Update on the update-

Yeah!

Puppy made it home this morning! She was found near a major highway by her "prince" and taken to a vet clinic- who contacted the owner. There ARE good samaritans out there!

Patience...

...your name is Mederic...

If this isn't a picture of patience and tolerance, I'm not sure what is. The newborn lamb is just getting his legs under him and still trying to figure out where mommy is. Mom was just out of the picture with his brother and this guy hadn't figured out yet that she was gone.

Update

Lynda reported that the adult dogs came home this morning. So far the pup hasn't shown up. Keeping our fingers crossed she comes home soon!

No idea what lured them away from the farm. Hopefully it won't happen again!

Lost/Stolen Dogs!

One of my worst fears- to come home and find the dogs missing. Unfortunately, it happened to a friend yesterday. She came home to find 4 of her dogs missing.

Please- If you are in the Mount Holly, AR or surrounding area or if you hear of any English Shepherds that are "newly acquired" through questionable circustances, contact Lynda!

An English Shepherd in his element!

Bubba is our master lamb guardian & nurturer. This is where Bubba excels! He loves his babies- as far as he's concerned- they're all his wards. He lets them sniff him, then he in turn cleans them up- front to back! He's even been known to snuggle with them.

Here he is with the bottle babies. He'll play with them, gently herd them around the yard and teach them the rules of the farm. It's so nice to have the lambs treated so calmly!

Bubba's pedigree is Beebe, Mohns, & Anderson. He's one of the gentlest dogs I've known. While there isn't a mean bone in his body, he will take on the sheep in a heartbeat if they challenge. He's a lot like his sire - Beebe's Sparky- and I'm pleased that his daughter Honey and granddaughter Eva are very nurturing as well. It's one of the qualities that drew me to English Shepherds. I don't always need herding help, but I do need extra eyes watching out for the safety of the livestock.

The latest lamb

What's not to like about this guy? He's adorable! His dad is the East Friesian and his mom is a Jacob/Shetland/Cheviot/Wensleydale. He has his little coat on to keep him warm at night. Underneath, he's white with a spot on his back. Don't you love the eye patches! He looks like he's all head right now- he sure does have some growing to do to make those legs fit the rest of him!

19 and almost done

This is one of my favorite Jacob ewes. She's a great mom, has nice horns and fleece and is a pretty easy keeper. She's one of the more dominant ewes so she's also a good dog trainer! She and her ewe lamb were enjoying the warmth of the sunshine yesterday.

We had one more ram lamb born this weekend- a Jacob/Shetland/Cheviot/Wensleydale x East Friesan cross. It will be interesting to see how he develops. He looks like he'll be a tall boy like his daddy. Mom isn't that flashy, but she has an interesting fleece. She's a good first time mom- fiercely defensive of him. She doesn't like when we have to handle him and stays very close. That alone is one reason to keep her in the flock!

If I've counted right, we should have one more ewe to go- the Suffolk. She's bagging up so I have a feeling she'll go this week. It'll be perfect weather if she goes early this week and the lamb can get past the first couple days before it gets cold this weekend.

The bottle babies are growing like crazy. The four littlest ones are still coming in at night, but they spend the day outside with the big lambs. The singleton ram lamb is going to be HUGE if he keeps eating the way he has been. And the others aren't far behind. They get their daily milk, but are already nibbling the hay and creep feed.

Finally!

It took a while, but I finally got my own domain and a new website set up. We are officially http://www.asylumfarm.com/ and on the web. I had to remember how to use the program to get the website published- it's been a couple years since I took the class, but it came back as I started using it.

It's not quite as painless as using a drag & drop site builder, but the results are so much better. I can finally add products to sell from the site, and can add more pages as needed.

I still have to load pictures of lambs and sheep, and finish up some of the descriptions, but the majority of the info is online.

Lambing is almost done- 18 live lambs bouncing around. The lamb races are starting with a couple of the older lambs. We have a fair number of bucket babies, but they are doing great. And they are big! They are already nibbling on the creep feed and hay.

Pictured is one of this year's Jacob ewe lambs.

Wow!

It’s been a busy couple of days at the farm! Another baby this morning- a Jacob. Unfortunately, mom wants nothing to do with it. First time mom so I’ll cut her some slack, but it’s so frustrating when the ewe refuses to bond with a lamb. Upside is, the lamb is healthy and bouncing around like she should.


We’re definitely having a ewe year! Only 2 rams so far; one CA Red cross and one Romney x Corriedale cross. The size difference is funny- the CA Red is a tiny boy; the Romney cross has a lot of skin to grow into.


Every lamb is getting their doses of Lamb's Choice Total Colostrum replacer. It's made a difference. The lambs are active, warm, and ready to nurse. Most are going right back to mom. We'll have a couple that will be "ours". But after last year, I’m at the point, I’d rather have bottle babies than dead babies…

The English Shepherds are loving this time of year. I’ve been rotating who goes out with me to the paddock. Bubba knows the drill- calm, quiet, slow movements so the ewes don’t panic (although he does forget sometimes and get “so-o-o excited…). The pups get to watch how he works, so when they go in with me, they also are calm and quiet. They’ve all been eager to help clean up the lambs. The bottle babies are getting used to being cleaned, preened, and licked by the dogs.

So I imagine we’ll have a few more “watch sheep” who don’t realize they aren’t dogs this summer….

The lamb that almost wasn’t

Lambing is in full swing at our farm right on schedule. We had planned for lambing to start at the end of February/early March- and the ewes are accommodating. The weather is perfect- days above freezing, nights not overly cold. Thursday we came home to a pair of newly born lambs; Friday brought two lambs, with three more Saturday & Sunday. The routine this year is to bring in the lambs shortly after they are cleaned up, let mom get a snack, and get a dose of Lamb’s Choice Total colostrum replacer into them ASAP. Then we take them back out to mom and repeat the LCT 2 more times within the next 12 hours.


This lamb is one of the twins born Thursday afternoon. We pulled into the yard after work/school and could see one of the ewes sitting with a new black lamb. Both seemed fine. So I changed my clothes, pulled on my coveralls and headed out to check. Sure enough- the lamb couldn’t be more than 30 minutes old. But…when I approached, I could see a yet uncleaned white lamb lying next to/almost under the black lamb. Damn! I figured we were too late. I picked it up and started checking it out. Amazingly, it was still alive- barely- and chilling fast. Not sure why the ewe hadn't cleaned it- she's usually a good mom. I managed to get it to open its eyes as I rubbed it. So into the house we went to the “lamb hot tub”. I’ve got this down to a science now!


I’ve learned not to give up on lambs. After last year, when we lost so many because of the extreme cold, I was determined that this year would be different. So- the plastic tub gets filled with very warm water and the lamb goes into a kitchen garbage bag up to its neck (make sure it’s unscented!). After about an hour and half, several tub refills and lots of massaging, I manage to get both eyes open and the lamb starts struggling with me. Yeah! Once I’m sure it’s staying with me, out it comes into nice warm freshly laundered towels for a vigorous massage and the LCT. It was a little slow to suck, but once it got the hang of it, she wouldn’t let go until she was done. We managed to get almost a quart of LCT in her over the next 18 hours. We kept her in the house under a lamp (we brought her sister in too for the night) and Friday put them both back out with mom. This is a great ewe who took both of them back right away- and both lambs are bouncing around with no problems.

I figure it costs me about the price of a gallon of milk to make sure these lambs get a good start in life. That is darn cheap insurance!