Our First Quadruplets
Well we had a “first” today on the farm; we had our first set of quadruplets and it definitely took us by surprise.
Around 5 pm I noticed a ewe had just given birth to two lambs out in our lambing paddock. Great I thought, twins. So after I finished weighing the lambs we had already moved into the barn, I went over to get the twins and the ewe to lead them into the barn. As I got closer I noticed these were pretty small twins for this ewe. This particular ewe is a big and strong gal we call “Tank,” because, first, she’s big when she’s not pregnant, but when she is, she is huge. But what has been great about her is that she milks well too, and since we bought her she’s been having triplets and provides the milk the lambs need to get to weight at weaning.
Again, these two were a little small, and they really felt light as I was carrying them. So once I got her and the lambs to the barn I figured I’d let her get settled in and then I’d get the weights. But after a while I noticed she was getting agitated and began to walk in a circle. Well, I thought to myself, “sure enough the last triplet was on the way.” But I thought it was odd because now it was almost 6:30 pm and the last lamb would have normally been born no more than 30 minutes of the second.
Well within about 10 minutes out came the third lamb without any problem. So after a while I walked up to the house to give Beth the tally for the day. We talked for a bit and she said she wanted to go down to look over the lambs. Well when we got to Tank’s jug she counted four lambs. Beth said, “I think there’s something wrong here there’s four lambs in here; maybe one of the others slipped in?” But after a quick count of the other jugs all the lambs were there, sure enough the four were all Tank’s. So here we are with quadruplets. Right now we are kicking around a few ideas about how we are going to get these lambs to weight for weaning. But it’s like everything else on the farm, we’ll find a way.
Around 5 pm I noticed a ewe had just given birth to two lambs out in our lambing paddock. Great I thought, twins. So after I finished weighing the lambs we had already moved into the barn, I went over to get the twins and the ewe to lead them into the barn. As I got closer I noticed these were pretty small twins for this ewe. This particular ewe is a big and strong gal we call “Tank,” because, first, she’s big when she’s not pregnant, but when she is, she is huge. But what has been great about her is that she milks well too, and since we bought her she’s been having triplets and provides the milk the lambs need to get to weight at weaning.
Again, these two were a little small, and they really felt light as I was carrying them. So once I got her and the lambs to the barn I figured I’d let her get settled in and then I’d get the weights. But after a while I noticed she was getting agitated and began to walk in a circle. Well, I thought to myself, “sure enough the last triplet was on the way.” But I thought it was odd because now it was almost 6:30 pm and the last lamb would have normally been born no more than 30 minutes of the second.Well within about 10 minutes out came the third lamb without any problem. So after a while I walked up to the house to give Beth the tally for the day. We talked for a bit and she said she wanted to go down to look over the lambs. Well when we got to Tank’s jug she counted four lambs. Beth said, “I think there’s something wrong here there’s four lambs in here; maybe one of the others slipped in?” But after a quick count of the other jugs all the lambs were there, sure enough the four were all Tank’s. So here we are with quadruplets. Right now we are kicking around a few ideas about how we are going to get these lambs to weight for weaning. But it’s like everything else on the farm, we’ll find a way.
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