Spring arrives, and with it, a new lamb
Colonial Williamsburg welcomes baby, with a few more on the way
WILLIAMSBURG — Cherry blossom trees are blooming, the weather is getting warmer and the sun is setting later. Spring is here, and with it, Colonial Williamsburg’s firstborn lamb of 2024.
Though it may not look like it, the lamb — a female — has been working hard since being born March 13. Her days consist of lounging in a pasture under the close watch of her mother with the occasional playful burst.
Referred to as “24-1” for the year and order she in which she was born, the lamb excites children and adults as she lounges and nurses in the shade. Her mother — “21-18” — gives caretakers space when they need to get to her baby, but she’s always keeping a watchful eye.
There are five more expectant sheep at Colonial Williamsburg, and that could mean anywhere from five to a dozen more lambs this year.
“We don’t know what we’re getting, but we’re expecting at least five more to give birth,” Darin Durham said.
Durham, a journeyman husbander with the coach and livestock department, helps to care for the Colonial Williamsburg animals. He said if they get an ultrasound at the right time, they can predict the number and gender of lambs in each birth. But at a certain point, they get too big for a good reading and workers just have to wait and see what they get.
The new lamb and her mother are Leicester longwool sheep, which were reintroduced to the United States by Colonial Williamsburg in the 1980s, according to Durham. The sheep in the ’80s came from Tasmania.
There are about 35 of the sheep at Colonial Williamsburg, and roughly 200 in the country.
The animals are part of Colonial Williamsburg’s rare breed program, which aims to bring more life and 18th-century flair to the historic site. There are also cattle and horses in therarebreedsprogram.
One of the types of cattle are milking shorthorns, and some of the cattle are trained to be oxen — those that work. Cleveland Bay horses are an old English breed of horse that are also part of the rare breeds program.
Durham said the animals are rotated through different pastures on the property.
“Our sheep, our cattle, all of our animals pretty much live normal, happy lives,” he said. “They are outdoor animals — they live outside. If we have really bad weather, we can accommodate bringing them indoors, but for the most part, they’re just content and happy to be outside as can be.”
Most of the animals are rather hardy breeds, and there are not many issues for the staff. But one thing Durham wanted to caution visitors about: Do not feed them.
“We have had problems with that before, because not everything that grows around here is safe to feed,” he said.
Some Cleveland Bay horses are expected to be born in the next couple months, and a calf named Uno was born earlier in the year, according to Thomas Stover, supervisor of the livestock program.
He said the Cleveland Bays can be a bit more difficult maintenance-wise, but the staff works diligently to ensure their health.
The sheep, though rather unneedy, need to be sheared as shedding has been bred out of them over centuries, Stover said. If the sheep are not shorn, their wool will grow over their eyes and weigh them down, wasting energy that
could be spent on staying warm.
He said they sell some of the raw fleeces from the sheep, but many of them go to the spinners and weavers at Colonial Williamsburg.