Why raise Soay sheep? To enjoy lambing, among other things

Last week when lambing finally began, our friends Kathy and Jim called and asked to come see the first arrivals, a set of twins from our ewe Lilly J born overnight. Hearing and seeing their reactions to the lambs reminded us once again how lucky we are to be able to raise these fetching and historically significant creatures. 

Jim and Kathy arrived just as we were about to start the ritual of working the twins. But no sooner had Steve gotten set up to take the first lamb’s temperature (step 1) than we noticed another ewe, Buttermere, right in front of us going into labor. Talk about entertainment on demand! Here’s the email Jim wrote to their four young granddaughters describing the visit to our farm and what they saw:

Hi kids,

Today Grandma and I visited Priscilla and Steve Weaver and got to see a lamb being born! I am including a few pictures from the visit. I wish you could have seen the little guy trying to stand up. The first picture is when he took his first steps about five minutes after being born. He just stood up for the first time. His mom was licking him off and he was looking for something to drink. Love, Grandpa

Newborn Soay lamb gets cleaned off

Newborn Soay lamb gets cleaned off


Soay lamb stands up, looks around for its first meal

Soay lamb stands up, looks around for its first meal

Thank goodness their camera also had a video option; Jim was able to capture Buttermere’s lamb finding its legs and heading back through its mom’s legs for that all-important first meal of colostrum. You can hear both enthusiastic cheerleading for the wobbly little guy and the mostly silly chatter that seems to be characteristic of humans impatient for the lambs to get on with it:

A few notes on what you just heard. Can you tell from Jim’s comments that he’s an engineer? Lilly J’s twins, the lambs you see nursing in the following picture, had a slightly rocky start or, more precisely, the ram lamb had a rocky start when another ewe, Galice, decided to adopt him. Fortunately, we got it straightened out in time for the ram lamb to get back to Lilly J. Although Galice obviously thought she had lambed, she still hasn’t, 8 days later. And in answer to Jim’s question about the video lamb’s weight, it came in at 5 pounds 6 ounces – nice guess!

Once Buttermere’s lamb was feeding contentedly, nothing would do but that Kathy hold Lilly J’s soft, all-dried-off twin ewe lamb that had undergone the same journey less than 24 hours earlier. Here’s the one-day-old with her twin and mom Lilly J in the jug.

One-day-old Soay lamb enjoying his meal

One-day-old Soay lamb enjoying his meal

As you can see, the twin brother was busy eating. You can just barely see the little ewe lamb’s legs behind Lilly J before Steve picked her up and handed her to Kathy. Can you say “smitten”?

Making friends with a Soay lamb

Making friends with a Soay lamb


What's not to love about a Soay lamb?

What's not to love about a Soay lamb?

There are enough cold rainy nights, broken hay bales, and occasional hiccups in a shepherd’s life to keep us humble, but by golly when lambing starts, our world turns rather magical, especially when friends come to join in the excitement. Thanks for sharing the fun!

For now …

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