Lamb Fun

The ewe lamb figured out how to play on mom....

Here the ram lamb is trying to get up on top of mom, but can't quite figure out how to.


This is my black CAGBA buck kid that I bought this fall from my friend Kris. He was sitting like a dog for about 3 min.!
"Ahh I'll sit down now."

Once Again

I have some surprise lambs! I went out side to hear the sound of newborn lambs about a week ago. This was going to be the year of not surprises as all of the rams and ram lambs were at home and all of the ewes and lambs were down the road grazing on a hay field or so I thought.. One of the "wethers" was not castrated right. The results are doing well.
The ewe is a Shetland X Merino and the sire is a Shetland. Both were white and the lambs are colored, but the ewe lamb will be grey and the ram might stay black.
Now for some more pictures...

ewe lambs (there are a couple ewe in here as well as they were very thin so are getting better feed with the lambs)
Fawn kat
This is the white AI (Skeld X Swan) lamb who had gotten sick. She is completely better.
This year it is especially good that I coat my sheep as the hay I'm feeding the lambs and goats unfortunately has a lot of burrs in it.
Buck and wether kids plus the ram lambs. This year I am planning on selling about 10 kids for butcher and hope to get a good price. I will shear them in mid March and then sell them.

Pure Breeding Group

Everest (the teaser boy) went in yesterday and in about 10 days the real rams go in.

Sommarang Gilroy-linebred on Greyling. Nice horns and conformation. He is black, fine fleeced (more on the matte side) and carries spots, he will get:

PS23 Dingdong-fawn, silky double coat ewe who may carry spots

PS23 Eastwind-emsket HST, silky double coat

UTS Aran-sheala, very soft fleece

UTS Jelly Drop-emsket, silky double coat ewe who may carry spots

PS23 Funzie-grey katmoget (F1 Jings), very fine and crimpy fleece; horned

PS23 Gloria-white, fine, silky and crimpy

PS23 Glitter-white, fine, silky and crimpy ewe who may carry spots

PS23 Edelwiess-musket katmoget, very silky and wavy, throws extremly fine fleeced lambs

PS23 Daysong-grey katmoget, med. fine and crimpy ewe who may carry spots and modified

PS23 Craigrothie-F1 Skeld. He is white with a pearly, silky, soft fleece. He has aberrant horns and has thrown polled rams. He may get (if I have space):

Sabbath Farm Fontyen -fawn katmoget, med. fine and crimpy; horned (if I don't use Craigrothie she will go to Hector)

Sheepy Hollow Sienna-moorit, very fine, silky and crimpy; horned (she will go to Gilroy if I don't use C.)

PS23 Hector-F1 Jings. White very fine, crimpy, silky, very soft fleece. This ram has a wild streak and is very aloof. He has great conformation and is fineboned with nice horns. He will be getting:

PS23 Flourance-white with a soft, silky, wavy fleece. She is a very petite ewe and may be for sale next year.

PS23 Goldenrod-musket (who I think is also mioget), very soft, silky and crimpy fleece. Nice size on this girl.

PS23 Humphry-F2 Jings. Fawn katmoget with color. Very soft, crimpy and cushy fleece. Nice horns. This little guy is calm. He will be getting:

Sabbath Farm Silvia-grey, silky fleece

PS23 Gardenia-grey gulmoget/katmoget, very silky and very soft fleece. Milky ewe line.

PS23 Easterlilly-white, fine and crimpy fleece

PS23 Huckelberry-F1 Ram (Black) med. dark grey katmoget. Crimpy, silky and fine fleece. Nice horns. This boy is very tame and friendly. He will be getting:

Sabbath Farm Swan- musket, silky fleece. Milky ewe line.

PS23 Ferndale-(F1 Gordon) black/sheala. Crimpy, dense, med. fine fleece

PS23 Forsythia- light grey, very fine and crimpy fleece.

These are the girls about a month ago. Everyone has coats on now.

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.