Crossing Group

The Corriedale and Coopworth rams went in on Mon. so in five months I'll have lambs!

The ewes are all on the hay field near St. Nazianz

The girls who are getting crossbred are:

14 commercial ewes (7 Coopworth X Shetland, 3 Merino X Shetland, 2 BFL X Shetland, 1 Corriedale X BF/Shetland and 1 Shetland X Corriedale/Dorset)

21 Shetland ewes:

Longshadow Amber-musket

UnderTheSon Claremori-fawn

UnderTheSon Hopi-dark brown

PS23 Dove-white

Windswept Lime-white

PS23 Elm-light grey

PS23 ElyCathedral-fawn katmoget

PS23 Emrald-grey katmoget

PS23 Early Spring-mioget

PS23 Evening Primrose-black gulmoget

PS23 Essex-moorit

PS23 Finch-white

PS23 Fairlie-fawn

PS23 Fiona-black

PS23 Gloxinia-musket

PS23 Grettle-white

PS23 Gwendolyn-musket

PS23 Gloss-white

PS23 Gem-black gumoget

PS23 Ginger-musket

PS23 Gentian-black

Ewe lambs and fleece shots

Keeper ewe lambs-I have nine on the keep list. One black, two moorits, two grey katmogets, two whites, and two fawn katmogets. I had another black that I was going to keep, but am not sure I like her fleece. If I do change my mind again then it will be ten lambs.

Update on the sick ewe lamb: she is not any worse, but not really any better. She still eats and the vet thinks she may have had pneumonia (sometimes they get a "mini stroke") and the two things may or may not be related.

Hollyhock's fleece. She is out of PS23 Eastwind and PS23 Campbell, F1 Jericho. (Darker in real life)
This fleece is Hyacinth's, the grey katmoget out of PS23 Fiona and PS23 Campbell, F1 Jericho.
This fleece is Hummingbird's, the black ewe lamb out of PS23 Ferndale, F1 Gordon X PS23 Campbell, F1 Jericho (Black not modified in real life)
This is Harmony's fleece. She is out of PS23 Edelweiss and PS23 Fife, F1 Orion. She is a horned fawn fatmoget and is the finest fleeced lamb this year.

Sheep...

Yesterday my only AI ewe lamb got sick. (I only noticed something was wrong with her when she tried walking and a lamb smaller than her butted her and sent her head over heals and then she didn't get up.) She has some weird sickness. She is not acting droopy or grinding her teeth like the typical sick sheep. She had a slight temp. and is having trouble walking especially on her front legs. Her front legs just seem to give out on her and she has trouble standing up. She also twists her head in a funny way. The vet (Joe who is really good with sheep and actually looks things up) said to put her on LA 200, banamine and Vit B. He said she could have meningitis or polio and that sometimes plain old pneumonia can cause thiamine (B) deficiency.

I hope she makes it as she is an AI (Skeld) ewe lamb and is a good sized twin out of a 9 year old (Sabbath Farm Swan) ewe who is very milky. Fingers crossed!

Today I had a failed attempt to sort the sheep who are on the hay field down the road. After spending 3 hours trying to sort sheep and then having lambs hopping over the hog panel it gets very frustrating. I got one group home and then just let every one out, as it was quite dark out, of the holding pen and will just sort them at home and bring the ewes who will be crossbred back.

I guess the bonus is I get to look at the purebreeding Shetland candidates more closely in a nice holding pen.

This year I am going to put the 35ish ewes who are going to have cross lambs with the rams (yes, both the Corriedale and the Coopworth rams will go in) I can tell the difference between the two crosses and even if I couldn't it doesn't matter as the lambs won't get registered. I sold my white Coopwrth ram and bought another so I don't need to worry about the Coopworth cross ewes this year. Maybe next year I'll buy more temp. fencing so I can have two or three crossing groups.

Then the 16-20 Shetlands who will have pure lambs and the 11 Angora does will be bred for May lambs/kids. (I had 10 does and then helped a friend with shearing and come home with another doe {and a black CAGBA buck kid} ! The doe is an AAGBA white with a super nice fleece. She is about 6 and still has fine neck mohair and great locks-she is nicer than the OR does and even the TX doe. The only reason she was for sale is because the has only half a working udder and Kris can't handle bottle babies right now.)

Now to get the sheep home sort them. Get the crossing ewes back, and then sort and pick out the lambs who will go to market vs. stay for replacements....

