January there’s not much going on except feeding and keeping the snow plowed and shoveled to wherever the sheep are. Girls are brought into the paddock near the house in late fall whenever the grass runs out. The boys are usually left in the big field during the winter since the heat in the summer bothers them more than the cold in the winter. I had a ram sleep outside in a blizzard my second year with the flock even though he had access to shelter. Didn’t even see him when I went out but as soon as I came with the grain bucket up popped this mound of snow. Three days later he still had that snow on his back. Body temp is about 102 but on top of the ‘insulation’ it wasn’t warm enough to melt.  They do get brought in if there is going to be sleet or freezing rain though and depending on the following weather go back out or spend the rest of it in the other shed. Enough room to walk around but not get as much exercise as I’d like.

February in the beginning is more of the same but near the end is when the work starts. I’m never sure if getting ready for lambing is the ‘beginning’ of the year or putting the rams in with the girls in the fall is. This is when the work really starts, this gets my vote.  The brood ewes have to get CDT vaccinations so I do the whole flock to get it over with. It’s best if the bred ewes are sheared about a month before the lambs are due for multiple reasons. If there are any nutritional stresses on them it can make weak spots in the fleece and it is best if that is out near the tip instead of right near the skin. It’s also much better to be able to see what’s going on with the ewe. A full fleece can hide problems as well as what’s going on in general. Is she too skinny, have the babies dropped (just like people) as time gets near? And most important to the wool, lambs literally walk all over their moms so shearing early keeps the wool clean. Their dirty little hoof prints get washed off of short fleeces in springtime rains. Little true story, one spring, post lambing, I had a ewe go down with blue bag mastitis, nasty disease, they usually don’t make it, and spent the night in the barn with her. She did pull through though. The mama ewes and the lambs were in a big pen on the opposite side of the barn. Sheep love to lay down next to a fence or wall and all the moms were up against the far wall but it wasn’t quite long enough and one ewe had her fanny out perpendicular to the wall. The lambs spent most of the night racing up and down the length of the barn since moms were out of the way. Even though there was plenty of room to go around her they used that poor mama as a spring board midway through their races.  Shearing is of course weather dependent, it can’t be too cold or windy but believe it or not fat cells in sheep are mobile, for lack of whatever the right word is. Within three days of shearing fat cells have moved to under the skin and they do get an extra bit of insulation.  Extra grain has to be given to the bred ewes during the last six weeks of gestation also since this is when the lambs are doing most of their size growth. I give my Coops about 1.25 to 1.5 pounds daily, they don’t need the huge amounts that some of the larger breeds need. The last three to four weeks I cut back some on the hay since there isn’t always enough room for a belly full of hay and a belly full of baby. They still get some, about half usual amount, since they need it to keep their rumen in working order.

March means keeping a close eye on the pregnant ewes for any signs that something isn’t right. All prey animals try to hide it when they’re ill so by the time they act sick its usually hard to cure them. I hate the adage 4S, sick sheep seldom survive. Unfortunately it is often true. A droopy ear or a down head, anything that doesn’t seem quite right should get checked out immediately. Mid-March is when I start lambing so the girls get checked on frequently.  Coopworth usually lamb quickly and unassisted, I didn’t see a single lamb born this spring. I usually catch a few of them. I was bound and determined to see at least one born this year so when I saw that Tara had delivered one and I knew she had at least twins, I waited for over two hours hanging around the shed. I had to go in the house for less than five minutes and came back out to TWO more lambs. Clean and healthy, so I’m not complaining but, honestly! An occasional ewe will need help with a delivery and sheep manuals will give you all sorts of advice on how to deliver malpresentations     but most of mine over the last 18 years have been what I call elbows back. A lamb comes out like a diver, front legs leading and head lined up between them so first you see feet and then a nose, head and the rest pops out as soon as the shoulders clear. Sometimes you see both feet and a nose and then it seems to stall. In this case, you just pull gently on first one leg and then the other until you feel the knee ‘pop’ into the birth canal.  After any lamb is born they need their navel dipped in iodine and weighed for your records.  I usually help mom clean them off with towels although if it’s cold follow up with paper towels as they get the lamb drier. The lambs need a good drink of colostrum with in a hour of birth so keep an eye on them and teach them to nurse if you have to. This is extra important if it is cold, a cold lamb is a stupid lamb and can quickly be to dead lamb.  

April usually finishes up the lambing and preparations start for festivals and farmer’s markets. The ewes keep up with their heavy rations because of lactation, as lactation progresses they usually need the grain rations increased some more because now they are growing even more weight of lamb than they were during gestation. If you’ve got the space to separate them it makes life easier if you can divide them into groups, single lamb, twins or triplets. Since I don’t breed that many at a time I usually just bucket feed the girls with triplets to give them extra. Some very good milk producers often can totally feed the lambs for the first few weeks but triplets usually need bottle supplements sooner or later.  At least you don’t have to worry about middle of the night feedings with triplets like you do with young orphans.  Often, but not always the smaller of the lambs need the bottle. I had set of triplets that were born 7, 9 and 11 pounds. Mom was an excellent milker so I left them alone for a couple weeks. I then noticed that the 9 pound ewe was now the smallest of the bunch so I started her with a bottle.  Observation proved that the ‘runt’ was always on one side of mom and the other two were sharing the other teat so she was odd man out. She’d get her bottle and I’d offer any leftovers to the others since I really prefer fresh milk each time. The larger lamb usually wouldn’t take any but ‘little guy’ would polish it off every time. I honestly think he would have eaten 24 hours a day if he could. Surprise, surprise he ended up being the fastest grower of that year’s lamb flock.  The last Saturday in April is the CT Sheep and Wool Festival (www.ctsheep.org) and the beginning of my marketing season. I do lots of hand dying of my yarns to get ready as well as sort and see what is left from last year.  The yarn holds up well but there are usually labels that need to be replaced etc. after all the packing and moving back and forth from markets the previous year.   

May begins with the Maryland Sheep and wool festival the first full weekend. The American Coopworth Registry always has a cooperative booth there. Any member can come and bring some of their items to sell. We take turns working at the booth and try not to spend too much money on our time off.  Back at home we keep an eye on when the grass starts to come in. you’ve got to give it time to get up to  six to eight inches tall before turning them out and also the biggie of getting their rumens used to fresh grass.  There are different types of bacteria that digest grain, hay and fresh grass so any feed changes must be done gradually. I usually let them out for only 15 or 20 minutes the first couple of days, right before grain time or you won’t get them back in. then up it to 30 to 45 for a few then hour plus before the full turn out. There always seems to be too much grass in May and early June but never enough in late summer. I suppose the ideal would be to take a first hay cutting off of the later pastures around Memorial day and then move them later. That works for farms with their own equipment of fields big enough for custom haying. I just keep them moving and try to brush hog after them.  Lambs should be weighed again at about sixty days of age for your records.  This can be all at once since there is a formula for adjusting the weights. This is a measure of how well the ewe produces milk.  Hope for not too hot a weather, there was one year all the weight gains were much lower than normal. It had been extremely hot and the ewes just didn’t eat as much.  In the house it is more dyeing.