Yesterday was bitter cold and so of course one of my ewe’s had a lovely set of twins in it.. they didn’t get dried and so ended up chilled, and chilled lambs don’t nurse, they lose their suck reflex and then its just a downward circle.. chilled means no nursing and can’t use the milk correctly, and no milk means that they just weaken.

So into the house they came, lots of towel drying, and into a big box with a warm dry bedding put not that far from the heater, milked out the mom to get a couple feedings worth of milk, at first just little tiny feedings of 1/4th cups per feeding, working up to half a cup per time. Didn’t want to lose the chance to bring lambs out to the barn to get them attached to momma sheep, so in and out, in and out to the barn we go..

First always offering and helping with the momma, and only turning to milking and finishing on the bottle, the momma sheep is excellent, she really wants to bond and have her babies nurse, she is also excellent placement and shape for milking, and given that this is the first time she has needed to be milk by me (she has always been a 1st rate momma) and she could honestly be a milking sheep with ease..

By this last morning, I was able to milk her by just petting, walking up and milking out, no tie up, no lean her in place, just loose in her pen..  Like I said, she could be made a milking sheep very easily, its not normally quite that easy.

Now the books say, if you have a very very chilled lamb, that you should soak it in just warm water, but as soon as you do that, you have a bottle baby, because you have totally changed the scent,  what I am working on, is to get the lambs strong enough and trained enough that they will be raised by their mother, and I am working hard to keep a bond with their mother live and active, at the next feeding, I will work hard to feed the babe on the bottle if needed beside her mother and only after she seeks, butts and tries to nurse on her, I need to work hard to make her not seek “me” for milk but to seek her

Thankfully because they are drinking their mothers milk be it by teat or by bottle, no tummy upsets, no milk changes, because I am milking fresh and feeding warm, it just makes everyones life so much easier.