Spring is a time of rebirth in nature, and nowhere in DuPage County is that likely more evident, or literal, than the DuPage Forest Preserve’s Kline Creek Farm in West Chicago.

The 1890s living history farm has been welcoming newborn Southdown lambs over the last few weeks and is expecting the arrival of several calves in the coming weeks. The public is welcome to visit the newborns and may have a chance to witness a birth.
“We leave the doors open and visitors can come in and watch everything,” said the farm’s agricultural specialist Mark Johnson. “They tend to go into labor at about feeding time just before we close. We had about 30 visitors stay after hours to watch a birth last week.”

He said visitors are mesmerized by watching a birth, because many of them grew up in the suburbs and have never seen such a thing.

“They will stay from the moment the first leg pops out until the calve is nursing,”

Johnson said. “It tends to put things into a different perspective if you have never seen it before.”

He said many parents use the opportunity to teach their children about the birds and the bees.

“It’s a great a time for parents to have ‘that’ talk with their children,” he said. “While some of these animals may end up on someone’s dinner plate, we can still use them as a vehicle to teach us something about ourselves.”

The lambing season began in late January, and one more ewes is expected to give birth around Friday, March 16. Johnson said as the days grow shorter the sheep go into heat and the farmers will allow a ram into their pen. He said the timing is nature’s way of ensuring the newborn comes about the time spring arrives.

The calves are expected to be born between mid-April through first week of May, Johnson said. He said the farm usually uses artificial insemination using a special pen to hold the cow in place and a rubber glove. One time Johnson said he was in the middle of the procedure when a mother and daughter came up and started asking him questions. He said he took the opportunity to educate them about reproductive process for livestock.

This year the farm decided to just rent a bull.

The farm sells off is extra pure-breed short horn and Black Angus cattle and Southdown sheep. The thoroughbreds go to farms for breeding and the not so pure get sold to market, Johnson said.

Sheep sheering
April is typically when farmers would sheer the winter wool off their sheep to make clothing. On Saturday, April 14, and Sunday, April 15, the farm will host a local spinners guild to demonstrate how the wool can be spun into yarn. There will also be a Border Collie sheep herding demonstration.

Kline Creek Farm is open Thursdays through Mondays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The farm outbuildings close at 4:30 p.m. The farm is on the west side of County Farm Road, a half-mile south of North Avenue.

For more information, call (630) 876-5900.