Tuesday, April 12, 2011

More lambs and thoughts

Sorry this no camera thing is a joke. I have so many lambs I can't remember who I've taken photos of. I of course have my favorites but overall I'm really pleased with the lambs. I again have a plethora of gray katmoget and black lambs. I'm tickled that most of my white ewes gave me black lambs. I need more solid black animals so that was a treat.

Birth coats were as expected according to their lines, with just a few exceptions. All birth coats seem to be soft, but what lamb ISN'T soft when they are just days old?

I am having to supplement two sets of BFL lambs, and a set of Shetland lambs. The moms have huge udders but the lambs are growing so fast that the lambs are really taking a toll on their moms so I'm supplementing. Its not completely bottle feeding but it sure makes for friendly lambs. If anyone hasn't seen a BFL lamb pile (think dog pile/monkey pile/hog pile) on top of a 6'3" shepherd, it is quite the site!

I have 25 more ewes that were exposed. Everybody looks to be bred, and most of them will hopefully have small twins. I hate when they have large singles that are 7+ pounds. I hate watching them lamb, although they seem none the worse for doing it, but those are some mighty big lambs! The ewes should mostly be done by the 18th of April, and many are starting to get udders and have been moved from the 'awhile to go' pen to the 'any time' pen. We'll see if I have better luck guessing this time around :)

I'm nearly complete skirting all of my 2011 fleeces. I am doing several years worth of each sheep and having them processed in to roving or yarn depending on how much is available. I've got friends who are excited to make socks, rugs, scarfs, hats, mittens/gloves out of my wool and even a few Aunts who are going to tackle making quilts for the quilt batts I had made out of my Cheviot-Shetland ewes! I can't wait to have more items that are made from my sheep.

On to new lambs! :)

RYL Rachildas the queen bee gave birth a handsome white ram out of Wintertime Jazz.

Whistlestop 0935 "Yuma" (fawn) gave birth to a black krunet ram out of Jazz. He has a dog coat birth coat so time will tell with this boy, he is VERY FIESTY and a big bully like his mom....

WhitePine Lydia (Jazz (F1 Jericho) x Wintersky Layla (F1 Orion)) x WhitePine Roman gave me a gorgeous and feminine white ewe lamb.

WhitePine Neriah (Blues x Nirvana) x WhitePine Roman gave me a stellar white ram

FirthofFifth Anki (Forrest x Ashanti) x Jazz produced a black gul/kat krunet sokket EWE lamb!

FirthofFifth Taika (Forrest x Twiling) x Jazz produced a black gul/kat ewe and a black gulmoget krunet ewe lamb

FirthofFifth Blottir (Forrest x Boppitty) x Levi produced a dark moorit ram lamb. I'm praying now for horns because this ram is dynamite!

That's it for now.....

1 comment:

Kelly said...

I simply love that you got so many great lambs this year. I can't wait to start shopping at your place!!!!

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. ...