When a very pregnant ewe named Abigail waddled off from her flock on Wednesday, Ashley Rice figured she might be ready to give birth.
Rice, who owns a vineyard on Old West Saanich Road, thought Abigail might have twins, possibly triplets.
But nothing prepared Rice, who had just returned from picking up her children from school, for the sight of five black-and-white, knock-kneed lambs surrounding Abigail a few hours later.
“It was shocking,” said Rice. “It’s the rarest thing the sheep community has ever heard of … they’re saying it’s a one-in-a-million occurrence.”
Indeed, five babies at once is considered rare in the sheep world, where it’s normal to have singles and twins, and less commonly triplets. But it can also depend on the breed.
John and Lorraine Buchanan, who own Parry Bay Sheep Farm in Metchosin and the largest single flock on the Island, can relate to Rice’s surprise.
They’ve had two sets of quintuplets this spring from their Finnish Landrace cross breed ewes, which the Buchanans say are known for their prolific birth numbers.
And in the spring of 2022, for the first time in their five decades as shepherds, the Buchanans had ewes that gave birth to two sets of sextuplets — 12 lambs total — within two days.
For Rice and her husband, Mark, this week’s quintuplets came as a shock.
The couple have a small flock of crossbred Canadian Ascott-Clunforest sheep — five ewes and a rambunctious ram named Ralph — who are mainly used to manage the grass between the rows of grape plants on their Prohibition Vineyard. The couple is opening their winery this weekend after acquiring and preparing the property at 6130 Old West Saanich Rd. for the past three years.
Ashley points to Ralph the ram — nicknamed Fro for the tall tuft of wool on his head — as the reason for the prolific lambing this year. So far this spring, they’ve had two sets of triplets, a set of twins and the quintuplet group of one girl and four boys.
“All are very healthy and mom is healthy,” Rice said Thursday. “Abigail popped them out so fast, I didn’t even get to witness it. I went to check on her and I knew she was about to have babies soon.
“I picked up the kids from school and said: ‘Let’s go check on Abigail.’ They rushed out the door and said there’s three [lambs], then there’s four and all of a sudden I saw the fifth … I was just totally blown away.”
Rice managed to get a neighbour to help her gather Abigail and the babies into a lambing den, where they’re protected from eagles and ravens, which often prey on newborn lambs.
They haven’t had trouble over past years with bears or cougars, though cougars were spotted last week in Central Saanich and Sidney.
The Buchanans at Parry Bay in Metchosin, who have more than 500 ewes, say they have lost 14 lambs so far this year to cougars.
Their advice to Rice on having a single ewe with five offspring: Prepare to bottle feed and have extra colostrum, the nutrient — and antibody-rich — first milk produced by moms, to ensure their survival.
Rice said she is prepared and so far all five lambs are suckling, with even the smallest of the lambs aggressively feeding.
The lambs are not being named and will eventually be sold at market.
