Girlie Gets a Big Tummy, Pregnant Sheep

This spring we are lambing in March, the first week or two is when the first lambs are expected.  We only have nine ewes, so it will not be a lot of work.  They started getting big tummies, and udders, about a week ago.

We have a mixed flock of sheep, some wool sheep, some hair sheep, it makes it easier to tell them apart.  Most sheep producers with large flocks use ear tags to note which sheep is which when they all look the same.

Some sheep are bigger than others, one often has triplets, but twins are more common among sheep.  Triplets are a lot more work for the mother ewe, who only has 2 nipples. Sheep are pregnant for 5 months.

Here is a picture of Girlie, can you see her big tummy?  She is a cross between a wool sheep and a hair sheep.

You can see her head and legs that are not covered in wool, but she does get a woolly back, her tail is not docked, hair sheep have naturally shorter tails than wool sheep.  When sheep were first domesticated they all were hair sheep, and gradually they were selected for wool by picking the ones that grew thicker winter coats, since even the hair sheep do produce some wool in winter.

This is Diamond sheep, she is the ewe that has produced triplets every year except one.  The ram is behind her.  I hope to get lots of lamb pictures this year and will post some of them on other articles her, as well as on my sheep blog.

Many people have negative opinions about sheep, they think they are stupid, this is not true.  If I had taken the time, I could very well have trained a couple of them to do tricks, Girlie in particular has been trained to stand in a certain place in the barn when they come in for the night, this just happened because when she was a lamb my daughter use to take her down to a quieter part of the barn to feed her special treats to teach her to be friendly, as a result, even though it has been two years, she still goes to that place in the barn looking for her treats – now you may think that is “stupid” but I think it shows intelligence.

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