Twin Surprises: Marble and Dove

I felt like I knew whether most of the ewes were carrying singles or twins. When I looked at Marble, though, I couldn't tell.  Thursday around lunchtime, we headed to the barn right as Marble delivered lamb number one.  I could see the hooves of lamb number two, but Marble was excitedly licking her first lamb and would not lay down to push.  Instead, she squatted.  (It's normal for ewes to labor like this, but only a few of ours do so.)   It took a little longer than it might have otherwise taken.  All the other animals (chickens, sheep, llama, and human children) were in the barn, and some of them were annoying. 

Marble is happy with her lambs

Marble's first lamb is a ewe.  She's the spitting image of her mom!  We've named her Margarita.  She's beginning to lighten already.

Mojito is the second twin.  He's a black ram with similar markings to his mom and sister. He will likely lighten as well.

Mojito is laying by the fence--where a lot of ewes licked him!

While all of this was going on, I saw Dove acting like a ewe in the beginning of labor.  I told my oldest son we'd be heading back to the barn soon, and in about an hour, we were.  We arrived at the barn while Dove was still pushing because several of the chickens were harassing her. 

Dove dug a huge hole and delivered a white under-all-that-dirt ewe lamb.  We named her Daiquiri. 

Dove started digging another hole, and I knew that another lamb was on the way.  This was a surprise, even though there were clues (Dove's HUGE udders!).  Dove is a first time mom --they are less likely to twin--and she wasn't nearly as large as her twin sister Swan. 

Dove quickly delivered a tiny white ewe lamb.  The pictures end here (for a while) because Dove didn't know she delivered another lamb (likely because she was so tiny) and because I'm not used to seeing such a small lamb (although we had plenty in 2015--Myrtle, Mimosa, and Willow). 

We've named the second of Dove's lambs Pina Colada.  Dove, Daiquiri, and Pina Colada are all doing great.  Dove had them up and nursing in record time, and she's a great mom, even with her surprise lamb.