Keeper Ram Lambs and bucks

I sent in papers for these ram lambs to be registered. I forgot what names I put down.
This guy is a twin out of PS23 Fairlight, an F1 Jings and Sheepy Hollow Sienna. He weighed 53#.
Perfect tail-it's flat too! Mid side fleece.
Fleece towards rump.
This white ram lamb is a twin out of Drum Jings and PS23 Forsythia, an F2 Greyling. He weighed 53#. His fleece is very soft and silky. (I couldn't catch him as he is shy.)
This guy is a triplet, raised as a twin by a nine year old ewe. He weighed 62#. (As much as a single ram lamb that I have!) His sire is Drum Ram (aka Black) and dam is Sabbbath Farm Fonteyn.His fleece...I like the color and crimp.This guy is also friendly.
Buck kid out of Belle, a color carrier white and Caspian a faded red who got culled last year (due to attitude.) I'm going to see what he looks like next fall. This is a very fine fleeced yearling buck out of Danburry (the AAGBA TX boy) and China, a black. He is a very pale red and should throw fine fleeced colored kids. I wasn't going to use him as he is related to all of my does, but I think I'm going to do some linebreeding anyways-I really want color!!! I am going to buy a black buck kid, but I've never had a kid breed. (So many of the colored goats available have poor quality, kempy fleeces. I was actually told at the sheep and wool festival that some mohair I was selling as "rug grade" was nicer than some other breeder's good stuff.) This guy will be for sale after I use him. He will be registered so I need to think of a name for him. He was born in the "G"year.
This ram lamb is a twin out of PS23 Campbell, and F1 Jericho and PS23 Ferndale, an F1 Gordon. He is the biggest ram lamb at 67#. His fleece is med. fine and crimpy. He is for sale for $250.Tail shot.

Sales List

I just updated my sale pages and have a few NASSA registered Shetland ewe and ram lambs and some older ewes available. I also have some Angora wethers and some Shetland wethers with fine soft fleeces for fiber pets. I have 3 or 4 crossbred ewe lambs that will be available this year as well.

Sheep on the Hillside

I took a bunch of pictures of my sheep/goats on one of the hilly pastures. I love seeing sheep graze on hilly pastures!

Babies!!!

Lambing and kidding is supposed to start on the 18'th...but the sheep had other plans. Three ewes had twins one the 9'th, 10'th and 11'th. That's what happens when my Coopworth ram jumps four fences to get in with the ewes and teaser ram. I didn't think he bred any, but I was wrong! At least these are all out of ewes who were to be crossbred. One of the ewes is 1/2 Shetland X 3/8 Corriedale/1/8 Dorset so her lambs are 1/2 Coopworth X 1/4 Shetland/ 3/16Corriedale/1/16 Dorset.


This little guy was trying to get comfortable and then figured out he can nurse laying down.
Fuzz the 1/2 Shetland X 3/8 Corriedale/1/8 Dorset (first time lamber) with her 1/2 Coopworth X 1/4 Shetland/ 3/16 Corriedale/1/16 Dorset lambs.
Sleeping Coopworth X Shetland baby.

I've been busy shearing my ewes and does before they start lambing. (I also deworm, vaccinate with CDT, and hoof trim them when I shear so I don't have to catch them twice.) After they are all shorn I'll start skirting their fleeces. I'd gotten behind this year a bit. First, I had some Shetland lambs who had to be shorn before going to market, and had to be kept in the barn until they went. Then I had to clean up the manure and get hay.
This is the barn after being sheep and goat proofed. The tarps are up so they don't try to get at the hay (what the can't see they don't want.) On the side is a pen make out of hog panels with the three ewes and their babies. I mostly do communal lambing pens, but can set up an individual pen if needed. Last year, I think only three needed a pen by themselves. One was a doe with a graftee kid, one ewe had triplets, and one had a weak/severely chilled kid. Yes, the barn does get very crowded, that is the biggest reason I shear before lambing (the other reasons are cleaner wool, drier barn as wet wool brings in a lot of moisture, and a cleaner udder area for the lambs.)

I have 41 more ewes and 9 does to lamb/kid. I hope, but some of my yearlings may be bred as a Shetland ram got in with them and that Cooworth got in with them on a different day. At least if any pure Shetland lambs are born from them I can register them as I'll know who the sire is. This year I have an empty three and one half sided shed and I'll put the first 10-12 ewes who lamb in there when things get crowded. (The yearlings are in the "cow shed" and the steer is in the freezer-where he belongs! He was very belligerent and would try "playing" with me if I had to go into his pen-not safe.)

Size Comparison

I thought that since I had time/daylight yesterday when I started doing my chores that I'd take some pictures of the Shetland ewe lambs side by side with the Shetland cross lambs.
From the left two Shetland X Coopworth ewe lambs, the biggest Shetland ewe lamb that I have (Sabbath Farm Swan X PS23 Fife) and the Shetland/BFL X Corriedale ewe lamb.

