🐑 A Tale of Three Lambs: The Night, the Surprise, and the Sweet Finale

Black Horse Farm has been buzzing for weeks with that particular kind of anticipation only livestock owners truly understand — the “any day now… no really, any day now” kind of suspense. Cricket and Clover had been waddling around like wool‑covered beach balls, giving you side‑eye every time you checked on them, as if to say, “Stop hovering. We’ll do this when we’re good and ready.”

And then, in classic farm fashion, they both chose their own dramatic timing.

Cricket with her spitti colored ewe lamb and classic Valais ram lamb.

🌙 Cricket’s Midnight Plot Twist

Cricket decided that the middle of the night was the perfect time to kick off our first ever lambing season. While most would have been sleeping, she delivered twins — one ewe and one ram — like a champ for her first time, albeit 3 hours apart.

Thank goodness for stall cameras and a husband who knew how excited I was for these babies.  He woke me up Friday night to let me know things were happening and by the time I got down to the barn, Cricket had given birth to a spitti colored little ewe lamb.  Spitti are a very rare color (only 2%) that are considered good luck to have in your flock.  This little spitfire has a black head and legs and black spots on her white wool.  I was so shocked to have this rare color be the first lamb ever born on the farm. 

I helped mama Cricket clean off her first baby, we treated the umbilical to prevent any infection, gave first vitamins, and made sure baby was up and nursing for that critical colostrum.   I spent an hour or so with mom and baby and while I assumed she had another lamb to deliver I didn’t see any signs of it coming so headed back to the house to change clothes and crawl back into bed while mom and baby bonded. 

3 hours later, hubby who was keeping an eye on the camera, woke me again to tell me another one was born.  So at 3 am, I headed back down to meet Cricket’s little ram lamb and get him set up for success.  This little boy is the quintessential Valais lamb with perfect knee and hock markings and the cutest black face.  He is also the friendliest of all the new babies.

Being born is hard work. Babies in their wool coats napping under the heat lamp.

🌼 Clover’s Slow‑Burn Surprise

Five days later, just when the barn had settled into its new rhythm and I was sick in bed and could barely drag myself out to do my barn chores, Clover decided it was her turn.

Clover’s little ewe lamb just getting her feet under her. All wrapped up in her “wool-over” coat.

I went out to the lamb barn to feed and water the other girls and of course pay the “treat tax” and found a little ewe lamb had been born. No drama. No midnight theatrics, Just a sweet, perfect little girl who looked like she’d been dipped in powdered sugar and sprinkled with joy.  I moved Clover and her baby, along with auntie Cotton (who will have her lamb this summer) into the main barn with Cricket and the other babies.

💕 Why These Three Feel So Big

These lambs aren’t just new additions — they’re the beginning of a chapter I’ve been dreaming about. The first Valais Blacknose lambs born at Black Horse Farm. The first tiny bleats echoing in the barn. I am so in love with these babies and can’t wait to spend the next two months raising them so they can find the best forever homes and be the start of someone else’s Valais dream. 

New life and sweet babies change the energy of the farm: From dear friends coming to snuggle lambs, to sweet babies running and hopping down the barn aisle, I am soaking in every moment with these little cuties.  

Nothing better than a pile of sleepy lambs