Twins

the pleasures and challenges of two-at-a-time

“Pop” quiz: which Soay ewes will twin, and which will have single lambs?

“Pop” quiz: which Soay ewes will twin, and which will have single lambs?

Of the many ways shepherds can fritter away hours waiting for their Soay lambs to arrive, none is more useless than trying to figure out how many lambs we’ll get in total, i.e., which ewes will have twins and which will have just one lamb. We kid ourselves into thinking the exercise is useful for “planning.”  […]

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Miniature Soay lamb grows up

Miniature Soay lamb grows up

It seems Peanut has a fan club. Almost every week I get either an email or an in-person question about whether he survived, is he okay, what’s his fate, and so forth. Most creatures wait until they are a little older to use up their 15 minutes of fame. Peanut stayed in the high, dry […]

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Want more Soay twins?  Try flushing your ewes

Want more Soay twins? Try flushing your ewes

No, I am not referring to your trusty Kohler or Toto.  Flushing is shepherd lingo for increasing a ewe’s nutrition in the weeks leading up to breeding in order to trick the ewe into releasing a larger number of eggs.  Most of the sheep literature we have read, and a number of Soay breeders we know, […]

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A Bummer Soay Lamb:  Lessons Learned

A Bummer Soay Lamb: Lessons Learned

It was a dark and stormy morning last Thursday.  I was in town and Steve was running the lambing operation solo.  Delighted to find Fulmar with a big (5 lbs, 4 oz) ewe lamb in the area reserved for pregnant ewes, he jugged them and then went about the normal routine of quieting the din […]

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Twin Lambs:  the Multi-tasking Soay Ewe in Action

Twin Lambs: the Multi-tasking Soay Ewe in Action

Quite by accident, I found myself a couple of days ago in the Maternity Ward with my camera just as Sandpiper started to lamb. Our first year as shepherds I dutifully photographed every birth, but no more. A person can get worked up about a still shot of an amniotic-sac-covered lamb just so many times […]

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