[Buffy the eggs layer]

I have the fist 4 of this years lambers in the shed. One was due Sunday and one was due yesterday the other two are due on Weds and Thur. They are experience lamber but this is there first time with me.


They are bagged up and the first two have udders the size of footballs but are not seeming to be in any rush to lamb. In order to pass the time while starring hopefully at the lambing camera I was reading some previous threads about over due lambs and how smallholders encouraged them to give birth. Telling them that you are going out for the day seemed a popular choice along with getting a shower and putting on your best clothes. 


A number of people who lambed outdoors seemed to think their sheep waited for bad weather which got me thinking.....what do sheep wait for when lambing...? Dusk, dawn, a clear day or a rainy one?[size=78%] [/size]
Prior to this group which I bought in last year my ewes always lambed on the day or 24 hours either side if they had multiples or singles. But the weather is fine and sunny here and when the wind drops its lovely. Looks like perfect weather to get ewes and lambs onto fresh grass. But hey what do I know
I just wondered if any of you had observed and patterns to your lambing?

[shotblastuk]

Once one starts!! Safety in numbers maybe or the smell may trigger something. The majority of mine all lambed in the morning after feeding last year.

[Buffy the eggs layer]

Mmmm thats an interesting observation shotblast. I was thinking about smells yesterday and wondering if I might end up with an avalanche of lambs once the domino effect kicked in.


just about to go dish up breakfast so we will see if today is the day..........

[Buttermilk]

Of the 7 that have lambed so far this year 5 have been daytime and the last two have been at 4am.  Six have lambed before the due date and one smack on.  The due date for most of the others is tomorrow but the last one is 4th March.  It has been very light due to the moon the last two nights if that has anything to do with it.

[Talana]

I have found that as well - sheep due around the same time if one starts it sets off others, most I find lamb early morning between 3 am and 9am .  We've 2 weeks to go, getting excited!

[harmony]

They wait to see how stressed they can get you!!

[JedM]

my first one to lamb was yesterday - 5 days early.  She had a small udder and I thought she was a few weeks away! 
She lambed at 5pm when it was just getting dark if that helps.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

I have 1 sheep due to lamb, she looks like she is carrying quads snd her bag is big, but she just keeps getting bigger and I am holding my breath waiting for her to pop them out. I get this with the buffalo too, sometimes they go over or under and the calf is always fine. With sheep its a lot trickier to tell.

[Buffy the eggs layer]

well they all ate a hearty breakfast but then they did all need a lie down 


Harmony they are testing my metle this year but only because I have taken a week off work to lamb this group then back to work for a week before another week off to lamb the next cohort. So if they dont get it done and dusted they will bugger up all  my plans    but when did sheep care about that!


Mine lamb at all times of day and night but I have never really noticed a pattern with the weather. We have indeed had an enormous snow moon ( or hunger moon if you prefer ) Buttermilk though I havent really thought about the role that the moon or moon light might play either.


If it wasnt for their mahooosive udders I would start doubting whether I had written their raddle mark day down wrong ( but of all my shepherding tasks that one really isnt that complicated lol!)


I'm hoping that all this overdue lamb discussion will act as a charm and they will lamb as soon as I have finished typing. Just out of interest though whats the longest that your ewes have gone over due?   

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[Hellybee]

We have one fit to bust, the others start coming in March.  Full moon almost upon us,  we think it helps??

[fsmnutter]

Up to 10 days overdue is usually still viable, much beyond and the lamb will usually struggle.
I lambed on a farm one year where the teaser was fertile, so the gimmers lambed early to a Suffolk instead of the usual lleyn or milk sheep that make for easy lambing!! Obviously with black headed lambs, we could tell which the teaser covered!
One night I had a really tough lambing of a single, and despite attempts to revive it, I couldn't and was frustrated. When the farmer came in the morning, he pointed out its black head and that the teaser's lambs should have stopped coming 10 days ago, so it was 10 days over and was clearly a normal induction of labour and a live lamb. If it had been a roomy ewe it would have likely lived.

[Fleecewife]

Other than within the month corresponding to the time the tups were in, we usually have no idea when our girls will pop.  They lamb outdoors, mostly but not exclusively before 6am.

It might seem obvious to us to lamb on a bright, dry night, but why would that bother a sheep?  She can smell and hear all she needs to, she cleans and feeds her lamb so it's able to stand a little rain BUT who else is around on that bright and shiny night?  Foxie, and other predators.  So maybe that's why ewes often lamb into the teeth of a storm, it's safer for her lamb.  I hadn't thought about it before.  Because we don't really know when each will lamb (we don't scan) we don't know if they are late, early or bang on time.   Buffy, you've clearly got far too much time on your hands watching these ewes -  start painting the living room or something 

[roddycm]

The vast majority of mine would lamb just before sunrise. I chose  to lamb outside and they always chose the hedge line which offered shelter. I bred black Welsh though,  they are very good mothers and easy lambers. I think the more commercial types are more dopey... its amazing how strong lambs are though.

[verdifish]

How can you predict when the ewes are due down to a day? 

[Foobar]

I've been recording lambing times for the past few years (sad I know!) - black welsh, lambing outdoors.
Mine mostly either lamb between 4am and 8am, or between 8pm and 10pm.
I find my first timers (ewe-lambs) tend to lamb in the morning slot.
I think the more confident the ewes (i.e. least flighty, most friendly) the more likely it is that they will lamb outside those times, or if they know I'm around - it may be that they associate me with safety.

I had a ewe once who'd been in labour for a little while, but not long enough for me to be worried.  Well, I went into the field to check on her (from a distance with the binoculars ) and she got up and walked straight over to me (they would normally stay put or walk in the opposite direction!) .... it took me a while to cotton on but it turned out she was asking for help, the lamb was backwards and she obviously knew she wasn't going to get it out by herself!  I never underestimate them now .