A month full of birth days
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by Amy Mertz
The Capital Times Newborn lambs delight crowds at farm near Oregon OREGON – Though it may seem a little brisk to celebrate a rite of spring, the calendar says it's time, and there's no changing it. March is when all the ewes at A-Z Farm deliver adorable, cuddly creatures just in time for Easter, when children have bunnies, chicks and lambs fresh on their minds. About 1,000 people–mostly small children and their parents or grandparents–visited Alice and Ray Antoniewicz's 37-acre farm just northeast of town on Sunday to see sheep and their newborn lambs, newly hatched chicks, rabbits, calves, pigs and more. Spectators also could buy wool pelts, blankets, yarn and free-range eggs. Eager newborns milled around clumsily, wasting no time putting their long legs to work and occasionally thrusting their heads into their mothers' teats. Others lay nestled in the crook of their moms' necks atop the hay. A 2-day-old basked in the rays of sun streaming through a small window. Soon-to-deliver pregnant ewes had feisty babies kicking and turning in their bellies, easily visible to the crowd. Two of the triplet lambs born at 1:30 a.m. Sunday were in a special pen with their mother. Sadly, one died at birth. The newborns sat in a doghouse-like structure with bright lights above them. One of the babies, wearing a blue and green polar fleece coat, was just 4 pounds. Alice Antoniewicz didn't know if it would survive, because most newborn lambs are at least 8 pounds. In fact, at A-Z Farm, the average newborn is between 12 and 19 pounds. |
 DAVID SANDELL/THE CAPITAL TIMES
"With a little luck, it'll pull through," she said, adding that the mother was only a year old, and that makes smaller offspring more likely. A-Z Farm has been opening up to the public each Sunday in March for six years, Alice said. Last Easter drew about 1,600 people to the farm, said Troy Antoniewicz, who lives south of Stoughton on a farmette with a couple of sheep of his own. He and his wife are hoping to take on the farm when his parents call it quits. |