[Pedwardine]

 Betsy and Brooke were due on the same day. OH came down for night duty at 1am to find two lambs and the two girls both mothering them. Calamity! Which was which He called me (I'd had 2 hours' sleep so wasn't entirely on the ball) It seemed each was favouring a particular lamb so we penned them up with one each. Only THEN did we think to look at the scan results and see who had been expecting what. Brooke was due twins and Betsy a single. They were both Brooke's. Of course then it also dawned on us that Betsy's back end was completely dry, no baby juices at all  We then had the task of removing Betsy's 'baby' and putting it with Brooke who was more than a little relieved. Betsy however was utterly devastated and kept trying to jump out of her pen to get to her 'baby'. It took rather a long time to calm her down. Each time her 'baby' baaed she called back. Never seen anything like it  OH suggested putting Betsy behind the high gate of the shelter in our lambing yard but I figured she would have hurt herself trying to get out so I just held her and soothed her as best as I could until she lost the sense of panic. When she was eating rolls and haylage eagerly we figured she had let go of her untimely mothering instinct. Of course then Brooke had an unexpected third!! Dunno if we could have mothered one off on Betsy after all. Mind you she's the size of a house so if there is a single it's a ruddy big one 

[suziequeue]

More exciting than Eastenders 

[Pedwardine]

Tell me about it!!

[Fleecewife]

We have had similar things happening, especially when the two ewes are related.  Usually the second ewe is about to lamb herself, which solves the problem.

[robert waddell]

we had that once with cows one had twins and this other one adopted one (she was due in a few days) unfortunately her calve was dead  so we just let her have her choice of calve  no fighting

[MrsJ]

It's always the same, when you want them to foster, they won't!! 

Glad you managed to get the lamb back with it's real mum otherwise there might have been a problem when Betsy had hers. 

[Remy]

Never a dull moment with sheep is there Amanda!  Glad you managed to resolve things fairly peacefully!  I've never had such an unpredictable time as this year.  I had to make a short visit down south for family reasons and left hubby in charge of the foster ewe and cades, giving him strict instructions which he was happy with.  I checked all the pregnant ewes to make sure no-one had started labour or looked imminent before I went.

I then got a call from hubby yesterday evening to say foster ewe and lambs were okay and that a Gotland had a lamb.    Well the Gotlands weren't due till next weekend!  I said ' What, only one - she should be having twins??"  He said only one, I said is it clean?  What is the ewe doing? Does she have anything coming out of her rear end??  He replied, the lamb is clean, it's lying down, and she has gone off to graze.  I said, 'But she is having twins, she must be having another one!'.  I made him go off and inspect the ewe and lamb, and was getting quite worried, till he came back and said, there is another one by the hedge!  Both are fine, one is now suckling.  Phew was I relieved, you'll be pleased to hear Dixie now has a healthy ram and ewe lamb with no help and I cant wait to see them later today 

[sabrina]

Had this with a mare who had to be kept away from the others for a few days after she foaled. She would feed other foals and keep them away from the mums. Caused havoc.

[Pedwardine]

So glad to hear Dixie's managed her first two ok. Bless her. None of our first timers have started yet but Dodie's looking a bit imminent.

[plt102]

We have a bit of the same problem. Our first ewe to lamb was a first timer and so were we. I think we mucked her about a bit too much as the lamb was suckling on her wool and we had to give her a trim etc. She didn't take too good care of lamby but she was managing. Her mum then had a lamb with no problem and the first lamb started to copy the new one. The first lamb now seems to happily suckle from mum and daughter (perhaps daughter doesn't have much milk) and the mum seems to do most of the mothering while her daughter only does her duty when the lamb is hungry. We have another mum and daughter due soon so I wonder if the same will happen. I don't want to interfere too much as they all seem to be happy with the arrangement.

[SteveHants]

Sheep do seem to form little 'creches' of young with other 'aunties' looking after a whole lot of lambs for a while - I saw one of my ewes with about 10 of them yesterday, observing with binoculars. Funny, how when you then get into the field, everyone finds their mum very quickly....

[Bramblecot]

Sheep do seem to form little 'creches' of young with other 'aunties' looking after a whole lot of lambs for a while - I saw one of my ewes with about 10 of them yesterday, observing with binoculars. Funny, how when you then get into the field, everyone finds their mum very quickly....

I watched our young ram the other evening as it was getting dark, he has stayed with the ewes and lambs and has proved a real gent.  We have an old hay bale for the lambs to play on - he was jumping on and off with a gang of 6 lambs with him, with all the mums taking a rest.  Lovely sight.

[Brijjy]

One of the Wilts lambed during the night, the same time as an old Jacob x ewe. The Jacob x decided to adopt both lambs as her own and kept pushing the wilts ewe away. By the time we saw them in the morning, both lambs were happily suckling the old ewe and the Wilts was desperately trying to get out of the lambing shed. Luckily she hasn't developed mastitis and seems happy enough lambless. Sheep will think of anything to confound you!

[Pedwardine]

They don't play by the rules do they! Lovely story about your gentleman ram Bramblecot. We have a ewe, Bethanie, who takes on the babysitting role every year. You could hardly see her under the mountain of lambs jumping on and off her one time. She just resigned herself to it, no bother