Two More Does Kid/Sad Begining-Happy Ending

England (black) a first time kidder gave birth to a tiny white buck kid. He was slightly chilled when we found him, but is doing well now except for not wanting to learn to nurse from his dam, he does like a bottle though. My guess is his mouth is so tiny-to small to get on the teats which are bigger than the bottle nipple. I have not weighted him yet, but I think he only weights 3#.

Belle (white color carrier) also had a white buck kid. He looked great. He was big probably 6 or 7# and was vigorously trying to stand up and nurse. (It is great when they try nursing as some Angora kids are kind of dumb and don't try. They are good mom's though and some will even butt at a person trying to help to protect their babie/s.) Any way he was great until he had an umbilical hernia and his guts (an apple size amount) were coming out. I shortly thought about trying to put them back, but the opening was so small that there was no way I'd get them back. I did call the vet and he said that the kid was a gonner. He could get the guts back, but since barn floors are dirty...He'd get a huge infection. So we put the poor kid out of his misery. (He was in a lot of pain or shock as he was shaking really hard.)

The happy ending is his dam decided she was not going to not have a kid and started licking off China's (rejected) white kid WITHOUT me even getting a chance to get it wet and get birth fluids, etc. on it (grafting tricks.) I am so happy that he has a mom and I don't have an "empty doe". I did lock them up in a tight pen as the kid needed to learn than he was going to have a mom. He had been wandering around without paying attention to the doe. (He was born on Tue. and got a new mom on Fri. so he was 4 days old.) He did discover the worlds greatest milk bar. It's so much better than the stuff the humans bring and is always there and is never the wrong temperature. This morning he was sleeping next to her!

Spring Is Here!

I've been busy (blade) shearing, hoof trimming and vaccinating with CDT my sheep and crotching the goats. (I'll shear the goats in April as they aren't as cold tolerant as sheep.) I got done with the ewes just in time as they are due to start laming on this Sat. I still have to shear my rams and yearlings. I have been skirting and weighing the fleeces and they are about 6-8 oz. heavier on average (skirted weight) than last year! The sheep are in very good condition this year and last year they were a bit on the thin side. (They got good Alfalfa hay this year and last year they had lowish quality grass hay.)
The first set of babies came on Tue.! China a black Angora doe gave birth to triplet bucks. The sire is Danbury a pure white Texas Angora. The surprise is the color of the kids. Pure white Angoras have been bred against color for so long that most pure whites don't have a color gene. I guess my buck does! I'm happy because these kids should have really nice mohair as pure whites generally have better mohair than the colored goats. The med. colored kid had weak tendons from being in a weird position in the womb-he was side ways. I put splints on and he is fine now. (I took the splints off tonight.) The poor white kid was rejected, so he is a bottle baby. It was partly his fault as he was stupid and refused to drink (I tried to get him to nurse from her.) He had to be tubed and then finally accepted a bottle at 4 AM after being born at about 5 PM.
This is one of the "ladies in waiting." Triplets?

Eastwind had a lamb

PS23 Eastwind had a "black" krunet ewe lamb out of PS23 Craigrothie an F1 Skeld. She is an F2 Skeld.

My "summer" lambing has begun. I had 4 yearlings who did not have any udders when everyone else was lambing and I had left Craigrothie in until January soo I can have June lambs. One more is defiantly bred, but I can't tell with the others as I have not cought them and I can't see under there.

Edit:
Here is a picture of Craigrothie (from the winter.) He did have more wool on his cheeks, but I had to trim it off as he had decorated himself with burrs.

Edelweiss and Eco's lambs

Eco a Shetland mule (Shetland/BFL) had a grey katmoget ram lamb. I had bred her to my Cheviot ram, but she recycled and was bred to PS23 Craigrothie so the lamb is 75%Shetland 25% BFL.

PS23 Edelweiss had a white ewe lamb out of PS23 Craigrothie. The lamb is an F2/F4 Skeld and F3 Brent. She is a tiny lamb-only 2 # 14 oz.! She looks like she'll have a nice fleece and conformation. She is already an escape artist! Her dam lambed when we were at church yesterday morning and when I got back her poor mom was bawling. I saw birth fluids hanging out and thought that she had not lambed yet, but was having trouble. As I was going to the house I saw Miss Tiny hanging out with some big lambs. After I put her back her mom licked her off everywhere and was so happy to have her baby back. I'm glad she did not reject her!
Here is a picture of both the lambs together. Now I have just one more ewe to lamb, Windswept Lime, a first time lamber. I have four yearlings that I think are open, but they may lamb in June as Craigrothie was with them long enough.

Emrald's lamb

PS23 Emrald had a nice white ewe lamb out of PS23 Craigrothie. The lamb is an F3 Jericho/F2 Skeld. Both Emrald and Craigrothie are out of Holy Hills Onyx a very milky, poll carrying, sheala ewe. Emrald has a nice big udder for a yearling and very soft intermediate fleece. She also has a sheala spot on both sides. This lamb is going to be a keeper!

