These Sheep Give Birth UNASSISTED!

Yesterday we had our last baby lamb. I was in there wrapping up the edit and Lily came and got me. Bandy has had a baby. Hey, did you guys know they had a baby? He's putting the calves up in the stall.

Sure enough, she labored and birthed fine.

How do you know?

Well, the baby's fine and she's fine.

Yeah, I guess so. That's what I'm talking about. Just had the baby. We walk in, she's pregnant. We thought maybe she was in ill health because she never shed. Oh, that's a skinny looking thing though. I think it looks a little skinnier than the other ones, so let's hope for the best here. That's it too, guys. I know some of you, uh, are having a hard time understanding our hard breeding system. Our— we want them to thrive and thrive on their own. These guys are— everybody that's here, one of the commenters said, you know, we've got a lot of things going on. You know, we're milking the cow, we're running a business, we're Uh, we've got chickens, we've got pigs. We need our animals to just be able to do— that lamb has got to make it on its own because everybody that makes it on their own can make it on their own, and we need them to be strong enough to do that. Do you think it'll make it?

Yeah, I feel like all of them were that small.

Yeah, and I feel like it just happened. It's so weird because look how big they, they just grow real fast. It looks like maybe the baby's hind legs are a little weird, but It was probably just born. Look, it's wagging its tail. I think it's all right. It's wagging its tail. It's looking. I won't come. I'm gonna leave you alone, okay? I'm gonna leave you alone. I wonder if you've got another one, Bandy. Hey, Belle. Look, she's being a good mom. She's licking it. That gets the baby up, gets it nursing. It doesn't have a lot of yellow on it like, uh, Floppies did. Floppies showing sign of— it would have been meconium. This is just our opinion, guys, but animals have a natural ability to reproduce. They have a natural immune system. So I think anytime we start tampering with that, meddling with that, we run the chances of, uh, weakening that line. And that's just, that's just where we stand. We don't expect everybody to agree with us, but that's where we're coming from in some of these difficult decisions we're having to make. It seemed a hair weak. Now maybe it was just born So I'm curious to see if it made it through the night. It was cold. I think it's probably 30 degrees out here, maybe, plus the wind. Everybody's laying down enjoying the warmth of the deep bedding. Oh yes, look, it's just fine. Look, Dixie is the only one that gave us a female, and you did good. You had babies with no assistance. And twins. Yeah, this is the little girl, so this could very well be Floppy's replacement.

Are you having fun?

Are you— Mom chasing you? So there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. We save one female for breeding. We could get a replacement for Escalito, the ram's buddy. Since he's so wild and crazy. That lamb just seems little, but it's making it. I think it seems little because these guys are growing so fast. What are you? Oh, it's a little boy. Now it's a little girl. I don't think that little lamb would have made it through the night if it wasn't nursing, so we're good there. Nature is playing a mean old trick on us. It's been so nice and warm, just perfect weather. Oh, it's so cold. We were kind of getting used to the warmth. Look at those eggs and not one strand of hay in there. Show you where the hay is. The goose makes a nest. Chicken, it looks like the chicken's laid in it too. Well, now we know the egg eater's not in this posse. Actually, the egg eater's up in Grandma's posse now, so we've narrowed it down. It should be a little easier to find them. Went and got some hay. I don't think I'm ever going to get female guard geese again. It's fun to get the goose eggs, but it's a pain because they take out the nest box in the spring. At least from my experience with one male, the males are a little more aggressive for predator warding off. Look at this, that's a load. Yeah. Hey, how was your anniversary yesterday? What's good? Did you walk in each other's grace? Yes. Okay, good. We had to walk every day, not just once a year. Today too? Yeah. It did rain, which is going to be good for our potatoes. Potatoes are under the ground, so it doesn't matter that it's frosting. It's only when it gets— when the green shows, then we'll have to cover them with hay or something in the event of a heavy frost. Move that out of our puddle. Move it somewhere where there's no poop. Still have a little bit of flood from the rain. Look how big Beefcake's gotten! You're getting huge, buddy! You're huge! I talked to my pig mentor Cliff Davis about feeding these guys. You know, you level off, you know, pound a day for every month they are old, but for breeders you level that off at about 6 pounds a day. Otherwise they're gonna get too fat and not breed. We're getting into that territory, but when she farrows, meaning she has babies, then we give her like 15 to 20 pounds when she's nursing. No wonder Rebecca's eating so much, she's feeding a baby. Boy, it's definitely egg season, isn't it? Yep. You're waiting on me, huh? You're waiting. Here, piggy piggy piggy piggy. You guys are so fun and so gentle. See that? Pigs usually have a poop corner. There's one. Maybe that's one. I think that's it back there. And it stinks. Your operation never has to stink. You need to either move them or in the case of deep bedding, you get more bedding. Hey, what's going on in here? I'm making Mama's breakfast. Okay, what are you making her?

The usual.

Ah, how you doing?

I'm doing good.

Did you do good on your breakfast?

Yes.

I see you're up and at 'em. Made the bed.

Yep, I'm getting stuff ready to put away. And nice, I started cleaning up and he's sleeping nicely with his white noise in the bathroom.

Nice.

So I was like, I'm not gonna disturb that. I'm gonna get some stuff done before he wakes up.

Papa, can you cut up a hay bale for me?

What's over there? If you didn't hear that, she's got to cut up hay bale inside. I'm wanting to get off this edge though. See how it's browning? It's not a big deal, but let's get it less exposed to the weather, especially since we're not going to use a lot of that hay. These guys are going out middle of April. Yeah. Okay.

All right, if we meet them 2 times a day, we wouldn't have to give them all the hay.

Actually, I think that's a good point. We've been giving them hay because there wasn't quite enough grass, but now there is mucho grass. We give them hay because it's hard for them to go from straight up hay to straight up grass, so there needs to be kind of a transition. But I think they're ready. They're going right for the grass. Notice when they first came out here, they went right for the hay, but now they're going for the grass. So I think they've adapted well.

I don't think we have to like switch out the water because it's not that grassy.

All right, let's go milk Bird. Look, I was worried this wasn't happening. Bandy's baby, it's nursing. I love to see that little tail wagging. Getting the milk. Look, I'm pouring the milk and look what I got. Look what Mama brought me. Oh, I love the baby. I love the baby. Oh, you don't love me as much. Rebecca's going over the edit. I've got little baby Henry. Uh, boys, can you guys help me make lunch? So Jonah, if you'll get the steak and start cutting it up, we're gonna make fajitas. Get the peppers and the onions. Look who wanted to hold the baby. What's What's the better duty? Hold baby duty or cooking duty? Hold the baby.