Fall Flock Update

In the last post I was introducing new lambs, not even having finished lambing for the season, and now I'm anticipating next year's arrivals. Our 2014 lambing season concluded with nineteen lambs out of nine ewes sired by two rams, Winston and Nelson. Yesterday we began our 2014 breeding season and will be exposing twelve ewes, in two groups, to two rams. We'll give Nelson the year off and swap in Jacob, our yearling musket out of Kira, sired by Cedar.

Group 1: Jacob's Ladies
Jacob is a yearling musket out of a Kira-Cedar breeding. He was a triplet and has excellent horns and a kindly fleece. His sister will be bred to Winston and move on to a new home at the end of breeding season, and while I already have his mother and two half-sisters, I simply love every lamb descended from Kira. I'm hoping he will pass along his mild temperament and a shorter staple length when crossed with the following long-fleeced ewes.

As it is his first breeding, he will only get a handful of ladies "just in case". All four girls are Xavier daughters and were among our first batches of lambs. Maggie, Edna, Annie and Claire have all produced wonderful lambs. I'm very excited to see their 2015 lambs, and I'm predicting a true Shetland assortment of brown fleeces.

So far this group doesn't seem very interested in Jacob. I saw him chase Claire around the big pine at least a half dozen times before he gave up. I guess it just wasn't his day. I'm sure we'll have lambs in April, but I guess I better leave him in there for the whole month to make sure. 




Group 2: Winston's Ladies
Winston is our senior ram. Very correct, with a perfect Shetland tail, Winston has more a primitive fleece. His long locks are probably his weakest characteristic, which is why most of the ewes in his group have much shorter staples.

The 2014 lambs he sired were a bit of a disappointment, but that had more to do with a shortened breeding season and the ewes he was with. Lambs out of Edna were the exception, being spectacular in both conformation and color. I'm anxious to see what other ewes will produce when exposed to this wild card. With Winston's genetics, it seems almost any color and pattern can appear, which makes using this ram well worth it.

Ewes in Winston's group are both veterans and first-timers. Poa, Kira, Madeleine, and Ella will all be lambing again this year. It will probably be Poa's last lambing before retirement. Mary, Myra, and Martha are all Cedar yearlings, and our two-year-old Cali will also be a new mom this year. Martha will move to a new flock after breeding, leaving us with seven ewes bred by Winston.

Winston was a gentleman at moving time. When he got to the ladies' pen he ran in after them, only to watch them all disperse in the opposite direction. He followed a few of the girls around for a bit and the younger ewes cautiously sneaked in for a sniff. No one was terribly excited to see him, but that's to be expected.

As for other flock news, our numbers will be increasing slightly going into the winter. We had nineteen lambs, but we sold ten sheep this year and will be slaughtering at most six lambs. I plan to hold two of the five ram lambs over, one by Nelson and one by Winston, to see how they progress. I also plan to hold on to Edna's ewe and Claire's ewe, with the possibility of holding over Annie's twins. It's always hard to know just what to do with those beautiful, if crazy, ewe lambs.

Wacky Weekend of Lambs

It's been a long weekend of lambs, but it all started last Monday when Bel birthed twin four-pound ewes prematurely. I say prematurely because she was so tiny and barely had an udder. The moorit ewe didn't make it, but the grey ewe is holding on just fine. 

We had to wait until Friday morning before any more lambs arrived. Claire had twin moorit lambs - one ram, one ewe. They each have one prominent white mark, the ram's on his forehead and the ewe's in the corner of her eye. These two are very fine-boned.

Friday afternoon Maggie had a standing ewe and a just-born ram she was cleaning off when I got home from work. The ram is fawn and the ewe is moorit. Maggie's lambs are solid little lambs with stockier builds and are very square.

Just as Maggie was cleaning off her ram Clover was in early active labor. By five o'clock three lambs were born and cleaned.  The two katmogets had horn buds so I assumed they were rams. The moorit was clearly a ewe. Upon closer inspection the runt seemed to have no male anatomy and not quite familiar female anatomy either. I suspect this little one is a hermaphrodite. 

Saturday afternoon temperatures reached the mid-50s, and once again Wynona decided to lamb outside in the paddock. I had to rescue the little ewe from the dangers of the big girls whose unwelcoming head-butts were at very least frightening for her.

And before bed another ewe was in early labor. Tail-head raised, Edna stood star-gazing chewing her cud. I shut off the barn lights, closed the doors, and much like a little kid at Christmas, fell asleep anxious for the morning's surprise. And what a SURPRISE!