Ewe Won's lamb and an event

PS23 Ewe Won had a moorit or fawn ewe lamb. (Ewe Won is a mioget HST) The lamb is the wildest lamb I've had. I went into the pen and she was soo frightened! She ran as fast as she could to her mom (who also is not tame at all.)

Today I went to a craft sale to try to sell my yarn and roving. I only sold 2 balls of roving. I should have known better than to try selling there. There was not a good market for wool/yarn. At least I got all (150) of my buisness cards stamped on the back with my blog adress. I also spun some yarn and read a magazine.
This is a picture of my booth (I normally have a lot more stuff, but did not bring it all.)

The vender next to me had yard decorations hand molded out of cement. They were very cool!

More Purebred lambs!

PS23 Easterlilly had a nice light gray ewe lamb. The ewe lamb has "dog hair" but will be nice! She is an F2 Greyling/F3 Skeld. I'm so glad she's light grey! Her granddam was Bubba Baby (Longshadow Orhpan Annie, a light grey) and was one of the sheep that died from acidosis. This lamb looks like her. I love the sugar frosted lips as well! (She has light gray wool under the black birth coat.)
PS23 Dove had a white ewe lamb. She looks like she'll have a nice fleece!

PS23 Ewe Two had a gray Katmoget ram lamb out of Walnut Rise Trevor. The lamb is an F2 Greyling/F3 Orion. This little boy is very active. He was bouncing and jumping and running every where!
Bramble Jocelyn had twin Shetland/North Country Cheviot -a ram and a ewe.

Essex'es lamb/Yeah a pure bred!!

PS23 Essex had a nice black ewe lamb out of WalnutRise Trevor. (Essex is a yearling)

Here she is! She has a really nice short tail too. She is an F2 Greyling/F3 Jericho.

Eve's lamb

Eve a Shetland mule (Shetland/BFL) had a nice ram lamb out of my North Country Cheviot. Eve has LOTS of milk so her lamb should grow well! Yes, he has a spot on his leg. (Eve is a yearling)

Diamond's lamb

PS23 Diamond had a big (8 1/2 #) single Shetland/NCC cross ram. She is a smaller ewe (probably 70#.) It would be nice if some sheep had 2 smaller lambs instead of 1 big one! (She needed help with him-I pulled the lamb.) His birth coat looks nice.

Syrah's kids

Buck kid
Doe kid

Syrah had triplets yesterday. She had a buck and two doe kids. One doe kid was stillborn. The dead one had funny ribs as well. I don't know if it is coming from the sire or the dam (Syrah is China's dam.) I won't be using the same buck this fall so I guess I'll find out.

Brownie the last sick sheep is finally better. She started nibbling at hay on Mon. on Wed. she started chewing her cud (and eating full force.) She was off feed for two weeks! I was surprized and glad she made it!

Daysong's lamb

PS23 Daysong had a big black AI ewe lamb out of Keir Gordon. I was hoping and expecting white! Oh well, I need more blacks as I only have 2 black sheep. I think she will have a very nice fleece. This ewe lamb weighed 7.5 LBs-the biggest lamb so far this year (in both cross and purebreds.)

Chickadee's lambs

PS23 Chickadee had twin ram Shetland mule (Shetland/BFL) lambs. The black was born about 30 min. before the white.
I wish that this white had been a ewe! If he had been a ewe (s)he would stay!

China's kids

China and her twin bucks.
Buck #1
Buck # 2


This morning when I fed the sheep/goats China was making the "baby" sounds and trying to get her kid from last year to follow her. She was not pushing, but I decided to see what was going on. (I have had animals in the past not pushing when they are in labor if the baby is not in the right position.) I reached in and the head was back. The problem was the head kept going back and I could not get it out! I called the vet two time for advice. What finally worked was putting the legs back in, then getting the head out and the the legs again. Yeh! one done. The second one was the same, but at least I knew what to do. I started at 10:00 and when I was done it was 11:00. Buck #1 has some weird problems. He is down on his pasterns and his ribs feel funny-almost like they are broken, but they aren't. His back legs look like an animal with rickets. I don't know what's wrong with him, but at least he's nursing. (He will be castrated if he makes it.)

Sienna's lambs

SheepyHollow Sienna had twin AI ram lambs out of Heights Orion.
Ram #1 has a very fine crimpy birth coat.
Ram #2 has a very uneven birth coat. Both are dk. moorit right now and don't look likt they will be modified.
A close up of ram #2's fleece. I did AI with Orion once before and the lambs had uneven birth coats. I did not end up liking their fleeces (the ram's was very inconstant and the ewe's was spongy). I hope these lambs will have nice fleece.
Ram #1's fleece looks promising-very even and crimpy!