The Good and the Bad of Raising Sheep

Hildegard, my oldest ewe, lambed on Wednesday. She had twins. One was stillborn, and the other is a little black ewe lamb. It's always sad when a lamb is born dead, but it does happen sometimes.

The little one is still really small but seems to be doing alright. She took longer than average to figure out which end of her mother to go to for milk. She also, at two days old, is till checking out any nearby sheep for food, including the rams. Luckily her mother keeps close by and makes sure she nurses.

Her coat is pretty dirty. Some of the birth sac dried on it, and, of course, being smaller than everyone else, little bits of hay keep falling on her while the other sheep are eating.

In the next two pictures, you can see how tiny she is compared to the one-month-old lambs.

Here she is looking for her mother.












And, no, this is definitely not her mother.