Asha's Lamb-Along Spring 2026

[NatJ]

Two are a set of twins. I am wholly unimpressed with their mother who didn't clean them, or move to mother them, let alone nurse them. She's dead in half her udder so I pulled the plug and now her twins are my twins.

Do you keep some kind of records, so you know to watch for similar problems next year, or so you can choose to get rid of her?

 

[Asha_Gail]

Do you keep some kind of records, so you know to watch for similar problems next year, or so you can choose to get rid of her?

Yep! We used to do all paper (think printed Excel Spreadsheet) and it worked for decades till we came across a ewe who we'd had for 7 years and she never once lambed.

So we moved to RFID tags. (Digital) Its been a few years and we like it mostly, a few gripes but it allows us to easily see progeny and leave notes. It also allows us to note low producers, problem ewes, or ewes that are exceptional. We currently have a ewe with no milk, she'll be getting sold this year but we'll likely keep her progeny as she has a good history, age has simply caught up with her.

As for that ewe that just. Doesn't Care. I'm going to push for her being sold. I want our sheep to be self sufficient with reasonable exceptions. I shouldn't have to hold their hands- er, hooves to make sure they can keep their lambs alive. For both the ewes and the shepherd's sake I won't tolerate low quality anymore lol

I want our lambs happy and healthy, and our new records system is a stepping stone towards that goal I'd like to think. I've already made a lot of mental notes of 'keep her' 'sell that one' 'label her a good ewe'.

 

[Asha_Gail]

Feeding the 4 bottle babies is going surprisingly well! Sometimes they don't like the rubber nipple, especially if they've had a chance to be on the teet. Teet? Teat? Eh, I never claimed to be great at spelling...

Things are still slow, not many ewes giving birth a day, under 5 a day. During peak we could have up to if not 20 ewes a day. I suspect that the rush will come on Thursday.

Bottle Pen is partially up, though we have no milk replacer for our machine. My dad is making the calls about it. I'm looking forward to letting my little quartet roam once they're confident on the bottle. Honestly they already are! They've taken to it so so well which saves me so much headache lmao

We brought in a young ewe today who bit off the tails of her twins. It happens, we see it maybe once or twice a lambing. They get overzealous and excited, especially first timers or young ewes. Their instincts go nuts and they just. Chomp. This particular case was easily the worst I've ever seen. She really did a number on the poor things. The lambs seem fine, checked on them periodically and gave the ewe hay to hopefully get her to chill out. We decided to name her Hannibal!

 

[kattabelly]

Twins are what we get in majority. Then depending on the year we can have more triplets than singles, but usually the order goes Twins, Singles, followed closely by Triplets, and Quads.

Do you scan so you know what you're getting, or do you just wait and see?

 

[NatJ]

...had a chance to be on the teet. Teet? Teat? Eh, I never claimed to be great at spelling...

"Teat" is the correct spelling.

 

[Asha_Gail]

Do you scan so you know what you're getting, or do you just wait and see?

Kinda! We lamb twice a year, spring and fall. We do ultrasounds for the Fall Flock to see if they're pregnant. Anyone who isn't pregnant is moved to the spring flock.

We only do this with the fall flock at the moment because its 'out of season' breeding, so they're less likely to get pregnant and we do that to check to make sure they are. Spring lambing is 'in season' so there's no worries about low fertility. Though I do want to push for spring to be tested too, to catch any ewes or ewe lambs (first time mothers) who didn't get pregnant.

I'd like to start checking for singles, twins, triplets someday! I think we could adjust our feeding to help ewes with multiples better supoort their lambs in the womb and better prepare. (Maybe mark on the ewe how many she's carrying?)

As of right now it's always a surprise!

 

[kattabelly]

Kinda! We lamb twice a year, spring and fall. We do ultrasounds for the Fall Flock to see if they're pregnant. Anyone who isn't pregnant is moved to the spring flock.

We only do this with the fall flock at the moment because its 'out of season' breeding, so they're less likely to get pregnant and we do that to check to make sure they are. Spring lambing is 'in season' so there's no worries about low fertility. Though I do want to push for spring to be tested too, to catch any ewes or ewe lambs (first time mothers) who didn't get pregnant.

I'd like to start checking for singles, twins, triplets someday! I think we could adjust our feeding to help ewes with multiples better supoort their lambs in the womb and better prepare. (Maybe mark on the ewe how many she's carrying?)

As of right now it's always a surprise!

Interesting, thanks for the detailed reply.

At most of the lambing jobs I've worked, one of the reasons we scan is to be able to separate the singles and keep them somewhere close by. That way it's easy to grab a lamb either from the foster pen or from a ewe with trips/quads(/quints once!), and do a wet adoption when one of the singles starts to lamb.

 

[Asha_Gail]

Interesting, thanks for the detailed reply.

At most of the lambing jobs I've worked, one of the reasons we scan is to be able to separate the singles and keep them somewhere close by. That way it's easy to grab a lamb either from the foster pen or from a ewe with trips/quads(/quints once!), and do a wet adoption when one of the singles starts to lamb.

No problem, I'm a bit of a yapper

We've tried wet adoptions various times and while my father insists he's had it work, I've never once been successful with them. It's probably technique on my end, though I love hearing success stories for others!

Admittedly this year we had a ewe adopt a lamb naturally and that was a first for me. Normally the instincts calm down and they realize "woah. Not my kid. No thanks." But its been nigh a week and she's still nursing it and loving it. (Yay!)

And quints! We've had a handful of quads over the years but never quints! What breed of sheep were they if I may ask?

 

[kattabelly]

No problem, I'm a bit of a yapper

We've tried wet adoptions various times and while my father insists he's had it work, I've never once been successful with them. It's probably technique on my end, though I love hearing success stories for others!

Happy to give details of how we used to do it if you're interested, but I don't want to read like I've barged in on your thread and started telling you how do things! I'm really just here to enjoy the cute babies since I'm not doing any lambing work this year myself

Admittedly this year we had a ewe adopt a lamb naturally and that was a first for me. Normally the instincts calm down and they realize "woah. Not my kid. No thanks." But its been nigh a week and she's still nursing it and loving it. (Yay!)

And quints! We've had a handful of quads over the years but never quints! What breed of sheep were they if I may ask?

That place was running a mixed group of Lleyn, Texel and a couple of other breeds of tup that I always used to forget, over Lleyn ewes. They were generally great mums.

Occasionally if one wasn't being a very good mother at first, we'd try putting one of the sheepdogs in a crate in the pen / jug next door. Often that would either make her protective maternal instincts kick in, or she'd at least be distracted enough to stand and let the lambs get a drink without pushing them away.

 

[Asha_Gail]

Happy to give details of how we used to do it if you're interested, but I don't want to read like I've barged in on your thread and started telling you how do things! I'm really just here to enjoy the cute babies since I'm not doing any lambing work this year myself

Occasionally if one wasn't being a very good mother at first, we'd try putting one of the sheepdogs in a crate in the pen / jug next door. Often that would either make her protective maternal instincts kick in, or she'd at least be distracted enough to stand and let the lambs get a drink without pushing them away.

Oh please feel free to! Not all management systems work for everyone but sharing knowledge helps further us all in my opinion. Not many people have sheep where I'm located, let alone as many as I do, so often times other shepherds are the only source of knowledge and experience available! (Our local vets are completely inexperienced with sheep, so we're often our own vet)

Using a dog to help get those instincts going is brilliant! I'll have to try implementing that one of these days with our dog. He's no sheepdog but I think he'd do the trick XD