[Haylo-peapod]

The morning started off well, went into the barn to be greeted by a ewe and two brand new ewe lambs that had just been born and were already up and looking for the milk bar.

Then went into the field where I found a ewe with the head of a dead lamb hanging from her rear end. Not such a good start afterall. I hadn't expected this ewe to lamb for another 17 days based on the fact she appeared to have been covered a second time by the ram. Well I guess she must have taken on the first mating after all and was being a flousy 17 days later.

So, with a new set of twins in the barn, in the interest of ewes and lambs I decided to take a gamble and try my first ever adoption. I'd never had the occasion before as my flock had been too small to ever be in a similar scenario.  We lambed the dead lamb over the top of one of the twins and fortunately managed to fool the second ewe who started licking the lamb and 'talking' to it straight away. Result!

I'll keep a special eye on them both for the next day or two but it seems my gamble has paid off.

It seems I'm having quite a few 'firsts' this year.

[MrsJ]

Well done!  We've not been able to try this yet as all of ours have come too far apart.

[Fleecewife]

Make sure the two ewes are out of earshot of eachother.  Ewes and lambs recognise eachother by sound as well as by smell and sight and you don't want the original mother trying to get her lamb back, or the lamb confused as to who is her mum.

[suziequeue]

Gosh - exciting times. Keep us posted peapod.

[Haylo-peapod]

Make sure the two ewes are out of earshot of eachother.  Ewes and lambs recognise eachother by sound as well as by smell and sight and you don't want the original mother trying to get her lamb back, or the lamb confused as to who is her mum.

Good tip - thanks for that Fleecewife, unfortunately our barn isn't big enough to keep them out of earshot. Fortunately the adoption has been a great success. The adoptive Mum seems to love her new addition - I just need to make sure she doesn't squash the lamb as she lies so close to it. The biological Mum didn't fret at all about the lamb being taken - I think it may have helped the fact that the adopted twin was less than an hour old.....or maybe I was just very lucky.