgiving was October 8, 2012. Thankfully I had the day off work. Just days before we had got our new ram as normally sheep come into heat in the fall and mate to produce lambs in the spring. In the last month though I have been observing that three of our ewes appeared pregnant. I suspected they had been bred in the spring before our last ram was sold, while they still had their lambs with them.

Sure enough on Thanksgiving day one of the ewes gave birth, not just to one or two lambs, she had triplets. Earlier in the day I had seen the sheep and was just about to go looking for her as it appeared she was not with them, but she was there, just a bit behind everyone else, so I gave it no more thought. Then later that day I went out to check the sheep and noted her missing. I saw all the others, so went to the barn to look for the missing ewe (her name is Girlie). I found Girlie in the old barn with two lambs (one black, one white) standing at her side and a third one (black) laying down. 

 Even though it is fall and the weather is okay (breezy but not as cold as winter) I did not want to leave them in that barn overnight. Small lambs are an easy target for coyotes and some have been coming around to get our crab apples (and possibly even killed a cat a week earlier). The old barn is small, leans to one side and does not have a door. Instead I picked them up and their momma followed me to the newer barn (which is still old, but at least it has a door, and proper stalls). I put them into a stall that as coincidence had it I had just prepared the day earlier in expectation of fall lambs.

My daughter came out to help dry the lambs off (in the top photo) and make sure all were doing well. We gave them water, hay, and then came back inside where my husband had our Thanksgiving dinner ready and waiting.

Further reading

Supplies needed for Lambing

How to Care for Newborn Lambs

One down.. two more to go.. and today it is snowing (lightly - but windy).

Making Money with Sheep or Not

When I was in College learning about horses, we had some speakers come to talk about how they got their start in the horse industry.  A couple of them mentioned sheep and how they made a lot of money with sheep and then did what they really wanted to do in terms of horses.

When my husband and I moved out to the farm we were told the previous owners of the property (10 acres) had kept 80 sheep.  That number seemed a bit high for the space and indeed we later learned the county rules were 3 sheep per acre.  We knew we needed some sheep at any rate as the pasture was over grown.  We got four sheep, then added six more, and a ram. 

When it came time to shear the sheep and sell their wool we looked forward to our new wealth, but soon learned a hard truth.  Apparently sheep wool was not nearly as valuable now as it was twenty years back when those people I mentioned had made their "fortune". 

Selling their lambs was another way to make money from sheep, but not coming from a "farming" background for the first few years we tried only to sell them privately to people who were looking for breeding stock - and I actually told people "They were already spoken for" when they called to inquire about lambs for butchering....

As time went by I did relax my rules and we sold lambs for higher prices, but still it was not anywhere near the point where we could quit our jobs and just live off the farm.

We thought about having a petting farm, but there were legal issues around insurance, you needed a public bathroom and area for kids to wash their hands.  Also we had concerns about kids chasing the animals and causing them stress, so we abandoned that idea.

We tried adding pheasants and other things to our little hobby farm but indeed none would make us wealthy and were actually just "hobbies".

In the winter, when it is too cold to go outside, I started a blog, I had heard that some bloggers made hundreds of dollars a month from their blog.  I don't think I have even made more than a dollar in week, but it is fun, I guess "sheep blogs" are just not that popular!

I found a few websites where a person can make a buck or two in their spare time.  I want to share them with you in case you also want to make a few dollars more in your spare time.

Triond - You write original articles and poems and they publish them, if you have Google Adsense you can get paid a bit more.  At one time they were paying quite well and I often made more than $100.00 per month, but times have changed and I now make considerably less.  Factual articles pay better than poetry. 

WebAnswers - You answer and ask questions posted by other users or "bots".  You are paid when somebody else views your answer.  This site allows you to link to Google Adsense after you have answered 50 questions - you are only paid on Open (green) questions and Red ones (those where you were awarded Best Answer).   Depending on how active you are and how good your answers are - you can make $100.00 or more per month, but your first months might not be that high. 

Knoji - This site is tricky to get started on but they pay well on certain things - such as writing company reviews and reports.  You must write original, factual, articles.

If you wish to join any site you can click the name of the site and can join via my referral, or you can go to the site and join on your own.  None have made me enough to live off of but they serve as a good way to make additional income when sitting around at home on the computer anyhow!

Other "Add-On" business ideas for farmers include having a farm Bed and Breakfast, corn maze, or going to farmers markets with things made in the winter months.

Designing a Fractal Lamb

Hi Everyone.

Today is sunny out so what am I doing inside?  Well, I had this picture I took of one of the lambs a few days ago and really wanted to do something different with it.  This is one of Favorite Sheep's lambs, and the lamb looks great but the background is distracting.  I am no expert on improving a background the proper way, but I do know how to alter a photo a fun way. 

I am writing this without knowing what the final image will look like, as I will be doing it as I write, so I hope it turns out as good as I expect.

Here is the original photograph, cropped to remove even more clutter.  Cute lamb but she is almost lost because of the snow, so I will add some color, dark ones to make her pop out.

At this stage I know it does not look good, I colored her eyes black and added a twinkle which I hope will turn out okay in the final image.  Which will be produced by tweeking the picture using Corel Photo Paint Redfield effect called Fractalius.

I produced a couple of images I was happy with, one softer and one more arty.  I am going to share the more arty one with you.  You can see the softer one here.  Neither are what I was expecting.  I think I would have preferred a solid background for both - but I will leave that for another day because now I must go clean the barn.  Anyhow here is the image.

Note all pictures are copyright to me, not for reproduction.

Sheep Weight Loss Program?

All of my sheep have had their lambs for 2012, Mrs Dark Brown Barbado was the last.  She had triplets last year, and was huge, so I was expecting a set of three lambs.  Here she is only a few days ago, I thought for sure she was going to lamb that day, if not.. that hour!

Her udder was also huge, but sneaking up behind her to take a picture was a but more difficult.

As you can see in this picture, Mrs Dark Brown Barbado is huge.  She is also a hair sheep if you are puzzled by her unusual look.  Her breed is Barbado, or at least that is the name they have in my area, in other areas they are called American Blackbelly, the rams have large curled horns.  These sheep do not need shearing, and shed like dogs.

A few days after taking her photo she had lambs, twin boys.

The father of the lambs is a Katahdin Dorper, also a hair sheep.  He is mostly white wtih only a black head and black saddle, but amazingly a large number of his lambs have been mostly black, with white, like this cute pair.

Some people are not familiar with Barbado sheep and often say they are wild, and prone to be mean, but we have never found this.  Even when we did have Barbado rams (they have huge horns) they were never mean.  The ewes were never more nervous than any of our other ewes, and this ewe in particular is very friendly.  As such if you are interested in getting Barbado sheep and have heard that they are crazy, disregard it.  When handled with kindness they respond.  I can approach this ewe in the pasture and pat her as though she were a dog.

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!