posted 5 months ago
There are some constants, but much of it can depend on your breed. I don't know Finns, but they're related to Shetland and Icelandic, so they *may* share similarities.
As for dates of lambing: Find the day you put your ram in, go out 153 days from that, and that's the middle of a 21 day lambing window. If you put the ram in on October 15th, that'll make your lambing range is March 7th to 28th, with the prime date being March 17th. Finns may be tightly clustered, but you'll have to talk to someone that keeps Finns to learn those patterns.
As for signs: Jill got them. swelling, udder dropping, then later, a pinking of the vulva and then a moistness. There are behaviors to look for, but I've found that to be very breed dependent.
As for feeding: minerals are important to have available, starting during the flushing and through pregnancy, then at least until weaning. I also remove any rumen-protected PUFAs from supplements since I learned, the hard way, that it causes gender skew in the lambs. (I got 70% rams for years due to that. Honestly, I removed them entirely since then.) I give regular feed levels until 30-40 days out from prime lambing, and I bump the protein level a *little bit* in the form of some organic alfalfa. It probably works out to maybe 1/4lb per animal per day.
If you are going to inoculate, you can inoculate your ewes a few weeks before birthing and save yourself an injection in the lambs, otherwise you get to inject all the lambs twice.
As for the actual birth and after-care: We don't separate before birth unless we see a problem interaction between our ewes. Our ewes seem to like to birth after sunup, but before mid-morning. I swear I think that they hold off to wait for that time. When birthing, they largely take care of it themselves. We come out when we hear it to help her clean and dry them off, clear the waxy plugs out of the nipples and ensure milk flow, and make sure the lamb manages to nurse. If a ewe is having a problem birthing, we help her with it. Aiding birthing is a whole thread in itself. Your State's Sheep Association likely holds a lambing school, it's worth attending. As I said, we aid problem births, but we're on a two strike system. If a ewe has problems birthing twice, her whole line gets culled. It's made things easier over the years, and as I get older I'm rather grateful to my wife for insisting on it.
After drying off and initial nursing, we inspect the lambs to make sure they're healthy, get a weight, and make our notes about them. If you're going to lamb-tag them, now's the time. The story is that newborn lambs have dulled pain receptors for the first day or two. I can't say I believe it, but I always make sure to lamb tag and band tails within the first 48 hours. Any pain I can minimize is a good thing.
So, that leaves the question, to jug or not to jug (isolate the ewe with her lambs for a bit): We do jug. Only for a couple of days to 1. ensure a strong ewe-lamb bond and 2. Keep the lambs in the barn until they are too large to be taken by bald eagles. (Yes, a bald eagle can take a 1-2 day old lamb, but it seems by day 3 they're too heavy...dunno, maybe it's my breed.). We've not had problems with ewes stepping on lambs, but I know others that have...usually the ewe stepping on her own lamb (see our two-strike policy).
For jug panels, we cut up 16' 4"-square rolled-wire panels into 5'x5' panels and hook them together with carabiners for ease of opening. They are pricey, but I only had to buy them once. (Wait for a cheap deal on amazon or use bailing twine or rope.). These are set up in main section of the barn so they can all see each other...so even separated they don't feel alone.
Last item I can think of: How we get the ewe and lambs into the jug if we don't separate early? Our ewes will follow their lambs. So while we're weighing the lambs we will keep them all together then move them into the jug - the ewe will walk right in. We've only had that not be the case once in all of our years of sheep-ing.
Best of luck in your first lambing season.
(edit: went back to fill in Jill's name, since I couldn't remember)
"Draw your own conclusions, but draw them in pencil so you can change them again later."
-- Douglas Black
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