Thursday marks the first day of the Chinese New Year, and the lunar calendar says we are welcoming the Year of the Sheep (or goat, depending on your translation). According to the Chinese zodiac, the sheep or goat is a yin energy, “a symbol of peace, harmonious coexistence, and tranquility.”
The Island is well on its way in celebrating, with the recent birth of two new goats at Scapegoat Goatscaping on Jan. 29 and 10 new lambs in the past three days at the FARM Institute.
On Saturday the FARM Institute welcomed one of the lambs just minutes before its “Wool Ewe Be Mine” event, which commemorated lambing season and the farm’s newest arrivals, on Valentine’s Day. Visitors were greeted with rich homemade hot chocolate upon entering the barnyard nursery, where they mingled with more than 67 ewe and lambs on display.
Walking through the nursery, you could interact with lambs as young as a few days and as old as 9 to 10 years, like Daisy, the farm’s oldest sheep, who is in her last year of breeding out of respect for her health.
The animals mulled around the pen, some eating hay, some young latched onto their mothers or chasing them down in attempts to feed. Other lambs were spotted headbutting their mother’s udders to “shake down” more milk.
As soon as a lamb is born it should nurse, within the first hour, and will continue to nurse every two to three hours thereafter. In most cases the newborns can stand up within minutes of birth, allowing them to naturally latch onto their mother for feeding. “We’re here to help if they need it, but most do it on their own. Lambs are born with more innate knowledge than humans,” explained education director Tim Connelly.
Inside the nursery, the youngest of the lambs sat beside their mothers in “jugs,” or individual fenced-in areas where they nurse and bond with their kin. This initial intimate time is formative in building a relationship and understanding between ewe and lamb before the lamb is introduced to the larger herd. This is also where lambs come to recognize their mother’s unique bleat or “baa.” The bleats of individual sheep are distinctive, allowing the ewe and her lambs to know each other’s sounds.
In another area, some 20 pregnant ewe were contained, and are expected to complete their five-month gestations and contribute to the farm’s lamb population by March.
The more aggressive male sheep (rams or bucks) sat isolated in their own pen, and will remain separated until it’s time to conceive again. “There’s a good community of sharing rams and bulls on the Island,” said Mr. Connelly. The FARM Institute shares livestock with other farms on-Island for breeding purposes, and it maintains extensive records and tagging systems to prevent inbreeding.
Along with the sights, it was impossible to ignore the sounds. There was a symphony of “baas,” from the deep sounds of the older ewe to the higher-pitched sounds the young lambs were producing. It was the same syllable heard 67 different ways.
The FARM Institute nursery will be open weekly on Wednesday and Saturdays from 2:45 pm to 3:30 pm through March 14, for visits to “Katama’s Little Bo Sheep.” For additional information, visit farminstitute.org or call 508-627-7007.
Featherstone had its own event celebrating the Year of the Sheep scheduled for this past weekend, but it was postponed to Feb. 22 due to weather conditions. The opening reception of “2015 I Love Ewe: Year of the Sheep” will celebrate the Chinese New Year with a gallery transformed in honor of the gentle animals. Sheep are also known to be creative, intelligent, artistic, and sincere; qualities that helped inspire a mixed-media show with artwork from various artists. The exhibit will also include spinning demonstrations and sheep cupcakes. “2015 I Love Ewe: Year of the Sheep” takes place at Featherstone from 4 to 6 pm on Sunday, Feb. 22.
Additionally, on Saturday, Feb. 21, from 2 pm to 4 pm, the children’s department at the Edgartown library will usher in the Year of the Sheep during its annual celebration of the Chinese New Year. The event features the Dragon Parade, a favorite and colorful part of the party each year, along with lantern making and fortune cookies for all.
So what will ewe do to celebrate this New Year?
