It Was Mother's Day For Sure!

Wild Rose Farm #401 With Triplets & "Granny" Ewe #404

We had a beautiful, sunny, mid-60's day here at Wild Rose Farm. It turned into a Mother's Day celebration in the pastures!  It started off with Rambouillet ewe #401 having a set of triplet ewe lambs by 9:30AM.  She was accompanied by "granny" ewe, Rambouillet #404 from the pasture up to the barn. We've learned to just let these granny ewes come along with the lambs and then separate them off once we get the real mother & her lambs penned up in the barn. An experienced granny ewe moves in on newborn lambs and tries steal them from a young ewe. In this case, with another experienced ewe, she sticks right there cleaning off the lambs, but #401 doesn't let any of them get taken away from her. Readers may recall that #401 raised a set of triplets last year too!

We separated #404 off and sent her back out to the pasture, bleating loudly for a baby lamb. In the barn I got knocked down as I backed out of her way and suffered a bruised elbow, bruised ego, & a bump to the back of the head on the wall when I hit the ground ... it was not graceful, but I was back on my feet quickly.  Sheesh.

Ewe #131 With Twin Ewe Lambs

 Next up was ewe #131 with a set of twin ewe lambs at 11AM ... she kept scratching her bedding into the corners as you can see above.  Then we worked with ewe #141 around noon. This is her first time lambing and she had a nice set of twins - one ewe lamb & one ram lamb

Ewe #141 Following Nicely After Her Lambs To The Barn At Noon

Meanwhile, in the pond paddock, Rambouillet ewe #404 - the granny! - had delivered her own set of twin ewe lambs. No wonder she was so eager to mother up the other lambs in the morning! 

Rambouillet Ewe #404 Following Twin Ewe Lambs To The Barn

We let her bond with her lambs for a while in the grass since it was such a nice sunny day. You'll notice in these pics, I'm following along or leading while closing & opening gates and doors ... :)

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet Ewe #404 Cleaning Lambs

Last, but not least, our #99 ewe had a set of big twin ram lambs in the pasture around 3PM. We had been watching her since late morning when she started to separate herself off from the other ewes.

Ewe #99 Coming In With Her Twin Rams

Tonight we also replaced a missing flock ear tag for #99 and we painted numbers on all of the new lambs to keep them straight with their mothers.  That's it until the midnight check ...