[waterbuffalofarmer]

Went out this morning, a little later than usual as I was tied down with milking. One of them had given a single and another triplets, the other one gave twins. All lambs are well and healthy and lively! The one which had a triplet had let the ewe with the single adopt it with her own lamb, so alls well that ends well, plus it had a full belly. The ewe which had the single is no stranger to adopting lambs, she reared an adopted lamb last year. The friesland cross welsh had 3 males, good as well as I never intended to keep her offspring, it looks as if more lambs for the freezer at the end of the year! The one who gave a single, a now adoptee mother to the triplet, gave a nice female, the one with twins, was a pet lamb herself and second lamber pedigree Lleyn, gave a male and a female. All is brilliant and I feel great. I am going to head out there in a bit to check on them. In the meantime here are some piccies of the babies with their mommies! https://twitter.com/Tammypuddleduck

[fsmnutter]

I take it they were scanned as a triplet, twin and single?
They look remarkably like three sets of twins.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

No they weren't scanned as there are only 3 of them. I know when they were mated by the ram, as I marked it down on the calendar. I do feed them hay, ad lib, and wheatbeet, but in moderation, I knew that at least one of them had trips in her because of her size. When I bought the friesland x welsh in, she was unbeknownst to me, in lamb. The one who did give a single, I examined her lambs closly and I found one of them had been adopted by her, because she is a pure pedigree Lleyn and her lamb is out of a really good Lleyn tup, the other lamb, the one she had off the one who had trips, had brown hair on its shoulder and looked identical to the its two siblings. Still she has done me a favour it save mes rearing him myself! Aren't sheep wonderful. All of them have been really healthy and wormed during pregnancy and the lambs are really lively, as are the mothers.

[fsmnutter]

You can't tell if a ewe is carrying more lambs by her size, they can hold them in different ways and carry more or less fluid.
Also looks, without genetic testing cannot confirm parentage. They can be mated by two different fathers, I've pulled texel and Suffolk twins out the same ewe.
Unless you saw every lamb born, which it sounds like you arrived after all had been born, the most likely explanation is three sets of twins, as ewes rarely naturally adopt a strange lamb by coincidence.
Either way, you now have three sets of twins, so that's fine.

[pharnorth]

I was convinced two of mine were carrying twins last year and one a single because of size, no scanning.  When they arrived it was completely the other way round.  The 'Twins' we're both single large lambs and the 'single' was a nice pair of twins.  Ho hum.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

You can't tell if a ewe is carrying more lambs by her size, they can hold them in different ways and carry more or less fluid.
Also looks, without genetic testing cannot confirm parentage. They can be mated by two different fathers, I've pulled texel and Suffolk twins out the same ewe.
Unless you saw every lamb born, which it sounds like you arrived after all had been born, the most likely explanation is three sets of twins, as ewes rarely naturally adopt a strange lamb by coincidence.
Either way, you now have three sets of twins, so that's fine.

I have had it happen a few times with ewes. This lamb is definately from the other ewe, all of her lambs are identical to it and he looks completely different to the single mothers lamb, Lleyn lambs have no brown on them whatsoever. I was speaking to the guy who sold me the welsh x friesland ewe and he said that she was in with male torddu lambs and when she was with us she never even went to the tup, as he was in with the big flock by then, she was in a field with cull ewes no ram lambs in sight. The ewe who gave the single I adopted one onto her last year, or rather she adopted it by herself, she bonded with it immediately, so she is an extremely good mother and very patient, she is one which would let a lot of lambs suckle off her, so I will have to keep an eye on her. I know pharnorth I have had that too, but with my ewes I can usually tell if they're carrying trips or quads, mostly they look biggish, but never that big unless they're carry trips or quads.

[Sbom]

A lucky outcome for sure.

We lamb 600 here and if I could tell how many they were having by their size we'd save a fortune on scanning!!

[verdifish]

You can't tell if a ewe is carrying more lambs by her size, they can hold them in different ways and carry more or less fluid.
Also looks, without genetic testing cannot confirm parentage. They can be mated by two different fathers, I've pulled texel and Suffolk twins out the same ewe.
Unless you saw every lamb born, which it sounds like you arrived after all had been born, the most likely explanation is three sets of twins, as ewes rarely naturally adopt a strange lamb by coincidence.
Either way, you now have three sets of twins, so that's fine.

I have had it happen a few times with ewes. This lamb is definately from the other ewe, all of her lambs are identical to it and he looks completely different to the single mothers lamb, Lleyn lambs have no brown on them whatsoever. I was speaking to the guy who sold me the welsh x friesland ewe and he said that she was in with male torddu lambs and when she was with us she never even went to the tup, as he was in with the big flock by then, she was in a field with cull ewes no ram lambs in sight. The ewe who gave the single I adopted one onto her last year, or rather she adopted it by herself, she bonded with it immediately, so she is an extremely good mother and very patient, she is one which would let a lot of lambs suckle off her, so I will have to keep an eye on her. I know pharnorth I have had that too, but with my ewes I can usually tell if they're carrying trips or quads, mostly they look biggish, but never that big unless they're carry trips or quads.

I'm sorry wbf, I've been trying to bite my tounge but your post is ridiculous, no one and I mean no one can look at a ewe and say wether it's carrying 1,2, , 3 or 4 lambs please don't think you are special and can.  Also no one and yet again I mean no one can look at lambs and say that lamb belongs to that ewe unless they have witnessed the birth. .  You have been told this by enough people, vets, farmers with many many years farming experience but you still deny your possibly wrong.  Give your head a shake please.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

[member=27351]verdifish[/member] I have been keeping sheep for a long time, I know my ewes like the back of my hand I know their habits everything about them you can possibly know. I did have a sneeking suspicion that she was carrying 3, believe me she was huge and non of my sheep have ever been that big and only given twins; having said that sometimes it can be difficult to tell and for that reason I am going to start scanning them next year, to be doubly sure! I knew she was because she had been running with Torddu ram lambs before I bought her, according to the previous owner he said they were wethers, but it seems like one of them wasn't done properly, she wasn't with any ram or in the vicinity of any ram when she came to me. I also know for a fact that the one with the single had adopted that other lamb. I looked closley at the friesland x welsh ewes lambs and they were identical to that lamb in size shape and by the curly hair with the brown tuft on the neck, which both the two lambs from the friesland x welsh sported. I knew that it wasn't a pure pedigree Lleyn, which both her and the lamb she produced where as she had been running with my top Lleyn tup and I have no cross-breed ram of any sort on the holding, my neighbours fields are way to far away and the field she was in was in sight of my house, so I would know if either she got out or something got in as I am reguarlarly inspecting them (about 3-4 times daily). Also that ewe willingly adopted a lamb onto herself last year, after she had lost hers via a difficult birth and I had an orphaned lamb needing a mum, sadly I couldn't save it however that's a different story entirely.  She happens to be one of my best sheep and the best mother in the flock too, although some others rank pretty high.

[Fleecewife]

Do you think what has happened here is that the ewe with the single stole the third triplet from its dam before she herself lambed, then had her own?  We have had some lamb thefts by ewes early in their labour, who are full of hormones and primed to love a lamb and seem to be happy to take over a newborn even if it's not hers and she hasn't yet given birth.  It's a blooming nuisance mostly but seems to have worked out perfectly for you WBF 

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Yes i think that youre right fleecewife. Problem happens though when a sheep steals a lamb and then has two herself. I had a case like that years ago and youre right it is a nusience, im just thankfull that this turned out well. All the best with lambing everyone and cant wait to have the cutest lamb comp