Babies On the Farm

Baby animals are one of the many reasons I love living on a farm. Lambs, chicks, calves, and kittens are the only baby creatures we have this year, though in the past we have had kids, goslings, foals, kits, piglets, poults, peachicks, and ducklings. 

Not to mention the mice pups, baby birds, snakelets and other wild baby creatures we have cared for.

The lambs arriving in late winter are always a symbol of the nearness of spring to me. Lambing time is an exciting period here on the farm. We all watch for signs present when an ewe is preparing to give birth- like filling or full udders, inattentiveness to grain, restless pacing about the pen. Many times, we guess when a mama will have her baby and whether she will have a single lamb or twins. Then comes my favorite part, naming them. 

For the past few years, we have been naming our lambs in alphabetical order, according to birth. This year, we have Abel, Betsy and Ben, Cora, Della and Derrick, and Evinrude. Naming them that way, helps us keep track of which lamb was born when and which ones were part of a twin set etc.

This year, we had three calves, Rudy, Della, and Samantha, which were born from early to mid-spring. Here it is always more of a surprise when a calf is born. Though we know when a cow is getting ready to calve, we may not see the baby until a few days after it was born. Calves usually hide away, far from the main herd, secreting themselves in tall grass or brush, sometimes even out of the pen, and not giving itself away to anyone but the mama. However, when we do find the new calves, for a few days to a week, the baby has no apparent fear of us. It lets us come close and pet and hold it without being frightened. It is not long though, before their God-given sense of fear begins working and we must view our little heifers or bulls from a distance.

It is always exciting to be the first to find baby kittens. So, when we guessed earlier this year that one of our cats was expecting, we kept a careful watch on her daily habits. We all like guessing which is the most likely place the Mama cat will give birth. So far, the nesting boxes stored above the old rabbit pens have been the favorite spot for our cats. I love feeling the baby kittens roll about in the Mama or watching them push and shove against the skin when she’s lying down. As of now, we have five kittens, Fila and Kila from our first litter, and then three little ones that we haven’t named yet, since we still have to determine whether they are boys or girls.

By the end of this year, our baby animals won’t seem so much like a baby anymore. The lambs will be as big or bigger than their ewes, the calves though not yet as big as the adults, will be harder to wrangle about, and the kittens will be nearly grown. Then we must wait until spring again when we get to see what baby animals we have next year!

~Halayah