Our English Shepherd Red 03/10/2010 ~ 04/10/2021

 Such a loyal companion, always by my side no matter what I was doing.  

He is greatly missed and our hearts ache for him.

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.