A Vermont farmer found herself wide awake and counting, not just sheep, but an unexpectedly large litter of lambs after one of her ewes gave birth to a rare set of sextuplets.
Anne O'Connor, who operates Clover & Bee Farm in Underhill with her husband, Gunnar, witnessed the remarkable arrival earlier this month.
All six lambs and their mother are reported to be thriving, making the unusual birth even more extraordinary.
The ewe, a seasoned mother, had previously delivered quadruplets. Despite a recent veterinary check-up indicating she was carrying just two lambs this time, Ms O'Connor harboured suspicions of a larger brood.
"I was a little bit suspicious, just given how big she was and that she was going a little earlier, that she might have more than two," she explained. "Six is great, but it's definitely — it's plenty."
The rarity of sheep sextuplets is subject to varying estimates, with Ms O'Connor suggesting figures around 1 in 1,000, while some agricultural websites place the odds significantly higher, at one in a million or more.
Ms O'Connor has since consulted the Vermont Sheep & Goat Association, which confirmed the exceptional nature of the birth, noting only one other shepherd in their records had experienced such a prolific lambing.
“They do take longer to reach full body weight, but most do just fine,” said Kristen Judkins of Gilead Fiber Farm, who owned a ewe that had sextuplets three years in a row, in an email.
“You have to keep an eye on them for the first few weeks to make sure they are getting enough to eat.”
The lambs, which are partially the Finnsheep breed, are named the numbers one through six in Finnish.
Their mother is named Teemu after Finnish hockey player and Hockey Hall of Famer Teemu Selänne. The O'Connors plan to keep the four ewes and find homes for the two male lambs.
The farm raises sheep for wool and also grows herbs and berries. It's headed for its fifth summer raising sheep.
The flock is booming — along with two other recent babies, the six new lambs have brought the total up to 21. And five ewes are currently pregnant.
Teemu's breeding days are likely not over. She'll be allowed a respite, but odds are good she'll have more lambs in the future, O'Connor said.
“She’s a great mom, she’s doing awesome with this,” O'Connor said. “She’s still very much in her reproductive years, so probably a year or more and she’ll just, you know, be able to put her hooves up.”
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