Sheep gives birth to unusually large litter of 5 lambs on B.C. farm

When Brittny Syme's sheep started to give birth, she was hoping that it might be triplets — but she never expected the ewe to deliver five lambs.

"They were just coming out, and I think she was a little shocked, too," she said of the mother sheep.

In the seven years they've been raising sheep, there's never been this large a litter at Ida View Farms near Salmon Arm, B.C. Earlier in the lambing season, a ewe had quadruplets, so Syme was surprised when an even bigger litter showed up.

The mother is a Rideau Arcott-Dorset cross, a commercial breed known for multiple births. It's common for sheep to have two or three lambs, but five is quite rare, according to sheep researcher Cathy Bauman.

Bauman, who studies small ruminants at the University of Guelph in Ontario, keeps a herd of sheep herself and has witnessed many births over the years.

"I would be surprised having a ewe that gave birth to five," she said.

Bauman said larger litters might seem like a bonus, but they can be a lot of extra work for both the sheep and the farmer. Sheep only have two teats, so they are not really equipped to care for more than two or three babies at a time. 

"I always joke, she [the mother] can only count to three, so once they've had three lambs, they ignore the ones that are born afterwards or forget about them," Bauman said. 

"But it just means that we have to intervene a bit more, so it's much more labour intensive."

Lambs need extra care

This is the mother ewe's second litter, Syme said, adding that she's doing a good job of looking after the lambs and everyone is healthy and doing well so far.

Syme said she has been bottle-feeding the five sibling lambs with the help of her own children, Aiden, 6, and Issac, 2.

"They're in the barn constantly with us. They're good little farm helpers," she said.

Syme said there have been more than 100 births on the farm so far this year, and they're only about halfway through the lambing season. They estimate they will have 300 lambs by the end of lambing season.

They've increased the number of sheep in the last seven years to around 100 as of last year.  This year's lambs will be raised by their mothers until they are 10 weeks old, then weaned off and sold.

She said they're considering holding back three of the females in the quintuplet litter to use as potential future breeding stock.

Overall, she said, the experience of having so many lambs from one ewe has been incredible — "five of a kind."