From the left again two Shetland lambs (one wether and one ewe PS23 Daysong X PS23 Fairlight) and then three Shetland X Coopworth ewe lambs.

A close up of two Shetland lambs (white ewe is PS23 Daysong X PS23 Fairlight) on the left and two Shetland X Coopworth ewe lambs on the right.

On the left and in the background are three Shetland X Coopworth ewe lambs and the grey one is a Shetland ewe lamb (PS23 Emrald X ShelteringPines Justinian.)

Replacemanet lambs

When I walked down the driveway to get the mail the ewe lambs all lined along the fence hoping to be fed. (The lambs are Shetland and Shetland crosses, a few are wethers destined for market in the spring.)

A Scare

On Sunday when I went out to feed I saw that one of my ewes was stuck on her back out in the pasture. She was not moving- "my heart leaped"- and I knew exactly who is was. Silvia, one of the ewes who was AI'ed this fall, a nice older ewe (9) who still had lots of milk and really nice lambs last summer. I ran over to her expecting her to be dead (I had one one year that got stuck and died) but she wasn't! I righted her and she could barely walk. She stumbled and held her head to the side. Oh no! I thought (I know some people who's sheep have died after being stuck if they were stuck for too long) then she staggered over to where everyone else was eating their hay. Ok. So then I waited to see if she would eat any hay. She simply lay down. I made her get up again and she lay down again. I also noticed that she was quivering so I decided to take her temperature, it was 101-within the normal range, and I gave her some keto drench (it has propylene glycol and vitamin B in it.) I took her back to the barn and put her in a temporary pen next to some doe kids that are staying in the barn. She showed interest in her hay and ate a small handful of grain (a treat for the ewes as they don't get any grain except at lambing and breeding.) I left her in the barn and then last night she was baaing at me and was wanting to get out. I put her out with the other girls and she was very happy and ate some hay!
Here she is waiting impatiently to get out.

Ewes grazing and market lambs

Ewes, replacement ewe lambs and a couple small (unshorn) market lambs enjoying some of the last grass. I am afraid that the grass will run out about a month earlier than last year. At leat I have some of my winter hay. Now just to keep working and the sheep coats I'm making...

I had decided to save money by making my own sheep coats this year. I can buy a coat for $15 each or make them for $3.70 each (not counting my time) so since I need about 50-60 coats that's quite a savings. Eleven done... (The rest are all cut out.)
The blacks are Corriedale X Shetlands and the whites are Shetland X Coopworth. The Shetland X Coopworth are defiantly bigger, but the two sets of Corriedale X Shetlands are out of first time lambers and they are black while all the Coopworth X Shetlands are white. In Paul and Carol's Coopworth flock the whites are always bigger so I don't know if that would hold true for the Corriedales or not. I will do the Corriedale cross again this fall (that will give me more to judge on) and he will get more than two ewes!
Shetland X Corriedale
Shetland X CoopworthThe Coopworth X Shetland fleeces are very nice. They are not kempy like the North Country Cheviot X Shetlands and they are heavier (by about 1#), shinier, longer and silkier than the Bluefaced Leicester X Shetlands.
Another Coopworth X Shetland. I am keeping seven Coopworth X Shetlands. They will not be bred this year. Next year I may get a terminal sire or use the Corriedale on them. (The Corriedale sired lamb out of the Shetland X Bluefaced Leicester is great-she is about 100# and has a wonderful soft, dense, bold crimped, silky soft charcoal fleece-I'm keeping her as well.)
The Corriedale X Shetland fleeces are great colors, but of the four two are kind of double coated (this is one of those.) I can pull of guard hairs out and they area different color, but it is not a typical double coat. The hand on these two is kind of like a down wool. One of the other two is crimpy and very soft and the other is very long, soft and is like an intermediate Shetland.

One other thing. The Coopworth X Shetlands are great to shear-the fleeces cut through like butter, while of the Corriedal crosses one was great to shear and the other three were like cutting through a brick. I could not get to the skin level on those three and I started to wonder if my blade shears were dull, but they weren't as I did some more Coopworth X Shetlands after them.

Pied Piper

I walked out to the pasture and there were sheep and goats scattered around.
I yelled "sheep!" and they came crowding around. Am I the Pied Pier?! I must be as they are all standing there waiting.OK I get the message-I'm supposed to open up the fence so the can get new grass. Let rip...

They are always in such a hurry to get the new tasty grass!

I created a page for my Angora does and am working on a page for some of the Shetland ewes.