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Quinn didn't look close to lambing at all. I thought she would be the last one, and that Penny would be next. But on Wednesday morning when I went out to do chores, I took the hay to the feeder, fought off everyone as usual to get the hay in the feeder, and realized that Quinn was not part of the usual mob scene. I turned around to find her and there she was in the shelter licking off a newborn ram lamb. She had a single, which may explain why she didn't look close to lambing. Quinn is a taller ewe and so while she did look pregnant, she only had a single, normal-sized lamb in there, so she didn't look really big.

The lamb has big horn buds, and weighed 7.5 lbs. He may be a black grey (are those "sugar lips" or just an illusion?) or just a black solid. Time will tell.

Monday I came home at lunch to check on Orange. We knew she was getting close to lambing time, and as a first timer we hoped she wouldn't have any problems. When I got home, I sat for a while watching her, and it was clear that she was in the beginning stages of labor. She would shift her weight back and forth on her hind feet, paw the ground, lay down and stand up again, and sometimes lift her tail and strain for a few seconds. But she was also chewing her cud calmly, and when I brought out some hay, she came to get her share. So I went back to work, hoping for the best.

When we got home we went immediately to check on her, and there were two new ewe lambs, one black and one moorit, and the moorit was just starting to walk and was still pretty wet. She lambed with no problem at all. We didn't get pictures until the next day, but here they are:

Rose lambed on Friday afternoon, before we got home from work. Ken got home first, and went to check on everyone, thinking that Orange might have lambed, and there were two new little ones, but they were Rose's!

She had a black badgerface and a black solid, and both are ewes. That puts us at 75% ewes, 25% rams, but of course only two out of five ewes have lambed so far, so it will likely change.

After our experience with Tessa, we were worried that one of these might not be able to nurse, especially the smaller one, but their tummies were full and they were warm, so we tried to stop worrying. We did try to milk Rose using our new "Udderly EZ" milker, but she had been milked out already by the twins pretty well, so we didn't have much luck. I couldn't even get much out milking by hand.

So here are some photos of the new arrivals and their mother, and the last photo is Tessa at two weeks of age. She is always to be found underfoot.

Black badgerface a few hours old:

New family:

One day old:

Out with mom for a walk:

Tessa at two weeks:

Tessa figured out how to nurse, finally, at 1:30 AM Monday morning. We had gone out with the tube and syringe, ready to tube feed her again, but I had brought the bottle nipple on a whim and said "Let's try the nipple again". We had to pry her mouth open, as always, but once we got it in, all of the sudden the light went on in her head and she started sucking like mad. It was a huge relief. I was trying to figure out how in the world I was going to tube feed her by myself on Monday while Ken was at work. The last couple of feedings before this one, she was pretty squirmy. But now that wasn't an issue anymore. Hallelujah!

So the next hurdle has been teaching her that she has to open her mouth and take the nipple herself. She's slowly getting the idea. But she's a funny one. For the first couple days, she wouldn't even open her mouth to "baa". It came out sort of muffled sounding. Yesterday and last night I would let milk dribble out of the bottle so it was on the end of the nipple, and as she was hunting for the food she knew was coming, I'd press the nipple against her mouth. The milk would dribble out onto her lips and some would get inside and this encouraged her to try to find more. This morning at 10AM she almost got it. I haven't had to really pry her mouth open during the last day, but have had to push the nipple into her mouth. This morning she sort of opened wide enough and got just the tip and then sucked it in, so that's definitely progress.

We were thinking of trying to get her back onto her mother, but with the problems she'd been having just learning to nurse, that is not looking like it's going to be an option. We'd have to tie Cozette up again, and then try to get Tessa to nurse off mom so that she would know where it was. Then, we'd have to keep Cozette tied for probably several days until she accepted Tessa, if she ever did. But the longer you wait to try this, the less likely it will work, and we're just now getting Tessa to understand how to nurse on the bottle and she's already 4 days old. So it looks like we have a bottle lamb. I ordered a rack and bottle that you can hang from a fence, and we'll have to train her to use that so that when I'm back to work (taking vacation this week), she can feed herself during the day.

Well, Cozette had twins last night, starting not too long after we got home. The first was a ram lamb, big, at 9.5 lbs, and Cozette was really straining and wailing. The two hooves and a nose had appeared (and a tongue sticking out) but after several minutes that was about all she was able to do. I managed to grab one hoof and pull it forward and that seemed to free things up. A few more heaves and out he came. He was quite vigorous and was up in about 15 minutes. Cozette was quite pleased with the whole thing. Aside from me pulling on the hoof, the whole thing went like the textbook says it should. About half an hour later another hoof and nose appeared and a much smaller ewe lamb slid out easily. She's about 6 lbs, and we're weren't sure she was going to make it. She didn't have any get-up-and-go, and Cozette didn't seem to pay much attention to her after a bit. She kept pawing her, I think to try and make her get up, but the ram kept nosing in for more attention and Cozette was much more interested in him. We ended up bringing her into the house to warm her up, and tube fed her colostrum 3 times.

The ram had a hard time finding the teats. He eventually got it, but her teats are right next to her legs and almost stick out behind. I think he'll do fine though. For a while he was following me around, nuzzling my knees!

Cozette did very well though. We took her some molasses water and she drank a few gallons of that.

This morning we took the ewe lamb back out, as she was warmed up and fed, but Cozette wasn't exactly thrilled to see her. Seems she thinks she only had one lamb, not two. So now she's tied in a corner where she can stand up, lie down, eat and drink, but not turn around to butt the lamb or just walk away. The ewe lamb is stronger today, able to stand and walk, but isn't quite sure how to eat. She does nose around Cozette, but hasn't found the teats on her own, and even when I put her directly onto a teat, she doesn't have the sucking reflex. Bottle feeding her is slow, as she sort of half-heartedly chews on the nipple. We've been milking Cozette although we used milk replacer for a feeding or two.

I suppose I should say that we did pick names this afternoon. Tug is the ram, because that's what I had to do to get him out of his momma, and the ewe is Tessa.

Below are some pictures, starting with Cozette right before she went into active labor.

Tug:

Tessa: