It is clear that spring is in full swing. While a quadruple lamb was born on Marc’s sheep farm, in Zijtaart they certainly did not know what they were experiencing. Last week, quintuplets were born in the barn of sheep farmer Hans Schepers. “I’ve never experienced this before. And almost no one has,” says Hans. “I heard something like that is a one in a million chance.”
Hans has been keeping sheep as a hobby for thirty years. Zwartbles sheep walk on his property, recognizable by the white stripe on their heads and white ‘socks’, as he puts it. The ewes give birth once a year.
“Normally there are two,” says Hans. But this time he already suspected that there would be more. “She was really very fat. People already said: ‘Hans, he can hardly walk or lie down anymore.'”
According to sheep veterinarian Rianne Van Helden, quintuplets are rare in this type of sheep. “I don’t know the exact figures, but usually ewes have one or two lambs, sometimes three.”
Giving birth to quintuplets is a bit more challenging. “The uterus is ultimately the same size, and the more lambs, the less space,” Van Helden explains. “Mother can have metabolic problems, because it takes a lot out of the body.” And such quintuplets also demand a lot from the farmer. “You feel three heads and six legs during labor, so sometimes you have to figure out what belongs to who before you start pulling.”
Hans did not need Rianne’s help, but he also did not fully know what he was experiencing when the time came. “It just didn’t stop. With the fourth one I joked to my girlfriend: ‘Just feel if the grab bag is empty.’ But it wasn’t empty, then another one came,” the sheep farmer laughs. “But all the lambs are healthy, what more could you want?”
Although that does mean extra work for 74-year-old Hans. Because just like Marc, who is now happy with quadruplets, he has to bottle-feed the lambs. “Mother only has two teats, so the smallest ones get the bottle, because they look a bit thinner.” And he and his girlfriend Nettie have a day job with that. “At seven in the morning, when we get out of bed, they get the bottle. In the afternoon, in the evening around dinner time and again around midnight.”
According to Hans, the lambs are having a great time. “The weather is nice, so they can already go outside. They are jumping through the meadow, the mother sheep are doing well. Wonderful to see.”
