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We had our first ewe lamb of the season and she had 6 babies which was way more than we’ve ever had before. I got there, she’d had one and was delivering the second already. Numbers 3 and 4 were. Literally like the same push and then I thought we were done and then after about 10 more minutes she lay down again and I was like oh my gosh, I think she’s gonna have another one and sure enough like *** couple minutes after that she had number 5 so I was certain that we were well and truly done at that point. Got them all into the barn and was kind of working on just making sure they were all getting really dry and she lay down again. I was like it’s *** little early for her to be delivering the placenta, but she had 6. Then I was like, oh my gosh, are we gonna have like when does this end? But thankfully after that she was, she was done. There was *** study of finn sheep. There was 950 fin sheep, and there was one set of 6 pts in that group. And so as part of the analysis of that, they said maybe it’s 1 in 1000 or maybe they just captured *** rarer event than that, but it’s probably at most 1 in 1000. We’ve kind of formally named them the like the Finnish names 1 through 6 because they’re half been sheep. They’re so sweet. It’s like therapy just like sitting out here and. And spending time with them, and they’re just such wonderful animals. The 6 of them will just frolic all around and yeah, they’re just, they’re doing so great.
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Anne O’Connor just kept counting sheep, and it made her anything but sleepy.A sheep owned by O’Connor, who runs Clover & Bee Farm in Underhill, Vermont, with her husband, Gunnar, gave birth to a rare batch of six lambs earlier this month. The sextuplets and their mother are all doing well, making the lamb windfall even more remarkable.See footage of the sheep in the video player above.The same ewe previously had quadruplets, and while a recent checkup indicated she would have two lambs this time, O’Connor suspected more. When the big day came, the baby lambs seemed to have kept coming and coming, she said.“I was a little bit suspicious, just given how big she was and that she was going a little earlier, that she might have more than two,” she said. “Six is great, but it’s definitely — it’s plenty.”Sources differ on how uncommon sheep sextuplets are, with O’Connor putting the number around 1 in 1,000 and some agricultural websites placing it at one in a million or higher. O’Connor said she has been in touch with the Vermont Sheep & Goat Association about the births, and the group found only one other shepherd had a sheep give birth to so many lambs.“They do take longer to reach full body weight, but most do just fine,” said Kristen Judkins of Gilead Fiber Farm, who owned a ewe that had sextuplets three years in a row, in an email. “You have to keep an eye on them for the first few weeks to make sure they are getting enough to eat.”The lambs, which are partially the Finnsheep breed, are named the numbers one through six in Finnish. Their mother is named Teemu after Finnish hockey player and Hockey Hall of Famer Teemu Selänne. The O’Connors plan to keep the four ewes and find homes for the two male lambs.The farm raises sheep for wool and also grows herbs and berries. It’s headed for its fifth summer raising sheep. The flock is booming — along with two other recent babies, the six new lambs have brought the total up to 21. And five ewes are currently pregnant.Teemu’s breeding days are likely not over. She’ll be allowed a respite, but odds are good she’ll have more lambs in the future, O’Connor said.“She’s a great mom, she’s doing awesome with this,” O’Connor said. “She’s still very much in her reproductive years, so probably a year or more and she’ll just, you know, be able to put her hooves up.”
Anne O’Connor just kept counting sheep, and it made her anything but sleepy.
A sheep owned by O’Connor, who runs Clover & Bee Farm in Underhill, Vermont, with her husband, Gunnar, gave birth to a rare batch of six lambs earlier this month. The sextuplets and their mother are all doing well, making the lamb windfall even more remarkable.
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See footage of the sheep in the video player above.
The same ewe previously had quadruplets, and while a recent checkup indicated she would have two lambs this time, O’Connor suspected more. When the big day came, the baby lambs seemed to have kept coming and coming, she said.
“I was a little bit suspicious, just given how big she was and that she was going a little earlier, that she might have more than two,” she said. “Six is great, but it’s definitely — it’s plenty.”
Sources differ on how uncommon sheep sextuplets are, with O’Connor putting the number around 1 in 1,000 and some agricultural websites placing it at one in a million or higher. O’Connor said she has been in touch with the Vermont Sheep & Goat Association about the births, and the group found only one other shepherd had a sheep give birth to so many lambs.
“They do take longer to reach full body weight, but most do just fine,” said Kristen Judkins of Gilead Fiber Farm, who owned a ewe that had sextuplets three years in a row, in an email. “You have to keep an eye on them for the first few weeks to make sure they are getting enough to eat.”
The lambs, which are partially the Finnsheep breed, are named the numbers one through six in Finnish. Their mother is named Teemu after Finnish hockey player and Hockey Hall of Famer Teemu Selänne. The O’Connors plan to keep the four ewes and find homes for the two male lambs.
The farm raises sheep for wool and also grows herbs and berries. It’s headed for its fifth summer raising sheep. The flock is booming — along with two other recent babies, the six new lambs have brought the total up to 21. And five ewes are currently pregnant.
Teemu’s breeding days are likely not over. She’ll be allowed a respite, but odds are good she’ll have more lambs in the future, O’Connor said.
“She’s a great mom, she’s doing awesome with this,” O’Connor said. “She’s still very much in her reproductive years, so probably a year or more and she’ll just, you know, be able to put her hooves up.”
