On 3/13, 15 days into lambing, I got a text about 2:30 a.m. from a friend/Farm Club member who wanted to let me know that a ewe I was watching had lambed. Farm Club members have the link to our barn cameras, and this same person alerted me to potential problems a couple other times.

I wanted to keep an eye on this Raquel because she is an older one and she had triplets last year. I found her with this lamb. My Jacob lambs weigh an average of 7.5 to 8 pounds, but this one was only 4.4 pounds. Tiny.

At the same time Jingle was in lambing.

Now I don’t remember the details, but this after the second lamb was born. She was 7.2 pounds. I think I helped with that one because it was taking awhile.

Jingle’s first lamb, 8.8 pounds, twice as big as Raquel’s first.

Jingle had her second quickly with no help from me. That one was 8.2 pounds. They were both covered with meconium. That’s an indication of fetal distress, but they seemed just fine.

Raquel’s third lamb. The second one was slow to get up.

Jingle’s lambs were on their feet quickly.

Raquel’s first and third lambs on their feet getting ready to nurse.

I set up a heat lamp in Raquel’s pen.

Jingle’s lambs nursed quickly. I moved them to a pen in the stall barn alley because all the others were full.

I thought that Raquel’s second lamb needed a boost to get going.

Usually I save some colostrum from one of the ewes early on in lambing just in case I need some. These were lambs 65 through 69 and I hadn’t saved any. Jingle was the perfect candidate for this because she has teats that look more like good size goat teats. I use the plastic cases that hold large syringes. They are perfect for milking into and for storage. I fed some of this to Raquel’s second lamb. I made sure that all lambs were nursing well before I went back to bed about 5:15.

Later that morning Lupine looked as though she was in labor.

At that point Raquel’s lambs were all fine.

They were nursing well and just had to take turns.

Lupine lambed with twins just before noon.

Aphrodite lambed with twins sire by the BFL ram. These lambs were 11.5 pounds each!