Birth

catchall for birthing issues

Lamb Camp Day 3:  . . . and the lambs came two by two

Lamb Camp Day 3: . . . and the lambs came two by two

I forgot to mention at the end of my report on Day 2 of Lamb Camp that just before we all turned in for the night, a final trip to the Maternity Ward revealed yet another cute new lamb, still pretty gooey and wobbly. Favoring practicality over husbandry perfection, and confident that the ewe had […]

Read More →

Read More →

Lamb Camp Day 2: It’s all about the lambs and how to “work” and enjoy them

Lamb Camp Day 2: It’s all about the lambs and how to “work” and enjoy them

For those of you who landed on this post looking for how to “work” a newborn lamb, or how a Soay ewe manages to nurse her first twin while the second one is coming out the birth canal and greeting the world, let me reassure you that you have not landed in an alien universe. […]

Read More →

Read More →

Lamb Camp Day 1: Campers arrive and so do their first lambs

Lamb Camp Day 1: Campers arrive and so do their first lambs

Our friend Ida had so much fun visiting us during lambing in 2013 that she applied to return this year. In my last post, I tried to set the stage for Lamb Camp 2015 by sharing the backstory of Ida’s first visit. By the time Ida and daughter Whitney and niece Audrey arrived on April […]

Read More →

Read More →

Waiting for your first Soay lamb to arrive? Read this

I just uploaded a 3-year old post to the “from the archives” section over on your right. Check it out for a fun video of a newborn lamb trying to get up on its feet for the first time. The video will give you a good idea of what a one-minute old heritage Soay lamb […]

Read More →

Read More →

Premature Soay lamb survives … and thrives

Premature Soay lamb survives … and thrives

Once again our heritage sheep have confirmed the legendary hardiness of Soay. It was March 28, 2014, a full five days before our first lamb of the year “could” arrive according to the 148 days universally accepted as the length of sheep gestation, and at least 8 or 10 days before we expected the first […]

Read More →

Read More →

Real-life Soay lambing stories: jugging sure beats bottle feeding bummer lambs

Real-life Soay lambing stories: jugging sure beats bottle feeding bummer lambs

Apart from lambing itself, the best part of raising Soay sheep is communicating about them with other breeders, folks interested in starting a flock, researchers looking for various kinds of data, the anonymous readers of our website and this blog, and especially anyone with questions about lambing issues. Most of the time the questions come […]

Read More →

Read More →

Top