2011 lambing season has begun

Today (Feb. 13) marks the first lambs of the 2011 season.
Our Suffolk ewes – Kitty and Fanny – each had a set of twins. Kitty had ram lambs and Fanny had a male and a female. They were born about 10 a.m.
Sherry had been checking the ewes about every four hours for the past few days. She knew when the lambs were due because they were bred one day last fall when our Scottish Blackface ram Mr. Darcy broke through the fence and ravaged them. It was not the coupling that we sought since these are two of our best ewes. We wanted our purebred Suffolk ram Colonel Fitzwilliam to breed them.
We were fortunate that the weather took a turn in the past two days. Thursday morning we had 25-below-zero, which is not an ideal condition for lambing. Today the temperature is in the low 50s, so perhaps fortune has smiled upon us.
Both mothers and their lambs are in temporary pens, where the lambs can get a chance to nurse and the mother can eat free of interference from the other ewes. Since these are experienced mothers, we will probably keep in them in the pen only a couple of days, as long as the lambs appear to be eating and getting stronger.
It will be two more weeks before we expect the rest of the ewes to start giving birth. The first two weeks of March will be crazy. Last fall we expanded our sheep barn and Chris built about a dozen lamb pens, so we should have plenty of space.
Until then we can sleep through the night without having to make 2 a.m. visits to the barn.