Update

Well the girls are holding out on me!

Aside from WSR Alisa lambing very unexpectedly with twins on wednesday things have been quiet.

I'm always wrong as who will lamb first in the Shetlands. The girls with the 'caution wide load' signs on their bellies and udders are all still just hanging out in the 'close up' pen. The girls in the 'aways a way' pen is the pen Alisa came from.

If you remember Alisa is a light badgerface moorit ewe I traded Wally Rutledge for while I was out in Eugene, OR for the Black Sheep Gathering. Alisa has .78% UK (that's less than ONE percent) in her (Greyling waaaaay back) and still has the breed character fleece that is hallmark of the breed in the UK and Canada.

Alisa was bred to Jazz. I knew I'd only get black but I was hoping for a light badgerface black based ewe lamb. And I got one. But she was chilled when I found her with her mom. The gray katmoget ram lamb was off with one of the Shetland-Cheviot ewes who swore it was hers, even though I know she isn't due for another month. Got Alisa in with her twins in a jug but the little girl wasn't getting up. So off to the house for a lambing warmer. Five hours later she's up and eating colostrum from a bottle (Thanks again Shel!) and by morning she's jumping out of the laundry basket.

Reintroduction to mom was not good. I even waited and smeared poop from her brother on to the girls tail but mom wasn't being fooled. She smelled differently. Alisa doesn't have enough milk to feed twins so supplementing will have to do. I can't believe she twinned either as she wasn't very large, or had a large udder. Some of these Shetland girls surely will have huge twins or maybe triplets based on the size of their bellies and udders. Crazy how different they all can be.

Of all the BFLs that were exposed (10) I have had only 4 lamb, with one due any moment to Wycliffe. There are three that look bred to the back up ram Burma, and three that don't even look bred at this point which is extremely frustrating.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for pandamonium surely to ensue.

lamb count:

2 BFL ram lambs, 4 BFL ewe lambs (lost two)

Shetlands 1 ram lamb, 1 ewe lamb