Edna seemed to have lambed the ultimate variety pack: an almost solid grey ewe with a few small white spots, a musket speckled ram, and a yuglet ilget grey ewe. All three are doing quite well.

So far this brings our tally to:
14 lambs out of 6 ewes
4 rams and 10 ewes 
6 lambs sired by Winston and 8 by Nelson

We still have three more girls to lamb. My guess is Madeleine will triple first, Ella will twin second, and Annie will twin last. I'm hoping for seven rams!

One week until lambing...

One week until the ewes are officially due. Here are the ladies as they appeared a week ago. Udders are definitely larger this week.

Wynona - Is she pregnant? Maybe she'll single.

Edna - She must have at least two.

Bel - She's definitely bred but there may be only one in there.

Madeleine - She tripled last year and was smaller. Maybe she'll triple full-term this year?

Clover - Two or three. She's wider than she's been in the past.

Ella - I'd say one but both her sister and mother have consistently had triplets.

Claire - Small twins.

Maggie - A safe set of twins.

4 Weeks Until Lambing...

Yesterday I was finally able to get some pictures of the girls post-shearing. It has been two weeks since their wooly coats were removed and the weather has not been kind to the poor sheep. We've had several nights of below-zero temperatures and today's snow storm combined with tomorrow's cold temperatures have me a bit concerned about the coat-less flock.

This year we called the spinnery and set a date for dropping off the fleeces. We spent six hours on Saturday skirting 25 fleeces. Two of the girls have fleeces with staple lengths longer than the maximum 8-inch length that the spinnery can handle, so those fleeces will have to find a hand-spinner's home or some other use. The yearling lambs have beautifully crimpy, soft even-lengthed coats, which is what most Shetland breeders are aiming for. I'm excited to see what the finished product will yield when we get our yarn back in a few months.

Winston and his ewes.

Last fall we decided to set up two breeding groups - a first for us. All was going well until a fence broke and ram lambs ended up in the wrong pen. Luckily the girls had been with the desired ram for a few weeks and I'm hoping those girls go early so I can safely say who their sire is.

Breeding Group 1: Winston was exposed to six ewes. Wynona was only with him for two days and then when we finally moved the group out into the back field she refused to follow, so I'll be surprised if she was bred. Of the other five ewes, I can only say for certain that Bel and Edna were settled. Franny and Cali don't show any signs of being bred and I'm not sure about Ella, but I think she may be. So my guess is we'll have between four and eight lambs sired by Winston.

Left to right: Ella, Edna, and Bel.

 

Breeding Group 2: Nelson was exposed to five ewes. I saw him settle Madeleine, Clover, and Maggie in November and all three are certainly bred. The twins, Claire and Annie, also seem to have been bred, but Annie is so skittish that I can't really tell. If anyone was missed it was Annie, and she did seem to be hanging around the ram near the end of their time together, so she may have just been missed. I would guess we'll have between eight and twelve lambs sired by Nelson. Madeleine had triplets last year and Clover looks huge, so there is the potential for triplets again this year. 


 Left to right: Clover, Maggie, Claire, and Madeleine.

Last night when I drove up to the barn the girls were sunbathing. Can you guess who's related in this picture?

Warm Weather and Wooly Friends

The weekend allowed us a brief break from the warm humid weather that brought many thunderstorms and lots of rain in the past few weeks. Unfortunately that hot humid weather is back and preventing many of the necessary projects from getting done. Three weeks ago a high-winds thunderstorm took down several large trees on the farm, including a great big cherry that landed right on the fence. A large tamarack was uprooted in the far corner of the field, but luckily it stayed within the field, sparing the fence. Yesterday we finally got the remaining debris off of the paddock fences in the main field and the sheep are back out grazing.

The girls don't seem to like this humid weather or the flies. Each seems to have a strategy for staying cool.

Some ewes seem to keep cool and protected by laying down as flat as possible in the tall grass. Madeleine demonstrates to the right.

Some ewes prefer to lay in the shade of a pine against a cool rock. Mocha demonstrates to the left.

And some ewes prefer to hide in the shade of the large burdock weeds. Maggie and her ewe lamb demonstrate below.

This weekend we also were able to sell seven ewes.

Crystal's ewe lamb was sold as a pet sheep and companion for another Shetland ewe. The girls will primarily be used as lawnmowers. 

