[andywalt]

May I ask you advise please?  I have two ewes left to lamb from my first batch of 10 !! when I brought them they were with a ram so they were seperated from him when I purchased them on the 2nd Oct which was exactly 151 days ago, after I purchased them they where settled in here and I purchased a few more to add with them, I then put in my tup, a romney tup, on November 5th where he had constant paste applied and changed every two weeks, neather of the two ewes had even a touch of colour on them and the tup was with them for a further2 months until they were brought in for lambing in January....so you would guess that they were definatly in lamb as the second tup has not touched them.... well they look as if thay have a single, so not massive but not slim..... one of them is a first timer and the other is a second timer....other than thinking that they are baron or not in lamb!!  how long has anyone experianced their ewes to be late? how many days would you allow them over before doing something about it? attached below a photo of them?  I hope I have made sence I am useless at writing !!

Not a great photo I know

[daddymatty82]

when they due? some of our shetland you cannot tell inlamb untill 24 hrs before when bag has dropped and milked up if it was a month overdue then id worry. what there bags like? have they gained  weight at all?

[andywalt]

if your going by 147 days they are 4days late? they look as if they both have a single not over sized !!

[shep53]

If they are lambing in the next week it should be easy especially with a gimmer, if april/may still posible but not 100%. The udder should be developing on the gimmer even if late ,ewes -some get an udder early some last minute.The most certain sign is to lift her tail and study her vulva if not in lamb pale flesh coloured and tight if in lamb pink and loose ,compare with ewes definitely in lamb. Dont panic if they are in lamb it will happen eventually if not their young theres always next year

[shep53]

147 days is just an ave pure bred hill ewes 142 big down breeds 155

[andywalt]

So its  not un common to be 5 days or so over?  so maybe by the weekend they may lamb, if I get a chance I will catch them and look at there back end, one has a long tale which I dont like so I cant see anyhting at all, I will keep you posted, any other comments are appreciated please

andy

[andywalt]

Still nothing today?  im so surprised?  6 days over and counting!!!

[darkbrowneggs]

I'm not an expert, but I did keep my own small flock of BWM for about 20 years, and to me neither of those look to be in lamb if they were BWM.  Time will tell

All the best
Sue

[andywalt]

please tell me whats BWM ?

[andywalt]

you may well be right and may not be in lamb, the larger one has a definate shape to her but could be just fat, well if at the weekend they havnt lambed then I suppose its a PD test to confirm and off to the pies in the skies 

[Fleecewife]

BWM is Black Welsh Mountain.  I thought they looked a bit empty too but hard to tell from the photos.  Catch them up and see if they have signs of bagging up.  You can feel if there are lambs in there too by pushing against the belly - someone else will tell you how to do it properly.  The empty ones can eat more so tend to get fat on full prelambing rations 

[andywalt]

yes exactly, ohh well if they are not in lamb which is looking likely they will be nice to taste !!

[daddymatty82]

why not just try next season they may of not liked the ram? did you see the ram climb on top? we usally stick our ewes out to a friends and between us see all ewes  serviced at least once but then thats only about 200 ewes in all and 3 rams

[andywalt]

long story but both of them have been with two rams over a period of 4 months !!! the second ram that was mine had plenty of paste put on regulary and changed colours 3 times and they didnt have a touch of colour on them so I assumed that they were serviced by the first ram which was owned by previous owners.......so its looking very unlikey they are in lamb now....On saturday I will catch them up and have a look at there behinds.....