In my system the sheep lamb in the barn (or are taken to the barn shortly after lambing if they were outside. After two or three days in a lambing pen (jug) I move a group of two or three ewes and their lambs to a stall in the horsebarn part of our barn. I think that gives the lambs time to realize that it is important to stick close to their own mom and it gives the ewes time to not worry so much about other lambs bothering them. The ewes can be somewhat aggressive to other lambs and the lambs figure out that it’s better to avoid the other ewes. After a few days they all mellow out and don’t really care anymore.

This time in the stall also gives me a chance to keep a better eye on each ewe and lamb so hopefully I can be aware of any problem that arises. After a few days in the stall they the ewes and lambs go into an area of the barn that is separate from the pregnant ewe area. As more lambs are born, the pregnant side gets smaller and the lamb and mom side gets bigger.

Right now the ewes and lambs have access to the green field that is behind my weaving studio/shop and that gives the lambs a controlled environment in which to learn about the electric fence. The pregnant ewes are on the main pasture. I wrote in one of the last posts how unusually this is because usually when we lamb it is wet and soggy on the pasture and behind the barn there is a lake. That is why I developed this system of where we lamb and how we move the sheep through the first couple of weeks. Wishful thinking that we will get some rain and we can count on that to grow some more grass!

This post has changed focus from whatever I had planned when I started two nights ago to random photos of lambing season. I guess I got distracted and too tired and didn’t get back to it until now. That is Fandango who lambed two days ago. She is one of the oldest ewes here—lambed with twins.

The ewes and lambs that are out of the barn are on the small field behind my shop. This is Jillian and her BFL-X triplets. I never registered Jillian because of lack of color and face markings but she has nice fiber so I kept her. I choose to breed the few ewes that aren’t registered to the BFL ram.