What to Expect When Your Sheep are Expecting

Unlike the chicks, our impending little lambs will not picked up with the mail. They will be arriving to the farm via the birth canal.  All farm hands must be at the ready to meet this precious cargo.  To that end, Derek and I are reading up on the signs we should watch for in order to tell that the sheep are going into labor. As on-farm staff, we will also be responsible for checking on the sheep during the off-hours and responding if help is needed with the labor process, even in the middle of the night.  At this point, a 2am call to go catch some lambs seems pretty wonderful. But I’ll admit, as a newbie farmer, I may be romanticizing this a bit. 

The Ewes (mother sheep) have been pregnant for almost 5 months now. We are expecting them to start lambing sometime between the 15^th of March and the beginning of April.  Here’s what we are looking for:

• Sunken appearance in hips

This one certainly doesn't look sunken.

• Full udders

This is a hard one with no experience. We think they look a little more pronounced than they did before, but that they will get larger before it's time.

• Pawing at the ground before lying down. 

• A change in feeding habits

Still hungry as always! No change here.

• Standing or lying apart from the group

These Ewes haven't left each others' sides all day, and I was never able to catch them lying down. I guess we have nothing to worry about today.

As you can see, the signs are not all that clear to those of us who have never seen them. I can imagine that, beginning the 15^th, I will be running to the livestock manager every hour or so claiming that I’ve seen “the signs!” Hopefully I can reign myself in so that I don’t become The-Girl-Who-Cried-Lamb.

By the way, thanks to our fellow apprentice Katie, for inspiring the title of this blog post.