Four sets of twins

It was a beautiful day for lambing here at the a3farm and indeed lots of lambing was done.

Four different ewes delivered twins. All the ewes from the new bunch we bought last spring, all had had lambs before but not here. They had been on a winter lambing schedule at the Oak Lane Farm where we got them. Most are three year olds.

Ewe 103 had twin ewe lambs.

Ewe 419 also had twin ewe lambs.

Ewe 432 had twin ram lambs.

Ewe 435 had one of each.

Ewe 435 was the first one this year that needed any help.

My bride went to check the sheep just at daybreak while I was working on my first cup of coffee. She came back in saying she needed help. The lamb needed to be pulled and the momma sheep wasn’t going to stand still and cooperate.

The first lamb, the female as it turned out, had one front leg tucked back under her. She had her head and one front hoof out and got stuck right about there.

The mother is rather small and still had a second lamb in her so there was no room to reach around and straighten things out. I have great big hands, which didn’t help.

New lambs are built like gumby dolls, flexible in ways that you never expect. That’s a good thing at times like this. For a while I thought that leg was attached to a different lamb, but eventually I decided it was the right front leg of the lamb that had emerged to its shoulder.

Eventually I got her eased all the way out and as far as I could tell she had all the usual parts in the usual places. She was still breathing too.

I set her over by the mothers head, and after mom rested a while she decided she could take it from there. She started cleaning the lamb, and then had the other one a few minutes later without problem.

We didn't get pictures of everything. The picture here is one of the group from yesterday, but I'm not sure which one.