Yesterday I received this wonderful tip from one of the wonderful Fellowship of the Farmy.
I am throwing my two cents worth of lambing prediction for your consideration. I go by the udder size to predict the number of weeks or days until lambing. My sheep hate my exploring hand as I unceremoniously, but gently reach down to inspect first visually then with my hand. So here it is: a little swelling around the teats predicts 6 weeks, an udder starting to fill my cupped hand (small hand) about 4 weeks, overflowing my hand a bit is 3 weeks. The actual day is typical of the books with a tight udder, protruding teats, swollen vulva etc. I hope this helps, and that you have an uneventful lambing.
Aha! I thought. So out I went for a chat with Meadow. She is two years old and definitely pregnant. The result of our ..um.. meeting is that I think she is due to lamb in about three weeks, maybe a little over. So I had better get busy with the baby clothes. (lambs coats.. it will be cold). How exciting. Though she is still making that low grunt at odd times, which worries me, I hope they are ok in there.
Minty had nothing to offer. (I know how she feels) Not even a mini champagne glass.
Mama has been wearing a size c cup since she arrived so I think this rule of thumb would work best with the young ones. I am pleased. Thank you R.
It blew like hell itself today, my face is officially sandblasted with flying snow so I did not get to see Sheila. Yesterday the ice on the roads had the big red truck gently sliding right out of control. So I am still waiting. At least she is safe and well where she is. I don’t know why I am such a wort for the worrying.
You do remember that Belle the Kunekune Sow is due to farrow on Feb 1st!
The seed chest is out. John has forbidden me from throwing any seed catalogues out though why he needs that many I have no idea. But the greenhouse is still waiting for reasonable weather to continue the building. 
Oh, and in answer to your questions: MY favourite seed catalogue is The Sandhill Preservation Center, from Calamus in Iowa. It is printed on newsprint paper in black and white with no sexy fonts or breathless descriptions, no pictures of cute kids with big pumpkins and no shiny pages or posh promises. They are very low tech, no website. The seeds come as generous portions in little envelopes with the name of the plant and no directions. They expect you to know what you are ordering and what to do with it. They do not promise to answer the phone and do not deal with emails when they are busy. “Just send in your order and wait your turn in line” they say. I love this about them.
They are dedicated to preserving NON GM heirloom vegetables and flowers. They are honest, good and grumpy. I just love it. I fill out their old fashioned paper form and send them a cheque in the post. They have excellent sweet potatoes too. They breed heirloom and endangered old breed chickens, turkeys, ducks and bantams so I will also order my new chickens from them this year, I am getting a straight run of Orpington chooks. I am also buying a few Buff Orpington ducks to waddle about. Just for continuity.
So I had better get busy and send in my order!
It snowed again last night, enough to tidy the place up a bit.
I am writing a proper book now based on the farm blog. I shall tell you about it tomorrow, I am going to need your help choosing the best posts. I am starting with winter. It is an exciting project and keeping me busy.
Have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farm,
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
68 responses to “How to tell when your ewe is due.”
the reason that you worry about your animals is because you love them..its a simple fact!
My goodness …going to write a book as well..good job that you have nothing else to do ..Ha! ha!
There doesn’t seem to be a minute in your day or night when you are not fully occupied…how do you do it?
I lurch from one thing to the other with not enough planning, just like everybody. Though today I am going to try and make a list of what to achieve, we have found a dead mulberry on another farm and are going to slog through the snow to cut some up for the fire.
So much good news in one place! Lambs due, Kunekune due, a BOOK? SO happy for you!
At least I don’t have elephants.. how come their babies are so small after such a long gestation?.. c
I have a favourite seed place too, the Diggers Club, dedicated to preserving heritage fruits and vegetables, non-GM, of course. They concentrate on taste, not on how long the veg will last on a supermarket shelf. This year is the year of the brand new vegie garden for me, it’s all to be built from scratch in a scrappy, neglected, weed-choked backyard dumping ground.
How exciting… to be planning a brand new garden. start saving your newspapers.. Some of my best gardens have had layers of newspapers then clean soil, keeps the weeds down for ages.. c
Got all my seeds ready – just waiting for it to warm up some. Although I have a green house, and a heater in there, it is still far to cold to start seeds. Need to get some seed starting soil too.
Hens are laying 2/3 eggs per day now so that is a good sign they are getting through this cold. Unlike me who is now suffering from bronchitis! Still I have the chicken broth simmering on the stove and drinking lots of hot orange and honey drinks (oranges juiced myself), so I will be over this in no time!
So looking forward to your book – can I pre-order?
