Shhh! Lambs

We had an incredible experience while here in Wales.  Some friends of ours have sheep.  They invited us to come out while they were lambing!  What an experience!

That is Tony in the background, moving the sheep around!  It is one big nursery!

They have a wonderful marking system to aid them in keeping the lambs together.  Here 17 lamb goes with 17 sheep.  The F means the Mama is fostering the lamb.  This Mama here had two stillborns, and the lamb was one of three, so they have her adopting the lamb so she can nurse and the lamb can get plenty of milk.  The V on Mama is to indicate that she needs medicine for the infection that was brought about by the stillborns.

Now this Mama is rejecting her lamb that they are trying to have her foster.  They
put her in this contraption to allow the lamb to nurse without her kicking him off.
After the lamb has fed, they separate them by a gate so that she will start to
yearn for the lamb.

The three dots on her back indicate she is going to have triplets.

After they birth the lambs, they are put in a "holding" area for the first day.
Then they will be moved in with other new Mamas!

Here we have a newborn bonding with her Mama!  She is not even an hour old!

Expectant mothers!

These little ones I got to bottle feed.  They were soon figuring out how to get milk from their Mama!

Here, Laura is putting amniotic fluid on this lamb to give it the scent of her.  They are going to attempt to have her foster this one.  They put the scent on the lamb and then make her feel as if she has had two lambs by "birthing" it.

I was hiding this one from her soon to be foster mother until after she births her lamb.
They want to trick her into thinking this one is also hers.

Too precious!

These lambs are a couple days old and are quite active!  If a lamb starts feeding off another mother, the sheep will but her away so that she doesn't deprive her own lamb of the essential milk.

Here is a newborn that is waiting on its twin to be born before they get separated into a holding area.

I think they are bonding quite well!

This foster mother took to her adoptee quite well!

Roger is helping out with tube feeding because it is not getting enough milk and doesn't seem to have the sucking reflex yet.

Here Roger is helping Tony and Laura weigh their new babies!

This one is getting a shot of antibiotics.

Here are two others I got to bottle feed!

This is Tony and Laura with Mavis (the mom)!  We love Mavis.  She was quite small to be pregnant, so they fed her a glucose concoction with Maple syrup to aid her with keeping in the calories.  She became quite excited about her Molasses times!  When I first met her, she came right up to me, then when she found out I didn't have any molasses, she snorted at me and turned around.  It was too funny!

Then, of course, we got to come back to these cuties!!

The Lord has truly blessed us here in Wales.  What experiences and beauty we have gotten to enjoy!