1 The Birth of a Border Leicester Lamb
Twin Willows Cinder - born 3-2-02
Twin Willows Farm - Ossineke, MI

Here are some step-by-step photos of the birth of a lamb.  I've always wanted to do something like this and never had the time/lighting/opportunity etc. to get it done.  Annie, one of my favorite ewes, was most obliging this year by lambing in the daylight and letting me close to take the photos.  Annie was born in 1997 and has had twins every year up until this year.  This year she gave me a nice 10 pound ewe lamb who you will see "born" here.  Here in the first photo you see the mucus string that lets us know that a lamb is sure to follow.  The ewe is totally dialated and ready to start pushing now.

2 3 Left, Annie is down and starting to push.  You can just see the hooves of the lamb coming out.
Annie isn't straining too hard yet, this is still the easy part.


Right, you can see the hooves and the nose coming out.  At this point Annie is starting to strain pretty hard, you can see she is lifting her front end to help in pushing.


4 5 Left, the entire head is now out.  Next will come the shoulders which take the most work to move through.  

(the incredibly round white ewe in the background had quadruplets 3 weeks after Annie)

Right, the shoulders are through and the lamb is almost out.  Annie is rolling back some on her side at this point to help the lamb move through.  She's done with the hard part now.

6 8 Left, Annie is standing up to help the lamb drop completely out.  This was a large lamb, weighing a full 10 pounds.  That is not abnormally large for a Border Leicester, but I don't like my ewes to have to deliver one any bigger.


Right, you can see the steam rising from this warm, wet lamb who just made her way into a very cold world.

11 Cinder And here is Twin Willow's Cinder, getting herself all cleaned up and ready to stand.  Momma and lamb are both doing fine :)

And here is Cinder at age one week, fighting a little bout of pink eye, but otherwise fine and dandy.



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