More baby lambs!

From Julie H., historical interpreter:

Today is a very busy day here at the Frontier Culture Museum! We had three baby lambs born today, two of which came late morning in the middle of a large school group from Fluvanna County.

The first one was born on our English farm. The baby Cotswold lambs have been arriving all week. I'll post some photographs of the ones born earlier this week, and then our newest little one. The Cotswold are an older English breed of sheep, and have a nice long thick curly wool.

Hi!

Here's this morning's baby. Mama was very protective, and did her best to keep me from getting a good photo! Notice that Mama Sheep hasn't been shorn yet. Now that she's given birth, she'll be one of the next on the list to shear.

 She decided to take the newborn for a walk, farther away from me.

 Those little legs are only a few hours old, and they do wobble, but they can move!

The second two lambs arrived on our 1850s farm,and I think they're the last Tunis sheep for the season.

Mother Sheep licks her two lambs clean.

 SLURP!

*****One of our visitors (who wished to remain anonymous) just sent a recording of the birth this afternoon! When our 1850s staff noticed the sheep in labor, they noticed that a head but only one leg were sticking out instead of two. That's bad. Our livestock director came immediately to push the baby lamb back in, grabbed both front legs, and helped the sheep give birth. The second baby lamb had the same problem, and our livestock director assisted again.
Of course, this all happened in front of 50 first graders. Ahh, the miracle of birth!
You'll notice in this video that as soon as the lamb is out of the mother, our livestock director swings the baby lamb back and forth. He is not hurting the lamb- he is helping clear its lungs so that it can breathe. Complicated births can be dangerous for both lamb and mother, and it is important to help get the baby breathing as soon as possible.

Wool Days might be nearing an end, but there are still plenty sheep left to shear! Call ahead and stop on by to see us shear!

Baby Lambs!

From Julie H., historical interpreter:

Happy Spring, everyone! Even though Mother Nature seems to think it's summer (90 degrees yesterday!), we are gearing up for our spring celebrations.

Many of you have been waiting for this announcement: We have baby lambs! They are all a week to two weeks old, and were born on our American farms. I wish I could've gotten photos up sooner, but between the unexpected snow storms, and our busy season with school groups, there's barely been time! Luckily, our facebook team posted the arrival of the baby lambs with an adorable photograph, and we also have some photos on our flickr page, taken by Jack Cameron. Here's two of them:

 These sheep were quite a novelty in the early 19th Century!
The Tunis breed of sheep, also known historically as Barbary Sheep, come from Tunisia in North Africa. They came to America at the end of the 18th C as a gift from the ruler of Tunisia, and were given to a judge in Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson got the breed shortly after, and became a strong advocate for its use. It gives both a good meat, and a sturdy wool.
People in Jefferson's time were used to English breeds of sheep, which were primarily white, black, or grey. So a brown-faced sheep was quite exciting! And the most interesting thing about Tunis sheep, as you can see, is that they are born entirely brown, and slowly turn white after a few months. This made them even more desirable and popular, and the breed spread across the East Coast.

While none of my own photos of them on the farms turned out, I did manage to get these two little guys hobbling around our break room. Their mother died shortly after giving birth, so we've been bottle feeding them. I believe this is Cathy and Chrissy, named after the wives of the 1820s and 1850s farm families.

Check back again soon, because our fluffy white English lambs should be appearing any day now!

From Julie Herczeg, historical interpreter:

Exciting news! I had been all ready to blog about us finishing up the Settlement cabin, but we've had some other surprises lately. There are new baby lambs!

We breed our English Cotswold sheep so that they all give birth in early/mid April. This way, we can shear off their wool afterwards, at the arrival of the hot weather. Every year, like clockwork, wobbly little baby lambs enter the world by the end of April.

Occasionally, one of the ewes may be late, so we give them until May before we give up hope. This year, we had two sheep who never gave birth. We sheared them, and moved them to a separate field with another sheep who lost both her twins. And we shook our fists at Ben the Ram for not doing his job very well this year.

Ben, we're sorry. Better late than never, right? Imagine our surprise, in mid June, when our blacksmith, Andy, was walking to the forge in the middle of the day, and saw a teeny tiny head peaking out of some tall grass. Baby lamb!

Little Oakley was born on June 11th. What a surprise! Although Daisy, our bottle-fed lamb, was still popular amongst the visitors, Oakley soaked up a ton of attention, too, especially once we moved him and his mother to the English cattle shed.

A month later... Our English farm interpreter, Sally, was filling up the water tubs for the other sheep left in that field, and discovered TWO little heads! The final sheep gave birth to a little ewe and a ram.

Unfortunately, the mother rejected her baby ram, Alfred. This happens for many reasons. For example, Daisy had gotten rejected after another mother licked her clean when she was born. Luckily, our interpretive supervisor has a lamb-loving family at home, and his house becomes a nursery for rejected lambs. His two young children are more than happy to bottle feed and play with the fuzzy guys to bring them back to good health. So Alfred is living with them right now, and hopefully the next time you hear about him, it'll be when he's recovered and brought back to the fields to become a sheep again.

Here are some photos of the baby ewe a couple days after her birth. I also got some of Oakley, and all the other April lambs. They grow up quickly, and the April lambs are nearly the same size as their mothers now. There may be some more photos on our flickr page.

Here's the little ewe girl, maybe 3 days old. 

Our little Oakley, at about 3 weeks.

For comparison, here's one of the lambs about 3 months old, standing in front of a mother.

Oh, hi!


That's all the lambs for the Cotswolds. No more surprise bundles of sheep-ly joy until next year!

Later this week, we'll show you a step-by-step instructional on how to daub your 18th C backcountry cabin. Prepare to get muddy.