[Jacob-list] Flying lambs

[Robert May]

HEY CATHY...MAYBE YOUR EWE WAS TRYING TO "AIR DRY" HER
LAMBS.  CAN'T SAY THAT WE'VE EVER SEEN THAT HAPPEN. 
TYPICALLY THE EWES WILL BE PAWLING AT THE BEDDING OR
GROUND AND THEN LAY DOWN; GET UP; LAY DOWN; PAW SOME
MORE, ETC.  THE AMAZING THING TO ME...ESPECIALLY WITH
OLDER EWES, IS HOW QUICKLY THE LAMBS CAN ACTUALLY
COME.

HERE'S ONE FOR THE GROUP...WITH LAMBING TIME GETTING
IMMINENTLY CLOSE FOR MANY OF YOU...WHAT'S THE MOST
DIFFICULT (LAMB) DELIVERY YOU'VE EVER HAD TO ASSIST
IN.

ALTHOUGH (KNOCK ON WOOD) WE'VE NEVER HAD PROBLEMS WITH
JACOB LAMBS BEING DELIVERED.  I DID HAVE A HECK OF A
TIME WITH AN OLD DORSET EWE A NUMBER OF YEARS BACK.
EWE WAS DEFINITELY IN LABOR, BUT ALL THAT WAS COMING
OUT WAS A "TAIL".  I ENDED UP PUTTING A HALTER ON THE
EWE AND TIEING HER TO A STALL, WHILE I WORKED TO FIND
THE BACK LEGS AND GUIDE THE LAMB OUT.

ON ANOTHER OCCASION A EWE (NON JACOB) HAD THE HEAD OF
A LAMB STICKING OUT, BUT NO LEGS.  THE LAMB TURNED OUT
TO BE AN INCREDIBLY HUGH RAM LAMB.

HOW FORTUNATE THAT THIS "WONDERFUL" BREED NOT ONLY
HAVE GREAT MOTHERING INSTINCTS, BUT ARE EASY LAMBERS!

ANY SIMILAR STORIES OUT THERE?

REGARDS,
BOB MAY
SWAYZE INN FARM
HOPE, NJ 
--- ARTHUR PARTRIDGE <aztreaz at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Anyone had this happen??
> > While getting ready for the lambs to arrive in 2
> weeks, I thought of last
> year.  This dingy (crazy, odd) ewe did something
> very unusual during the
> birth of her lambs.  I was watching her because she
> was pawing the ground,
> laying down and getting up again, bawling her head
> off.   I knew (and the
> neighbors) that the time for birth was imminent.  At
> the moment of birth
> she jumped up from laying down and whirled around to
> look at her back end. 
> At that moment, a lamb went flying out of her,
> landing a few feet from her.
> That lamb was about 2 feet up in the air initially
> and flew a few feet
> before landing on the ground.  She did the same
> thing to the twin, only
> that time the ewe whirled around in the other
> direction and the lamb landed
> away from the first one.  I thought the lambs would
> be injured, but they
> were just fine, they landed in some fresh straw I
> had put out.  How often
> does this happen?  Do the lambs survive with no
> injuries?  They are tough
> little critters.  If they could talk they would be
> swearing at their
> mother.  I better start putting out the straw piles
> for this year.
> Cathy
> 
> 
> 
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