off to a slow start

Well we had our first set of lambs born Super Bowl Sunday. All went well and when I went out to feed that evening mom had them all cleaned up . I put them in the jug and all seemed well. The temperatures plummeted in the next days and I worried with temperatures in the singles and below zero over night that these lambs may not make it. But they did. I usually keep twins in the jug for two or three days. Sad to say that somehow one of the lambs squeezed out of the jug and must have gotten trampled . I was to let them out later that day but came out to find her dead in the main barn. She must has slipped through where I have the gate to get in the jug. We secured a strip of plywood up. So sad, and a nice little ewe lamb too.

Then the next ewe who has always twined popped a single out several days later, a ram lamb darn it.

A lull for a week and when we had that nice few days in the 50's a ewe lambed late evening. I knew she was going to go and with the moon close to full I was able to keep and eye out with binoculars. Around 10:30  I noticed she had a lamb following her. So went out grabbed her two lambs and jugged them. I am irritated that I neglected to check her bag. I was tired and just did not bother. I had never bred her before, I should have checked her.   The next morning after the temperatures dropped over 30 degrees overnight, I found the lambs looking weak and chilled and feeble baas's . I knew this was not right. Checked the ewes bag and found she must have been a "cull" that I purchased and did not know she should not have been bred. Her bag was hard and no milk could be drawn off her. Lambs in the house and Colostrum frozen from last years lambing thawed and I attempted to save these two. They rallied and dropped over the next days. The Ram lamb lost first and the ewe lamb the following night. Heartbreaking.
Then another lull and another set of twins. Two days ago another set of twins. Other than the first set of ewe twins we have been having a ewe and ram lamb sets. So, I feel not off to a great start with six surviving and three dead lambs. Next year I will not lamb anything this early.
Nine more hair ewes to go.
Wool sheep due starting late May.