A particularly fertile ewe is bringing fame to a soon-to-be-opened winery in Victoria, B.C., after delivering extremely rare quintuplet lambs. When Ashley Rice left her heavily pregnant ewe on the grounds of Prohibition Winery to collect her two children from school, the animal was wandering away from the flock and was preparing, Rice had guessed, to give birth. With labour often taking up to a day and the school run taking less than an hour, she never expected she would be returning home to find a tiny mob of five bleating lambs. “It was quite shocking. It was shocking for the kids. It was shocking for my husband. It was shocking for the sheeping community. Our lamb shearer that does all the sheep on the island, she was completely shocked,” says Rice. The babies had been cleaned by their mother and were already tottering around the pasture as Rice returned, marking record time for a childbirth of twins or triplets, let alone five. “The whole thing happened so fast,” she says. Often, with multiple deliveries, birthing issues can arise, but in this case there hasn’t been a single complication or birth defect. The babies are “super healthy and happy,” and the parents, Abigail and the rampant ram Fro, nicknamed “stud muffin,” are doing just fine, says Rice. “We’re really blessed and grateful,” she says. The lambs are now three days old and are already enjoying their life on the pasture, learning how to hop, climbing on one another and pestering their mother. One is slightly smaller than their four siblings, and Rice and her husband are monitoring it significantly, but there is no cause for concern, she assures – what the lamb lacks in stature, she more than makes up for in personality. “She’s probably the feistiest of the bunch,” says Rice. Typically, only the ewes and the rams on the farm are given names, as Rice fears getting too attached to the babies. This time, however, she’s letting her kids chip in with ideas as she plans to keep the group of five until November, when they come of age and are ready to be relocated. Rice, who moved onto the farm and vineyard with her husband four years ago, says there had only ever been plans to care for grapes and a winery, but they had fallen “in love with the sheep” and so they made it work despite the extra labour. “Having five ewes and a ram is already a lot to care for,” she laughs. Appetite to see the quintet has been strong among friends and family and, with the winery coincidentally set to open its doors officially this weekend, Rice is expecting to see plenty of familiar faces as people drop by hoping to catch a glimpse of the newborns. For those hoping to keep up to date with the lambs from afar, Rice says she will be documenting their growth, recording as their personalities develop, and posting updates to her Instagram account and to the winery’s website.
