Sheep Snapshot Sunday: Starting to Show

A purebred hampshire ewe (Puff First Knight 61T) starting to get fat.

Lambing Checklist: Flashlight

1. Flashlight

Since sheep don't always lamb during the day and not all of our pen is well lit so its important to have a flashlight for going out on nightly checks.

Sheep Snapshot Sunday: Before the Snow

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago before the snow and cold weather came. I was home today and could have taken a new picture today but I figured that the cold weather might now be good for my camera.

Countdown to Lambing: November

2 months 

Just like the countdown until Christmas the countdown to lambing has started for our flock. By now our ewes are three months pregnant and at home eating hay. For sheep the gestation period is about 5 months or 142-152 days on average. We always plan to lamb in January since lambs born around this time are the perfect size to use for 4-H, no matter how stupid it may seem because it generally is the coldest time of the year. We have developed a system to make sure that lambs born on colder days don't succumb to hypothermia or pneumonia that I will discuss in posts when we have started lambing.

Countdown to Christmas: 35 days