Hugs
Lyn
You can help! Have you any favourite winter posts.. the words though, not the pictures.. c
OK my favorite so far this year is “A Cold Beauty” written on January 20th! Even without pictures you have captured the cold hard truth about winter.
when or do you actually sleep? you are a very busy woman. you must be bursting with info that needs to be shared, an i am grateful for it the book will be a blessing for everyone that reads it i am sure of that!
be a blessing
mike
I go to bed early.. and get up early, just like you I suspect.. morning mike.. c
How will the new chickens be transported to the farmie? Post?
Xpress mail, yes, I think. All the chicks I have ordered over the years have come to the local PO.. c
Extraordinary that a creature with wings must rely on the postal service to get from point A to point B. Good morning, my darling, and a very happy Sunday to you.
Morning Miskydarling!.. c
I once had a ewe that moaned through the last two months of each pregnancy. I worried the first time and tried to do some research….imagine what you get when you type in “moaning pregnant sheep” on google search. Could find nothing. She delivered twins with no problem and every year after I just ignored the moaning. She was a raciest though….being black herself she rejected every white baby she ever had – literally tried to kill them – so she went to good home where they didn’t mind bottle feeding the rejects.
Marcia that is good news, I worried because Mia used to do it and she never carried a pregnancy to fruition. So maybe I just have a moaning flock. Fancy having a racist sheep.. what a thing! c
Hi Celi! I love John’s seed box, and also how he has them organized into the rotation of plantings. Very cool! And the greenhouse will be fabulous when it’s finished. Most of all I’m excited about your book!!! Have you read, The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball? I know it was mentioned a couple of times in our Fellowship of the Farmy Favorites for last year. I really enjoyed it, and would love to read yours with all of the adventures and happenings that you have experienced on the farmy, hopefully with stories from your childhood thrown in! Very exciting stuff!!! xo
Your book will be so beautiful…I can’t wait to have a copy.
First on the list is the choose the very best of winter. Without pictures. Does anything spring to mind? c
By “best of winter” you mean best stories/posts?
yes the best posts, there will be four books, one for each season, lots of new writing in and around the twelve or more chosen posts.. c
Love the seed box. I wonder if seeds can be shipped overseas. I have a feeling there are “that’s-a-no-no” rules about such things.
yes they can. I have my sons send me seeds from NZ. And I often send them to myself when I am home. Do you need some? I can send you something for your balcony? c
I was thinking I’d try with the Iowa folks. I’d just love to see that catalog. Something for my balcony would be treasured. Maybe an herb? But I worry abt eating stuff that griws in this horrible Milanese pollution. You are so kind to offer Celi.
I will get you a catalogue and send it to you, it is chock full of stuff, lots of american heirlooms, if you would like to email me your address.. celima.g.7@gmail.com..
That seed box is great! I actually have a similar set of Ikea drawers (but with nine of the little ones), which is full of junk right now. I think my seed packets will soon have a new home!
I love the seed box!
Your book from your blog is super-duper idea! Can’t wait to see it. 🙂
Thank you for sharing the lambing prediction information. I am going out today to see what I can learn!
It is great isn’t, and makes good sense, though Mama has a big droopy udder all year round and though no longer pregnant still looks like she has just fed twins, but disappointing about Minty though, but maybe she was caught in her next cycle. c
Ducks – that’s what I like to hear, and I won’t mention the duck confit on a bed of puy lentils I had last night cos your ducks will be on beds of straw. I just love to watch ducks waddle, and their eggs are yum too.
Book – about bloody time ! And good to hear your tootsies are warm and dry – now what else do you need?
Some sub zero gloves I think! Now that my toes are not in pain my hands are taking over.. What do you wear up there in the mountains?!!
Ok onto hands – I have a selection for every occasion including Drain Gloves for Spring rain!!
I have a standard pair of ski gloves, highly insulated and keeps me warm most of the time in standard weather. When it gets cold I have some thermal inner gloves, which are very fine and thin, but create an amazing amount of extra warmth and are thin enough to ear inside my bog gloves. Next for truly cold days – minus 15 and blowing a hoolie I have mittens. All the guys I talk to here say mittens are the best for keeping you warm. But they aren’t very practical for doing things in. So I reckon a pair of inner gloves might help you – I’ll see if I can find a useful link to give you an idea.
And then there are the warm cycling gloves, the wandering around town leather gloves…. and don’t start in on my about balaclavas, snoods and hats!!!!
something like these – http://www.snowandrock.com/pws/UniqueProductKey.ice?ProductID=ICE1953KK&gclid=CPDu4IeNnLwCFVKWtAodFzMANw&gclsrc=aw.ds