A lamb at last

Look what I found in the barn yesterday morning!  My favorite ewe gave birth to this healthy  tiny ewe lamb not long after daybreak.  She’s Peep’s first lamb — and don’t blame me for the name.  Peep and her mama, Bo, were part of a package deal on ewes, and they actually knew their names.

Peep was typically uncooperative and ignored the cleaner stall with the deep bedding.  She chose the dirty stall instead, where a Pekin duck and the Sweetgrass turkey already guarded their nests.  I’d have shut her into the clean stall if she’d showed any sign of impending motherhood, but there’d been no indications even the night before.    In fact, we weren’t sure we’d have any lambs at all this year.  We lost our herdsire this winter to complications from kidney stones, and he’d not been his usual randy self last fall.   We left Tiny’s twin with the herd, though, hoping he was mature enough to handle the job.  Sometime.  He apparently was willing, able, and discreet.

New lambs aren’t so pretty at first.  There’s all that afterbirth to clean up and usually a yellow coating of lanolin on their wool.

This lamb’s strong, though, and was on her feet and trying to nurse long before Peep had her cleaned up.

By evening, she was fairly steady on her feet and a lot cleaner.

It wasn’t until she turned around and walked past me that I noticed the spot.

This spot.  One dark spot on a white lamb, situated back there on her tail, looking like something else that might get stuck to a tail.  You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?

She’s cute anyway, even with that spot.  Do you think she’s beginning to realize how cute she is?