Spring; New life and rebirth

 

This is what our Easter Basket looks like this year.

The sweetest, tiny-ist shetland lambs I think I've every seen.

I weighed these twins, black, white ram and brown, white ewe when they were 24 hours old.

So they had already nursed well from their mother.  the ewe lamb weighed 13ounces, the ram 17 ounces.

They are thriving and doing very well.  

I imagine that these are what the shetland breed was all about being island sheep.

Before we, people began breeding for larger, bigger, heavier shetlands.

Our lambing was the earliest that we have ever had.  Beginning March 3rd and finishing March 28th, we had 55 lambs born.  Fourteen crossbred (8ewes/6rams) and 41 Shetlands (22ewes/19rams).

The oldest lambs are now a month old and eating hay and grain, becoming "teenagers" already.  

These photos are some of the xbred bred lambs, Border Cheviot / Shetlands.

This is a beautiful day to take in some Sunshine.

The above moorit shetland ram above is already sprouting his 

horns, hopefully to be a nice display.

Lastly, this morning as I finished my barn chores I decided to do a quick first wash on the sheep coast that have been sitting since we sheared in early March.

What a mess!

These will need several more washes, some will need repaired and in a few months will be put back on the sheep to keep those fleeces clean.

As I worked on cleaning these coats, I couldn't help but think about 

all the extra time that we put into keeping our fleeces clean for 

hand spinners.  

I really don't think the average spinner has any idea of the work involved to grow healthy fleeces and have clean wool.

#1608 Tessa, #1511 Lydia & #192 Thea

 We have been going like gang busters with lambs.

I think we have 23 ewes yet to deliver...I have to double check on one of these, she may not be bred.

Our expected last day for lambing is March 25th, so we should be busy for the next week and a half.

Early this morning Tessa delivered twins, ram and ewe.  She was bred to Shamus.

Tessa and Shamus are both spotted shetlands

Both lambs are moorit and white.  The marking are interesting.

#1511 Lydia also spotted was bred to Shamus to.

Having twins, a ram and ewe, these are also moorit and white.

Notice the same marking across the rump on the lamb above and below??

I find this interesting, I don't know if this is a pattern in the breed or not.  It doesn't match anything that is shown on the breed associations poster for possible patterns.

#192 Thea (who is also Tessa's daughter) who is a solid black ewe was bred to Moogega, my ram lamb that is black and white, spotted.  He is just considered "flecket", but his black markings are only on his withers (shoulders) and forward.

Thea, delivered this single ewe lamb today.

She also has interesting markings, around the rump also.

That's it for today, hoping we have a few more tomorrow.

lambs, Lambs & more LAMBS...

 I fully intended to post lamb pictures are they were born, as I have in the past.  This year things just got out of hand.

This past week has been a whirlwind of having lambs.  I don't think we have ever had so many deliver so closely together.  So are we have had Twenty-One ewes deliver Twenty-Eight lambs.

It's nice that our lambs will all be born within approximate three week period, so they'll all be close in age, but it is very tiring. and I just didn't get pics. of all of them so I'm going to share some photos.

Above my Cormo/Shetland ewe delivered this single ewe lamb on 3/8

I noticed the lambs right front leg was bent at the first joint.

Something like this usually happens when their is not enough room

for the lamb to move in the womb and the tendons are weak.

I ended up taking the lamb into the house and bandaging her leg

to give more support until she is able to walk.  Then returning

her to the barn with her mom and offering a bottle.

My friend offered to come out and feed the lamb a bottle at Noon the following day.

I had explained to him that there were two ewes with two lambs in the pen

and that this white lamb needed a bottle offered.

When he arrived, he called me because he was confused, there were two ewes

with four lambs!

I was shocked...this ewe has only ever had a single lamb.

This ewe was bred to my Border Cheviot/Shetland ram.

Another shetland ewe crossbred with the Border Cheviot/Shetland ram.

And another, this little ram lamb weighed 7lbs. 10oz.

         

Above a purebred shetland lamb.

    A group of lambs snoozing this morning.

Another purebred shetland lamb above.

Above, purebred spotted shetland lamb.

Purebred shetland ewe lamb above.

Above, I cross bred my mioget shetland ewe this year.

This moorit: Shetland X Border Cheviot/Shetland ewe lamb

is beautiful.

Another crossbred ram lamb.

Purebred Shetland ram lamb.  We have had three purebred shetland 

lambs with this spotting pattern this year.

Very excited about this.  We have been working on this for several years.

His other side.

I worked in the barn all day today, so much to catch up with.

I release ewes with new lambs from pens after three days of bonding.

The oldest lambs are over a week old and I needed to get a creep feed pen set up

so they can start eating pellets.

Cute katmoget ewe lamb above.

Another one of those spotted babies.

The white on these spotted lambs is bright white too.

another purebred shetland ewe lamb above.

Play time!  Nothing like a pregnant ewe getting jumped on by 

a lamb.

