#132 Xbred ewe (cormo/shetland)

When I arrived in the barn this morning my

other Cormo/Shetland ewe had delivered her lamb.

This long and linky Border Cheviot 50%,Cormo 12.5%/Shetland 37.5%

 ewe lamb.

I will be docking her tail tomorrow.  She will also be 

available when weaned, sometime in June.

#131 -shetland/cormo ewe & #129 Willow -shetland ewe

New arrivals today.

 I have two Shetland/Cormo ewes in my flock.

They produce very nice white fleeces, a bit heavier 

than the purebred Shetlands.

 This year I bred both of them to the purebred Border Cheviot 

ram that I have right now.

 The ewe that delivered today gave us two long and linky ewe lambs.

These girls won't be staying here.  When they are weaned and

big enough (probably mid-late June) they will be going to 

a new home.  These girls would make someone a great addition

in a mixed breeding flock.

 This ewe is Willow, a purebred Shetland.  She is a sweet ewe and I was exited to see 

what she was going to give us this year. I bred her to Gordon,

one of our newer rams.  He is a Cape Flecket (spots)

 Well that Katmoget pattern is strong.  Both are grey katmogets.

The ewe lamb has a large white blaze on her head and face.

The ram lamb appears much darker grey.

It will take a couple of years with some of these lambs, putting them

back to other rams with spotting to get more spots or cape flecket pattern.

I do have a couple other ewes that were paired with Gordon

that have given me spots before, but the spots always faded away.

So I am excited to see what I get from them.

Stay tuned.....more to come, just don't know how soon.

Ewe #173

I have a couple of ewe's that I have not registered from the 2017 lambing.

One of them has delivered today, #173.  

So, guess I better get to it regarding her papers.

 This ewe lamb was born today. She is also out of Ram # 26

Gwenever DuRoy.  Her fleece will also be very fine.

So far that makes 3 ewes and 3 rams with more to come.

#70 Laurel

Last evening, March 13th. Laurel delivered twins.

 Both are rams...of course!  

The morrit above is going to be really fine. He is much lighter in color

than he appeared last night, of course he was still wet when I seen him.

I didn't notice a copper look to his face but he appears lighter

We'll watch him and see what happens.

This black lamb has a few white hairs on his forehead, other than 

that he is completely black.  At this time his fleece does not appear

that it will be as fine as his brothers, but I'm sure he will have a

great fleece.  

Laurel was bred to Ram #26 Gwenever DuRoy

Shearing, sheared, shorn and spots too!

Waiting for your shearing day is like waiting for

Christmas morning  when you were a kid.  

Yep, that's how I would describe it.

Out to the barn early to get everyone squeezed together in a pen 

to wait on their turn to be sheared.  The ewes get to wait on the rams.  

We shear our rams first so we can put them back into their pen in a

much smaller space. For their safety...it seems that the rams

always have to reestablish their pecking order and want to push 

each other around.  Having lost a ram once to this we find 

this to be a safest way to handle them.

This morning I let them out and everyone is getting along well.

Our shearer, Sardis did a wonderful job shearing all our sheep.

He sheared 56 sheep in 7 hours, bless him.

This is a young man's game.

 The girls were famished!  

They were fed the morning prior to shearing.

So they didn't have full bellies making it more difficult or stressing

on them while they are being shorn.

They all loved getting their fleeces off! 

As soon as they were turned loose from being sheared they were 

immediately looking find a gate to rub on.

I was so exited when this yearling (in the middle) was shorn.

She was wildly spotted when she was born and like the others

that I've had with spots I figured they would fad away.

When I pulled her coat off and parted her fleece I was sooo happy.

She has kept her spots!!

I look forward to getting to pair her up with  potential suitors

since we now have a couple of rams that do have spots

(I've save them for another post).

So a long, tiring and exciting day was had by all who attending our shearing.

Many fleeces were sold and many more have yet to be skirted, 

but that will take me a little longer as I also have to recover

from this long day, like I said "it's a young man's woman's game.

Shearing date & more new lambs

We will be shearing our sheep on Monday, March 11th.  

I expect our shearer to be here in the morning (don't have an exact time yet)

and should be done by early afternoon (hopefully).

Anyone that is looking for farm fresh fleeces contact me.  

We will be selling fleeces the day of shearing to anyone that might 

be interested.

We do have a volunteer crew ready to help in our shearing this year

as it takes several hands to make this day a success.

LAMBS:

We had two ewes that each delivered a single lamb.

 This ewe is #174, Iola.  A first time mom.  She delivered this 

very fine white ram lamb this morning when I went out to the barn.

He has tan on his legs and some on his face and a black spot you can 

see in the picture below.

Iola was bred to Gordon one of our newer rams that is spotted.

This little guy already has decent horn buds and his fleece looks 

of a circular crimp.  Iola fleece is white, super fine and very dense.

 #103, Olympia delivered this really big ewe lamb this afternoon.

Olympia was bred to TwoTone, he also has spotting, but that

lovely katmoget pattern comes through strong.

This little ewe is a grey katmoget, just like her mom.

 We have many more to go and you just never know who is going to deliver next.

...maybe tomorrow?

 

 

2019 Lambing begins

February  28, 2019 This cute little katmoget ewe lamb was born.  Our first for this season...more to come!

The Dam is my Whistle Stope ewe, bred to ram #26 Gwenever DuRoy, who was sold last fall to another shetland breeder in New York.  

Can't what to see what else we get using that ram.  Most of the ewes that were in with him were bred before he left in October. 

Stay tuned...