New Border Leicester has a Ram Lamb!
Posted By Sandy Wilson on February 19, 2010
This past year we added a beautiful new Border Leicester ewe to our flock. This morning I went out with the dogs to feed the sheep and water them and to my surprise was a new big white Ram lamb. It must have just been born before I got to the barn, as mom was still licking it off and cleaning the young lamb. Right away, I lifted the lamb and carried him into a jug and mom quickly followed after her newborn. Mom had a great supply of milk and baby lamb was big and very vigorous to say the least – what a handsome boy! I am always amazed at how quickly these little lambs can get up on their feet and instinctively look for mom’s milk. Of course the ewe does make her own unique baaaaaing sound and has her own smell that the baby is attracted to. I always find it to be such a beautiful sight!
Border Leicester Ram Lamb
The ewes are such good mothers and I find the more you leave them alone to do their motherly duties, the better. It is important to let them bond and let the mother nurture the baby lamb. The more you interfere and touch the baby lamb, the more you run the chance of having trouble with the mother and lamb bonding. The only initial care I give is cutting the umbilical cord and then dipping it in betadine. Then I strip the mother’s teats of its’ wax plugs and make sure mom has a good supply of milk. Once this is done, I let mother nature takes its course – but I do watch from a distance to make sure the lamb is nursing and mom is ok. If I find things aren’t going well, then I intervene. Ninety-nine percent of the time, with healthy ewes and lambs who are mature at birth, there is usually never a problem.
Now our little black ewe lamb, Ebony, will have a new friend in the barn to play with. They are going to have a good time, especially when the snow starts to melt. Our snow is still too high for the sheep to go out in the pasture, but I think in a week or so things will be melted enough for the ewes and lambs to go out and play!
"Ebony" - Black Border Leicester Ewe Lamb
Certainly the dogs are very excited now as they will have quite a show going on in the barn with the lambs bouncing around in front of them. They don’t seem to be frightened a bit about the dogs, but instead very curious. Usually dogs are pretty curious about the new little ones too. Next month, the rest of the flock should start to kick in and lambs should be popping out! It’s a great time of year!
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