So, in a very short time we have had alot of lambs born and have

TWENTY-SIX! Yet to deliver.

I will try better to get photos up.

We still have many beautiful raw fleeces available is anyone is looking for spinning fleeces.

All the sheep were coated and the fleeces are very clean.

Email if interested.

Successful shearing day and lambing has begun!

 We had a great day for shearing our sheep.

With many hands helping.....I appreciate all of you!!

We have many fleeces still available, all of these are quality fleeces for handspinners.

The sheep have been coated and the fleeces are very clean.

many colors available.. brown based colors, brown and white, black and white.

White and black and many grey.  All clean and ready to be spun!

The last few years I've made a list of all the sheep, along with their names and micron information if available.  I've also listed the sire and dam of each one.  I like to keep this in the barn as we shear

so we can at a glance see the micron date or genetic lines.

This has been helpful to us as well as our guests, handspinners, in making their selections.

There is much preparation that is done prior to our Shearing date.  So we were busy cleaning our area that is used for shearing the sheep because our round bales of hay would normally be in this spot.

I didn't get any photos while we were shearing this year, I just didn't think about it.

We did have our first lambs born on Monday, March 3rd.

#161 Troyana delivered Twins, black ram above and grey katmoget ewe below.  The sire is Two Tone.  We repeated this breeding.  I really liked the lambs she had for us last year.

This little ram lamb was born Friday, March 5th.  he is a dark brown (moorit).

His dam is #201, Lark, his Sire, is a black and white spotted ram, Hoyt.

#203 Ophelia delivered twin ewes on Saturday, March 6th, on our Shearing day.  The sire, Moogega, a spotted black and white ram.  

This ewe is #1547 Lilly, a flecket, I just love all the body spots!  She was bred to Moogega.  A ram that was born here last year and also has this same pattern.  I was really hoping to get this pattern by breeding them together  and success!

We got this cute little ewe lamb.  She looks like she has a big head....but she doesn't.  It's just the angle that I took the pic...it makes her look a little funny!

From what I understand this body marking isn't considered a pattern according to the breed association, it is just called flecket.

But, I tend to think that if a consistent "marking" can been repeated... that it is a pattern.

...just my thoughts on that one.

So the shearing is done and on to the lambing.  Many more lambs to come.

If you are looking for nice clean spinning fleeces shoot me an email to 

make arrangements and check out our fleeces.

Shearing Day ... UPDATE!

Our Shearing Day  is set for SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 2021 

There was a slight change in the schedule BUT we have been confirmed for SATURDAY MARCH 6th for Shearing!!

All the ewes have coats on so their wool is very clean and this makes it so nice for anyone (handspinner) who wants to process the wool themselves. 

We are having an "Open House" for wool sales on the day of shearing and will be available on Sunday, March 7th for anyone who might be looking for fleeces to purchase.

Contact me via email through this blog at dschrader001@yahoo.com

We have 72 Shetland Sheep that will be shorn and their fleeces will be available to purchase.

Many natural colors of wool to choose from.  From very fine wool, 19 micron, crimpy fleeces to a few that are closer to 30 micron, with a more wavy fleece type.  Mostly single coat fleeces, very few double coat.

If you are not able to come during our Open House, just contact us and we will 

make special arrangements for you to visit and check out our raw fleeces.

We will be expecting our first lambs to be born on March 1st, so by our Shearing date we may have several ewes that have delivered lambs. 

Stay tuned to see photos of lambs as they are born.  I like to post their pics. as a reference for myself and to share.

Stay Warm... Better weather is right around the corner!

Reviewing micron data, breeding groups and what's to come...

 We have had a mild winter so far this year....knock on wood!

 As I was feeding the ewes recently I spotted one that has begun to show a bit of an udder.                            So I wanted to review my data and recall all the breeding groups I put together along with the newest micron data I recently received back on a my yearling ewes.

Our first expected lambing is March 1st.  We expect to have all lambs born within three weeks of this date, since we only kept our breeding groups together for three weeks last fall.

I've kept fleece samples of my yearling ewes that were micron tested.  #208 Zinnia, a white ewe.  I was very pleased with her dense fleece type and micron results, micron average 21.4, and look at that length.  I have repeated this breeding, hoping for more of the same.

Rams #234, Moogega is another surprise, I really didn't expect him to get a ram this fine out of his sire, his micron average, 21.6.  I also repeated this breeding.

The other yearlings micron averages were #212-25.8, #211- 23.6, #210 - 26.3, #209 - 27.2 and #203 - 25.2.  All very nice, and really expected as we used some rams that had micron much higher than we really wanted, but DID have fleece patterns that we are trying to bring out.

On another note,  we do have our shearing day scheduled for Friday, March 5th.  Anyone who spins wool, has bought fleeces from me in the past or would like to experience a shearing please contact me and we will try and make arrangements so you can get a "first pick" on fleeces or just the experience.

