Lambs and lambs

The farmer I purchased my ewes from says that he aims for a 200% lambing. He gets some triplets, and some singles, but the average is a little under 200% because of losses. I have 11 ewes and 1 ram, and I have 12 lambs on the ground. Four of my ewes didn't get pregnant; not sure why; but the others produced twins or triplets, yielding my 100% lambing average - poor showing, but this is my first year and I figured there'd be some room for improvement. The lambs are varying colors and coats. The lamb at the top of this post has a pretty rough coat; her sibling has a smoother coat, same mother.


Here's the lamb and her mother so you can see the adult coat that she'll probably have. The lambs are not really all there. They basically regard anything that is large and moving as potentially a meal, and they'll run right up to me, or the tractor, or another sheep. Then they seem to realize that something isn't right -- maybe we don't smell like sheep? -- and turn around and run back to the flock. Three of them ran up to the tractor and I had to get out and shoo them away from the tractor before I could continue on.



They're very cute; the very picture of cute. The ewes direct the lambs with their heads, mostly. So when a little lamb runs to some other sheep, they'll tend to get butted. They'll get knocked over, stand up, and try again. Eventually they find their mom and nurse, but there's a lot of bleating while this is happening.