Well today I gathered up all the sheep, checked eyelids for color (all were a gorgeous dark red!) and we trimmed hooves on the BFLs and checked udders and vulvas for swelling.
I'm sad to say that it looks like NONE of my now yearlings are bred. I have only one two year old and she is definitely bred, with what looks like twins (or a small house). My poor ram Burma! In with all those girls and only able to have one night out on the town! Burma is natural colored and Kershope carries natural color, so I have big hopes for a colored baby, but would be really happy with just healthy babies!
I also caught the yearling Shetlands up and checked udders. It appears that Sedalia (Jazz x Sterling) and Westminster (Jazz x Wren) are not bred. Rush (Aman x Rachildas) and Galina (Forrest x Holy Grail) do not look bred either. they could be later but did not appear to be bred. I've been proven wrong and I hope I am as both Rush and Galina were exposed to Jazz! I did not breed my bottle lamb Columbine so that would be 5 out of 22 that are NOT bred. So I have 17 left to lamb plus the 1 BFL. That's enough!
I was also worried about FirthofFifth Taika. She was exposed at Cynthia's house last year as a lamb but did not lamb as a yearling. She was one of my bigger yearlings and was surprised when we sheared last year that she was not bred. I was nervous to check her today but she does NOT appear to have any kind of udder, although her vulva is swollen slightly. I will keep an eye on her.
So at least 16 are for sure bred, have huge swollen vulvas and their udders are getting quite large. Even on some of the now yearlings.
Day 147 would make the girls due on 4/20/2009, which is two weeks ago yesterday. The latest they could be due would be June 1st. Don't ask me what I was thinking keeping them in with the ram so long. It always seems good at the time, but not now....Sheesh!
I did see River Oaks Eliza 'flirting' with Barish on Thanksgiving last fall so that would put her due date 4/23/2009 and I believe she will be one of the first to go, but again. I've been proven wrong many times!
A long time coming!
It has been a long time. Too long in fact. We lost access to our farm website and ebonwald website when WEBS.COM was closed by VistaPrint. ...
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Its always fun to switch it up a bit. I know some of you like to hear about my pigeons and cattle from time to time, as this IS a farm blog,... -
With my work load continuing to pile up, and less time to spend with the sheep, I am offering the following: My entire flock of BlueFaced ...
3 comments:
I have four yearlings and a 2 yr. old Angora who are either open or will lamb REALLY late. I had a ewe last year who I was sure was open and she lambed in mid. June and had twins.
That's too bad about the yearling BFLs being open, but if you left the ram in with them a long time, maybe they just aren't showing yet. I'm glad I didn't expose my now yearling BFLs to the ram. They seem way too young to be moms. Our adult BFLs are due before April 25, but they don't look overly large to me. Maybe you'll be in for triplets from your girl if she's as big as a house. I hope Eliza gives you twins.
Garret - don't bet on those youngsters not being bred! I can tell you, it's very common here for them to have no udders when the other girls are already starting to lamb! This winter seems like they were all late coming into estrus, and my yearlings look healthy and content and no udders. I'm betting on June or July lambs myself - so hold your breath for a while longer! :-)
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