Spring Is Here, and CW Has Proof in Its Lambs

By Desiree Parker Friday, April 23, 2010

In the grand, well-kept stables at Colonial Williamsburg, a three-week-old lamb frolics at the feet of Elaine Shirley, the manager of the Rare Breeds program. It’s the truest sign that spring is in full swing, she says.

The Rare Breeds program, which aims to preserve genetic diversity of livestock (some of the breeds that were around in colonial times), has won CW awards and ensures the “Bits and Bridles” stable tour is always booked. Visitors get an extra thrill at this time of year, too, because now is the peak season for that beloved springtime favorite: fluffy, energetic little lambs.

The lamb bleats for attention as Shirley tells a story about its birth – a lamb she calls by its identification number, though one interpreter in the stable getting his horse ready overhears her and says he has named the baby Lambkins.

The lamb was born to a ewe that, for whatever reason, rejected the lamb just after it was born.

“One minute she was fine, and the next minute, she was beating up the lamb,” Shirley says.

Though laypeople might be alarmed by the story, nothing about animal behavior seems to surprise Shirley any longer, after 25 years working with CW’s animals. The lamb is just fine, and Shirley feeds it every three or four hours by bottle, she says. That means she walks the three minutes from her home in the middle of the night (like any parent of a newborn) to feed her charge.

She scoops the complaining lamb up in her arms where it promptly falls asleep, with its head tucked into the crook of her arm and its knobby limbs dangling beneath.

The babe is a Leicester Longwool, the first breed to be developed as a planned breed by a British farmer, Robert Bakewell. As she talks about the process Bakewell used to manipulate the sheep populations to get the traits he wanted, Shirley gets animated. Once he’d officially established this new breed, and other new breeds of different animals, “people thought this was the coolest thing ever!” she exclaims. “The coolest thing – well, before sliced bread!”

The Leicester Longwools, beloved of George Washington, had died out in the states until CW purchased a flock from Australia in the late 1980s. Nearly all the Longwools in the country today are likely descended from the Williamsburg flock.

There are several other rare breeds that CW works with, including varieties of horses, cattle and chickens. But none are so loved by visitors as the lambs.

Hefting the heavy lamb into a more comfortable position in her arms, Shirley recalls a recent birth a few weeks ago that had onlookers on the edge of their virtual seats.

The births of most lambs take place behind Wetherburn’s Tavern, in what Shirley laughingly calls the “maternity ward.”

She had a ewe going through an especially tough birth that day. The excited crowd was getting impatient, she says, with mothers and their kids wondering when the main event would happen – as though the visiting mothers had forgotten how long and unpredictable their own birth experiences were, Shirley jokes.

The ewe huffed and puffed and walked, she says, and panted and walked some more. This went on quite a while until the lamb finally began to emerge.

Shirley demonstrates the birth using the lamb sleeping in her arms, pulling its legs forward to show how they normally emerge, and pushing the lamb’s head to imitate the rest of the process that has been a part of Shirley’s life for so long it’s clearly like second nature to her.

The once-sleeping lamb, obviously irritated at having its nap interrupted, bleats at its surrogate mother.

The lamb born to the tired ewe with the eager crowd emerged and the ewe “laid there like she was dead,”  Shirley remembers, while nervous onlookers asked if Shirley needed their help. She chuckles. “The lamb and the ewe are just fine – but the lamb was 17 pounds!”

This is what took so long, she explains. Normally lambs weigh only a few pounds. This one was more than double the normal size.

Days after the birth, visitors were calling to see if the mother and her little one were okay, Shirley says.

After talking some more about all the work that goes into breeding sheep, Shirley admits, “Lambing is fun, but it’s hard work. The birth can be tough.”

So can being the caretaker for a needy baby lamb with no mother, but it’s all in a day’s work at the CW stables.

Finally, the baby lamb has to give up its snuggly napping spot as Shirley leaves to meet some animal specialists from the circus - yes, the circus - who have come to see CW’s famous stable. Her lambing work for the season isn’t done yet, not by a long shot, she says. Two more ewes are due by the end of the month.

To find out more about the Rare Breeds program or to schedule a “Bits and Bridles” tour, click here. To see the lambs, just look around the various pastures in the colonial area, or visit the “maternity ward” near Wetherburn’s Tavern.