Getting a good look at the lambs

After the two-day old lambs leave their jugs in the barn, we only admire most of them from afar for the next several weeks.

At 7-14 days, the ram lambs are caught, banded and vaccinated for tetanus. Four weeks later, we catch all the lambs, give the males a booster shot, and vaccinate the females for the first time. We also deworm the ewes.

Lamb and ewe handling day was last week.

I marvel at how much we've learned in the past few years. There were no busted gates, no black eyes, no cussing.

Some things we've learned:

1. That it's much easier to catch the sheep when they're in a stall, with solid wood walls. At first, we tried to catch them when they were in a small outside pen with wire fencing. The lambs and ewes saw daylight and tried to run through the fence.

2. Solid panels and a dog are a great way to entice a sheep to go into the barn. Sheep don't like to go into dark spaces, and the barn is one of those. With a dog encouraging them and a panel directing them, they are learning to go inside.

3. It's easier to catch a ewe or lamb when there are several sheep in a small area. Sheep will flock together, so we just need to pick the one we need from the tight bunch.

4. Grease pencils are a wonderful thing. They let us quickly identify the sheep we've handled.

5. Needles aren't so scary. Okay, I still think they're awful, but at least I can give shots without having to give myself a pep talk before each one.

To vaccinate, I pinch a fold of skin between my fingers and inject the needle under the skin.

When I do this, it's a good thing to pinch an inch. Usually the singles or the twins with older moms carry the largest layer of fat and are growing the fastest. But, I was pleased to note that the late-born twins from a young ewe were also growing well.

"This is the easy one," I tell my husband as he holds a lamb and I inspect it.

When we do this again in a month, the lambs will be 15 pounds heavier, maybe more.

At some point, we'll also have to trim the ewes' hooves.

But we don't think about that as we look at the lambs, and marvel that we'd worked through 30+ lambs and ewes in less than 90 minutes.

"I think we're finally figuring this out," I say.