We were surprised to find that one of our ewes birthed two little ram lambs about a week before Christmas. The reason I say “surprised” is that most of our lambs are born in the Spring. For the last two years, we’ve experimented with “out of season breeding”. Not having any luck with breeding out of season last year, we really weren’t expecting too much to happen this year. And what’s interesting about expectant ewes, is that it’s hard to tell they are expecting until right before they drop without special ultrasound equipment. So, we quickly jumped into action and got the ewe and her two little ram lambs into the barn. Moving them to the barn temporary allows us to weigh the lambs and monitor them for a few days to ensure bonding occurs between mom and babies.
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| Day old lambs with mother |
Then… we had another surprise. Brian went out to check the flock first thing in the morning and noticed that one of our ewes was in great distress while birthing. He called me down to the pasture to help assist. It was not looking good for the ewe. Fortunately, Brian was able to help with the delivery which saved the ewe’s life, but it was too late for her lamb. We got her to her feet as quickly as possible and got her to the barn to monitor her for a few days as well.
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| Month old lambs with surrogate mother |
So now we have two lactating ewes and two lambs in our barn. The result… the Butterball Brothers! This is what we’ve named the two – what were little – ram lambs in our barn. Both ewes share the mothering of these two rams. Instead of one supplier of milk that they had to share, they now have two sources of milk on demand. Needless to say, both guys are packing the pounds on very quickly and will soon be too heavy to lift.
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| The Butterball Brothers |
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