The First One to Pop One!

Sheila, our first  pregnant sheep.

Our flock is about to increase in size by one, or I hope, two, very soon!  The actual due date is February 12.  How do I know that?  On September 20, I let Shaun, our ram, into the front pasture with the 7 ewes.  He ran straight to Sheila.  I am sure it was the moment he had been waiting for.  I must have been torturing him making stay behind that fence.  Shaun smelled Sheila with a big curl to his lip. She must have been ready and in heat, because he was on her and done in a flash.  The gestation period for a sheep is 145 days, so February 12 seems right on target.  The reason I think it she could be pregnant with two lambs is because she seems evenly fat on both sides. Her udder is pink and seems just about ready to be full of milk.  I am hoping that the other ewes are pregnant, too, but the others aren't showing the signs quite like Sheila.  She also happens to be the most affectionate of the flock, enjoying her ears and chin to be rubbed.  The others shy away from it, but she  comes to me easily.  This closer shepherd/sheep relationship makes me so pleased that Sheila is the first of our sheep to bare lambs.  I have no idea what I am doing here.  Learning as I go along from books, from other people, and by just experiencing The Derby Farm.