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News from the Barnyard

In The Midst Of Winter
January has certainly proven that winter does indeed still exist in our part of the woods. While the first ten days of January were strangely warm for our area, the rest of the month brought record snowfalls. Our area of New York State ended up starting off the year 2000 with a new record, we officially had more snow than any other area in the eastern United States. By the morning of January 31, we had already received 63" of snow. We ended the month with about 67" total. It's nice to be in record books, but there must be better ways!

Lambing Season
With the full arrival of winter, it is another new lambing year on the farm. Lambing season will start shortly and soon we'll be hearing those little (yet loud) bleating cries for mothers and warm milk. A lamb can not stand being separated from its mother, the ewe, for very long. This is actually a matter of survival. Raising sheep can be heartbreaking during the early days of lambing. Lambs are born without an internal thermostat and are very prone to hypothermia (getting too cold). The warm milk from the ewe helps to keep the lamb warm and helps to get its internal thermostat set, which usually happens sometime after the third day of life. The first three days of a lamb's life are therefore critical. They need plenty of warm milk, and often. After the "kids" are a few days old, we always start breathing a little easier. After their first week, they will also start nibbling on very fine hay and grain pellets made for lambs. There's nothing like watching a field of full bellied lambs frolicking and playing with each other.

Bottle Lambs
Sometimes a ewe is unable to take care of her lambs. For instance, she may not have enough milk for all of her lambs, especially if she has three lambs instead of her usual twins. Unfortunately, a ewe may also on occasion die after giving birth, leaving orphan lambs. So, in years past we have had to convert a corner of our kitchen into a lamb playpen area for the "bottle lambs". This gives the lambs a warm place to stay and gives us a more convenient feeding station (versus running back and forth to the barn). All lambs need warm milk every two hours when they are first born. This provides a feeding challenge for the bottle lambs, meaning shifts must be taken for nightly feedings. Most lambs take to the bottle quickly. In nature, to ensure a full meal is taken, the mother ewe will nudge the back of the lamb's tail while it is nursing to stimulate it to continue nursing . A few times we have had a stubborn bottle lamb that decides it does not like the rubber nipple on the bottle. When this happens, you must cuddle the lamb and scratch its back end while placing the bottle in their mouth. This encourages them to continue drinking from the bottle. Our bottle lambs have always ended up as pets. They become quite dependant on human company and will follow us all around. People driving by our yard have been treated to the sight of several lambs following us around while gardening. They really do become like a puppy that follows you all around, and one can get easily attached to those little lambs following you. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" is a very accurate nursery rhyme if you think about it.

Wool
People have asked us from time to time what makes a wool "virgin wool". Well, virgin wool is the very first coat of wool that is sheared from an adolescent lamb. Virgin wool is extremely fine soft wool, often very clean as well since it is the first coat. This softness and cleanliness of virgin wool makes it very desirable for spinners. We have always raised sheep with different color wools, providing natural colors of wool to use for spinning and weaving. Our sheep have come in black, white, beige, multicolored, and red colors. The red sheep are known as Tunis, a rare and endangered species. Tunis sheep once roamed the lawn of the White House (that's how they mowed the grass back then). Most of the Tunis in this country were destroyed during the Civil War. It is said that only 17 were left after the war. There was an effort to rescue this breed of sheep and it has made a slow comeback. Tunis sheep are loved for their looks and hardiness, as well as their ability for almost always having twins. The lambs are red at birth, but as they grow, only their faces and legs will remain red into maturity. Their wool will become beige in color. Tunis wool is strong and makes an excellent wool for weaving and rugs.

Until Spring
That's probably enough information on the subject of sheep for one newsletter. Stay tuned to the website's UniqueAnimals and look for this year's crop of lamb photos. We'll also be posting a newsletter once spring finally hits, so please visit us again!

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