Lamb stats

My sheep finally finished lambing. The lambing percentage is lower than I like-166% (all sheep and goats together.) Interesting thing is the group who had pure lambs had a higher percentage-187% than the ewes who had crossbred lambs-152%. The goats had160% by themselves.

Total lambs/kids born-68. 8 of these are kids.

Here is what the pure group produced:

SheltringPines Justinian a polled, black gulmoget F1 Dillon's ewes
PS23 Easterlilly-grey gulmoget ewe and a possibly polled grey ram
PS23 Emrald-black gulmoget ewe and grey gulmoget/katmoget ewe
PS23 Ely Cathedral - black ewe and black wether
PS23 Edelweiss-grey gulmoget/katmoget ram

PS23 Fife moorit F1 Orion's ewes
PS23 Essex- moorit ewe
Sabbath Farm Swan- moorit(-may turn musket) ewe and musket? (not sure on her color) ewe

PS23 Fairlight polled white F1 Jings
Sabbath Farm Silvia-white ewe and white with black leg ram
PS23 Daysong-white with brown spot on thigh ewe and white ewe
Longshadow Brownie-musket wether

PS23 Drummond musket (carries moorit) F1 Brent ram's ewes
Sheepy Hollow Sienna- musket blettet ewe and musket blettet ewe
PS23 Dove-white wether and AG grey katmoget wether
Sabbath Farm Fonteyn - musket ram, grey katmoget ram and musket katmoget ram
UnderTheSon Sorelle- Moorit ewe and musket wether

PS23 Fandango gray katmoget F2 Greyling ram's ewes
Windswept Lime- white mirkface ewe and white mirkface ewe
Longshadow Amber- musket ewe and black ewe

Total of 17 pure ewe lambs and 11 ram lambs(-6 left intact.)

So far most of the lambs look like they have nice conformations and fleeces. (Some of the rams are now wethers for various reasons.I did not like the tails and a few and the fleece felt harsh on another.) I will probably have some ewe lambs for sale this year as I don't need to keep 17! I will also have ram lambs for sale as well as possibly some adult rams.

The goats produced 8 kids all sired by Danburry the white Texas buck.

3 doe kids-2 faded red and 1 white

5 buck kids- 3 white and 2 faded red

I'm planning on keeping all the doe kids. Some of the bucks may be for sale.

The cross group produced 15 ram lambs who are now wethers and 17 ewe lambs.

Of the cross ewes 9 are white Coopworth x Shetlands, 3 UNK x Shetlands (either Coopworth or Corriedale), 2 black Corriedale x Shetlands, 1 charcoal English blue Corriedale x Bluefaced Leicester/Shetland, 1 white Shetland x Merino, and 1white Coopworth x Bluefaced Leicester/Shetland.
I may sell some of the cross ewes depending on how they turn out.

Lamb pictures

Down to 4 ewes left to lamb! Here are some purebred Shetland lamb pictures.
Love this little ram (UTS Sorelle x PS23 Drummond) lamb's "elf ears"!

Sabbath Farm Swan's twin ewe lambs. The "black" (top) has a brown cast to her head and legs and her wool looks sheala/emsket underneath. I'm not sure what color she'll be! Her twin has a very consistent birth coat and is moorit, but may fade to musket. (PS23 Essex had a med. moorit ewe lamb that looks just like Swan's moorit.)

This little gray gulmoget was born this morning and weighed just 3 # 6 oz.! Tiny! Her twin brother is a lot bigger than her. Her dam is PS23 Easterlilly and sire is SheltringPines Justinian.

These two are Sabbath Farm Silvia's out of PS23 Fairlight an F1 Jings. The (top) lamb with the black leg is a ram and is very nice looking. He has a perfect tail and a very consistent birth coat. The (bottom) ewe also is very nice.
PS23 Edelweiss with her grey Gulmoget/Katmoget ram. Edelweiss is very tame-I think she is the tamest/friendliest sheep that I have and her ram lamb is tame so far.

Lambing update

Down to nine ewes left to lamb! Yahoo! (Four to purebred and five that were crossbred.)

So far :

15 purebred Shetland ewes

10 purebred Shetland rams

8 Angora kids-5 bucks, 3 does (1 doe is a pure white!)That's all for the goats.

12 crossbred ewes

10 crossbred rams

In-between taking care of lambs I have finished up with shearing my yearlings and rams and have started on the goats (6 left to shear.) I also got all the (wool) fleeces ready to sell.


PS23 Emrald's twin ewe lambs out of SheltringPines Justinian. One is gulmoget and the other a double patterned gulmoget/katmoget. Emrald unfortunately will have to go to market this summer as last year she got mastitis on one side. I thought "she should have enough on one side to feed lambs and I can always supplement." Well she has no milk on either side. Both lambs are now bottle babies. At least they should get tame!
SheepyHollow Sienna's twin musket ewe lambs out of PS23 Drummond.


Windswept Lime's twin "Hoto bunny" lambs out of PS23 Fandango. One has a gray patch on he neck.
I had two oops ram lambs out of PS23 Drummond, a musket, who visited the ewes who were to be crossbred. The result was two ewes each had a crossbred ewe lamb and a purebred ram lamb. Both ram lambs have these markings and also have dark bellies! Weird thing is they are not katmoget as neither dam is katmoget (and Drummond is not either!) Both have darker wool at the skin than at the tip too. (Note neither will be registered.)
PS23 EveningPrimrose's twin Corriedale cross ram lambs. They are so cute! Lovely pure white doe kid (out of the Texas buck and Texas doe)! She has the softest birth coat I have ever felt! She was born in the middle of the night when we had a thick frost and was severely chilled I held her in warm/hot water for about an hour and the blow dryed her for another hour. After getting a coat and some colostrum she was ready to go.

Lambing/kidding 3/19-3/27

Here are some of the lambs and kids that have arrived so far.

First, this is England's buck kid he weighed 4# at birth. He is the dumbest baby animal that I have ever had! He refused to nurse from his dam until he was 4 days old and I had to hold him on to get him to nurse. Finally at 6 days he nursed from her on his own. Talk about slow! (He will not be used or sold for breeding. :> ) The first Corriedale sired Shetland lambs! Both are ewes and weighed 6# 12oz and 7# 5oz. Both were very vigorous at birth and are doing well. Birth coats look like a double coated Shetland lamb's. (The ewe is double coated/intermediate.)
Pearl my faded red Angora doe had twin faded red DOE kids out of the pure white Texas buck! I am so glad that they are both does. They 4#8oz and 4#15oz.Alice my Merino had Shetland (Fandango) sired cross lambs -a ram and ewe. They weighed 6#13oz and 6#4oz.This huge "pony" is almost as tall as my Shetland ewes and weighed 13#! She is out of the Corriedale and Eco a katmoget Shetland/BFL mule.First Coopworth sired Shetland cross lamb. He weighed 6# His birth coat looks like a Coopworth lamb's.Dove a white Shetland ewe produced the first pure Shetland lambs of the year. They are both rams out of Drummond a musket. They weighed 5#7oz and 5#8oz.