Helping with Deer's Twins

Deer is a wide bodied girl.  I never know when she is pregnant because she always looks like she is about to give birth.    

When she didn't eat with the rest of the herd I hoped we would have a lamb.  She chose to stay under a tree at the top of the hill where she could watch the rest of the herd.

Every once in a while she would decide the rest of the sheep wandered too far away and would go round them up and yell at them.  Deer is not a sheep the rest follow but she was in such distress they listened to her.  

I don't normally watch out for the sheep to give birth but she was seeming to be in some stress and it was a beautiful day so I followed her around.

While I was watching her I kept hearing running water.  Hoping it was a neighbors hose I followed the noise.  It didn't take long for me to find the leak.

I got some help digging out the hole.   

While I was digging her labor must have taken a pause because she started eating so I took a break and went into the house and cleaned up.   

Finally she chose a place closer to where the rest of the herd wanted to be and she was protected.  

When she started to give birth the feet were pointed properly but the head was turned.  I might have waited longer to intervene but 2 years ago she gave birth to a stillborn twin, so I broke the amneiotic sac and turned the head so it was facing the right direction and in the next minute the first ram was born.  

She immediately started cleaning it.  He took his first wobbly steps and got to nurse.  15 minutes later his younger brother was born.

She got back to work cleaning the newest lamb.

Proper Livestock Guardian Dog behavior.  Being near the new lambs and watchful but not looking directly at them.  They even are looking in opposite directions so all areas that the lambs could be attacked from are covered (or Natasha is looking at her human).

Luca is so calm and protective of the babies that Deer relaxed when he was close.  That all changed when Champion the Pig wanted a look.  I didn't pause to take a picture just scooped up the babies and took Deer and her lambs into a safe pig proof place.

Here they are 18 hours old trying to keep up with the herd.

Deer will have her hands full with the black sheep.  He already is busy sticking his nose into everything and not following his mom.

New Direction

Our goal with our hobby farm is to allow the animals support themselves and help feed us.  So far the only animals that have done that is our sheep.  The sheep that we got because we didn't want to mow our lawn.  But we have ended up with only a young ram that I am not happy with.  

The breeder we bought the Pelibuey's from has moved and we can not find more.  

It has been 6 months since we had any lambs born. 

 I MISS baby sheep.  

Our ram is the last one born after I got rid of his dad after he became too aggressive.

He is pretty but small and his horns are not growing well.

I'm just not thrilled with him.  

When he tries to get loving with the girls they walk away from him or chase him away.

We need the money from selling sheep to help keep the farm performing AND watching the lambs while working on the property make it more fun.  

We have been looking for a new direction to take the sheep in.  

We decided on Painted Desert Sheep. 

Today we bought 3 Painted Desert Sheep.