Two yearlings and four ewe lambs were also sold, bringing our total ewe lambs down to four and our flock down to 35. After the ram lambs go we'll have 28 for the winter, which is probably right where we should be.

With the ewes gone the sheep sorting is almost done for the season. Aside from the three ram lambs that jumped the corral a few weeks ago to stay with their mothers, everyone is where they should be until breeding.

After all of the sorting and selling, Kira's three lambs remain on the farm. One of her ram lambs was weaned three weeks ago and made it to the back field, but the other decided it wasn't time to leave her side yet. Fortunately this has worked well, allowing both ram lambs and her ewe to catch up in size to the other lambs.

Kira is always the last to wean her lambs, often nursing well into the fall until she is separated for breeding. It always seems funny to watch her lambs, almost half her size, get on bended knees for a quick drink.

She is a great mother and the first ewe to raise triplets on our farm. Her girls are always friendly and her boys curious but non-aggressive. Her rams have consistently decent horns, and this year's rams have the best we've seen. If all of our sheep had her personality and mothering abilities we would have one easy flock to manage!

I'm not sure if it's the fact that she always throws Ag lambs or if her lambs are just exceptionally photogenic, but I find something irresistible about her girls.

From left to right: Ella (2012), Madeleine (2011), and...Oops! I guess the next step is naming the four little ewes that remain...(2013).

Speaking of naming, this little black ewe lamb out of Maggie is staying right here as our solid black ewe. She has a perfect Shetland tail, a little wooly poll, super crimpy fleece like her dad (Cedar), and has a curious personality.

 

In other news, I've finished my first sweater. Of course it is only size 6 months, but it's still exciting to have a finished product from our farm! The wool is from Otto (brown) and Mac (gray), two of our whethers.

The next post will have to be of the new chickens. The little layers are two months old now and getting used to being at the bottom of the pecking order. They've just gotten outside this week and are really enjoying the fresh grass freedom to roam with the ram lambs.

Lambs for Sale

Lambing concluded one week from its start. From the eight ewes we had 16 viable lambs: 7 rams and 9 ewes. It was quite the week, but overall it was a very successful season with few complications and lots of very solid Shetland lambs.

The biggest surprise was certainly Edna. She's the ewe I thought would single a week or more before the rest. She twinned four days after the last average lambing due date. At least she gave us twin rams - the only set!

Crystal had triplets again, and again she lost one. I left her in the barn Monday night after watching her closely for two hours. She seemed close when I left the barn around 9, but I knew once she started it would be another hour or two before I'd get to bed, and as I'd already been feeling off earlier in the day I decided to go home. When I got the barn the next morning there were two dried off lambs and one covered in hay. The surviving two were almost solid black - a ram and a ewe. The ewe that didn't make it had white stockings and a white muzzle. She would have been the most varied ewe of the season. There probably wasn't much that could have been done had I stayed that night, but coming into a stall with a dead lamb is always puzzling. On a brighter note, the surviving ewe lamb is already nibbling my fingers and demanding tail-waggling chest scratches. Hopefully we can find her a good home.

I finally set up a page with animals for sale. If you'd like to see pictures of this year's ewe lambs, go the For Sale tab above.

Loads of Lambs

Lambing re-cap...

Wednesday: Madeleine had triplets with one surviving ram lamb. He's a spotted musket.

Thursday: Poa had twin black ewe lambs in the morning.

 

Maggie had twin black ewe lambs in the afternoon.

Friday: Kira had triplets awaiting at 5:30 am - two rams and one ewe. The two spotted ones have sugar-lips and should be musket.

The ewe thought it would be easier to nurse laying down.
 




By 7:00 am Claire had delivered a ram and a ewe. Her non-bred sister Annie was by her side as she delivered.

 

Saturday: Wynona had twin ewes outside! The girls each weighed 8 lbs, which I guess is why I thought she'd have triplets. All the other lambs are averaging 5.5 lbs. She had one solid black and one solid brown. Pictures to come soon.
 
Two to go (and they're both past the due-date)...

Total Count: 12 lambs - 4 rams, 8 ewes
Colors: 5 black, 7 moorit based (1 mioget, 3 musket, 1 fawn, 3 moorit)
Spots: 6 spotted, 6 solid
Weights: 4.5-6 lbs

I'm hoping there are 5 more lambs to come and that they're all rams! There are too many cute ewes with perfect tails and sweet faces. Many of these girls will have to find new homes or else I'm going to have some REALLY hard decisions to make.