We plan to begin shearing in the morning, but I do plan to have an open house on Saturday, March 6th for anyone who would like to come and purchase raw fleeces.  We have about 70 sheep here and they are all coated....meaning we have clean fleeces!!!

Groups or Guilds are welcome!

Email me directly to make arrangements.

 Baa Baa Black Sheep, have you any wool?

Yes Sir, yes sir, three bags full...

 This year has been a hum-dinger!  I've had much going on in the last five months, but everytime I've thought I should put out a post it's either been too late or I've been short of time (i didn't make the time).

Above photo shows what I have left of my 2020 wool clip that I have finally sorted through and made three bags to be processed into combed top. All together about 45 - 50 pounds of wool.

The bag on the left will be a grey blend, the middle a brown and the right a fawn color.

Planning to send it out the beginning of January and hope to have it back in five months, in time for the 2021 Great Lakes Fiber Show. 

 

Through out this summer I was determined to have more clean wool!!  This is a priority for a hand spinner.  So making several fabric purchases we have make enough sheep coats to get ALL of the sheep coated.  We have played around with the "sheep coat design" trying different things.  

 

Various sizes of coats and even trying to perfect one coat that will work for a sheep during the whole fleece growing season...still working on that one!

Our flock size has increased a bit.  At this time our ewe and ewe lamb group is at sixty.

This is a large number of sheep, But these are not all mine.  I am also keeping my friend Dave's flock in with mine.

Above are most of the 2020 ewe lambs eating off the hay bags. All summer they were out in their pasture and they had access to these bags, so they continue to like eating from them rather than the hay feeders.

So the adults have access to four hay feeder, plus the hay bags if they choose.  This year we have made some really nice quality hay and I decided to take all of them off grain after weaning lambs.  This has worked out really well.  The body condition of all the sheep is very good.  

This has helped to cut the cost of buying grain, but has increased our hay consumption.  Our field has produced a record amount of hay this year, but we did also have to buy an extra 20 round bales to see us through till June, 2021.

But the sheep have paid their way...even this year.  Private sheep sales, early in the year raw wool sales and many of the cross bred lambs and ram lambs sent to sale, bringing in excellent prices this year too.

This is the only ram lamb that I kept this year.  He is a superfine ram.  I was really impressed that we got a superfine considering his sire, who was not so fine, although his dam is.

We spend many, many hours figuring out our breeding groups this year.  Down to actually figuring out percentages of the genetic pool of each ewe and potential sire.  We needed to do this because we were putting some breeding groups together that were pretty closely related (we are trying to produce more of this particular pattern in the shetland breed).

We put our breeding groups together for the Month of October.  Separating them a week earlier than planned due to having the ewe lambs outside in a temporary shelter during a week of rainy weather and I just didn't want to keep them out in those conditions any longer.

So all of my ewes may not be bred this year, but those things happen...I'm sure that we will have a nice lamb crop with our first ones expected on March 1, 2021.

This fall I submitted some photo's of our English Shepherd "Red" to the SHEPHERD'S CALL, the newsletter of the English Shepherd Club.  They put a call out this year for photo's of the various breed colors and have shared them in the bi-monthly newsletter.

Red is considered a clear solid sable, his photo should be in the January, 2021 issue.

 

Being involved in a Spinning and Weaving Guild, as a group, we tend to get donations from generous people to utilize and care for precious old equipment that has been saved from being destroyed.

Recently a bunch of "old equipment" was recently donated, many parts and pieces.  Some in decent condition and some not so much.

I had asked if their were any parts that could be put together and that needed some work to make a working spinning wheel.  I had a young friend in mind to give this to if so.

Two dusty off wheels were dropped off at my home. Both had a true wheel, not warped.  Both have some parts missing and need some TLC.  I decided to clean up the one that looked to be a better option.  First wiping off the layers of dust and grime with warm soapy water, then wiping off again with clean water.  Scrubbing the orifice and guide hooks with a small wire brush.  Then oiling all the metal and moving parts, along with the original leather bearing that hold the bobbin and flyer.            Finishing up with tung oil over all the wood.

As I turned to the front of the wheel, at the tension screw to rub tung oil across the bench I was surprised to find the makers initials! MNS

What a find!  I quickly snapped a photo and sent to my friend!  This wheel has the makers mark!        So I thought I better look at the bottom for a signature...no signature.

I continued to rub tung oil across the bench and only then did I notice the date!  1832!!

This was so exciting!  To comprehend that this spinning wheel is almost 200 years old and has been held onto and saved by so many people along the way.

Notice the leather bearing that holds the orifice.

Although this wheel is not original to this particular spinning wheel as it is a bit larger than would have been on it. 

So this was quite an exciting find, but then I was a bit apprehensive of giving this particular wheel to a young person to actually learn to spin with.

This wheel belongs in a museum or historical society.

So the search will continue for an appropriate wheel for a young person that wants to learn to spin.

 

Have a MERRY COUNTRY CHRISTMAS,

from our Family to yours,

DLS Shetlands