a stalled out lambing season continues

 We've almost double our deliveries in two days

Dave's ewe #200, bred with Stephanie Silver 

delivered this spotted single ewe lamb

She is just a little thing, typical of a Shetland.

#161 one of my Black Shetland ewes delivered this 

spotted Katmoget  Shetland ram lamb.

He is quite cute.

Later in the day when I removed the afterbirth from her pen

I discovered a small deceased lamb still wrapped within the placenta lining.

It's a complete guess on my end, but I would say that the lamb may have died 4 weeks earlier.

It was completely developed, although no fleece.  Yet the color of it was quite obvious.

A black and white spotted lamb.  He or She would have been quite a colorful addition.

#325 one of my crossbred ewes (Border Cheviot, Shetland and a bit of Cormo) was bred with my Cormo/Shetland ram lamb from the 2023 lamb crop.  She delivered a single white ewe lamb.

She has many of the skin wrinkles from the Cormo.  I think she is quite cute

and will have a wonderful fleece when she grows up.

#252 delivered this single ewe lamb this afternoon.  It is a moorit who's color will fade out to musket, 

a brown based color.

We have a few more to go yet and should be done with lambing

by the end of March.

More lambs

 

This grey Katmoget ewe #332, which I haven't registered yet or named her.

Delivered this singe dark grey katmoget ewe lamb.

Sire is Stephanite Silver.

She was resting with her mom in the early morning of March 11th

when I arrived in the barn to check on everyone and give some hay.

One of my crossbred ewes (Shetland/Border Cheviot/with a bit of Cormo) 

delivered this single ewe lamb, late evening of March 12th.

She was bred to a Cormo/Shetland ram lamb that I held back from

the Cormo ewe that is shown in the previous post.

This Dam has a very nice white fleece, I'm sure her lamb's fleece will be amazing.

Dave's ewe #195 was bred with Stephanite Silver.

Upon entering the barn this evening, March 13th she was 

resting with her ram lamb.

Another dark grey katmoget.

 We cut the breeding groups short last fall, so we should be done lambing

by the end of March.

From what I can see, I think we have seven yet to deliver.

Shearing early & Lambing has begun

We planned to shear at our normal time which would be early March but with the mild winter weather that we have had this year our shearer suggested shearing earlier.

  We Sheared our flock on February 9th.  Which is really early for us, but surprisingly I'm really glad that we did.  Hoping to get the fleeces off before the Shetlands would be "in the rise".

As they were shorn just about eight of our black shetland ewes were "in the rise".  Interesting how it was only those with the darker fleeces that were affected by our weather change.

We didn't have much time to notify our "helpers", area spinners but fortunately some where able to stop by and help on this day and had first pick of many beautiful fleeces.

Pictured above, our ram, Stephanite Silver is the ram we put to several shetland ewes last fall.

So we hope to have some very nice lambs from him.  I just love the variation of color in his fleece.  He has the Katmoget pattern, very dark grey and black in the neck and shoulder area, then changes to a bit lighter grey, yet still a very dark grey.  He does have a couple of white spots on him, which show in his fleece.  He also have a nice wide horn set, which cannot be seen in the photo....I was too busy trying to get a great shot of that fleece!

Lambing Begins!

#241 Serafina delivered the single ewe lamb March 6th, Sire is Stephanite Silver.

She is a pretty little girl!

Dave's ewe #191 delivered this single, beautiful black ram lamb on March 8th, Sire is Stephanie Silver.

This little guy has a beautiful black color and will most likely be available after weaning.

Cleopatra my Cormo ewe was bred to my crossbred ram #191, a 50% Shetland, 50% Border Cheviot.

This pairing gave us this adorable ram lamb - my what BIG ears you have!

(he got his mama's ears) 

All those wrinkles in his skin come from the Dam's lineage.

The Cormo breed was developed in Australia by crossing Corriedale rams with superfine Saxon Merino ewes.

(This little guy may already be spoken for)

We have downsized our flock a bit and are trying to continue to downsize.

This past fall we bred some, but not all the ewes, trying to make less work for myself.

So many of the lambs and possibly adults will be available after weaning, sometime in June and after.