#129 Willow, #200 Speck & #239 Wilona

We finished lambing! 

Our lambing season ran from March 4th to April 1st,

leaving me a bit tired and behind in getting photos.

I've attached photos of the last three Shetland ewes that were bred to Shetland Rams.

Many of my ewes were cross bred this year, leaving a nice group to send to market.

We ended up with 52 lambs.  19 purebred Shetlands and 33 Shetland/Border Cheviot crosses.

I haven't had time to go through all of the statistics yet.

Over the next several weeks we will be taking a look at where we stand with our goals and analyze the various tools we use ie; Scrapie results, Micron data, Fleece type, Body confirmation ect...

to determine our future vision of our flock.

When we wean our lambs, Mid-June, we plan to have a list of Ewes and lambs that will be for sale.

If you are interested in any purebred or crossbred stock that we have, send us an email.

Willow delivered this nice grey katmoget ram lamb, March 21, 2022 .

Sire: Moogega

#200 Speck, delivered this nice grey katmoget ewe lamb born March 27, 2022.

Sire: Diamond Fred

#239 Wilona (daughter of Willow, above) delivered this single ram lamb, who has quite large horn buds.  His Sire is Moogega (link to pedigree is listed above).

This year I had more bottle babies than I've ever had.....TWELVE!

This is due to several reasons.  We bred a few ewes that were older and couldn't support feeding twins the amount of milk that they needed, so we are supplementing them with a bottle. A few others became separated from their mothers during the birthing process and once they were rejoined together their mother didn't want them, hence they are bottle babies. 

During this time of bottle feeding it was taking me 30 minutes just to feed the bottle babies and I just didn't have that extra time at 6am in the morning when I have to be at work by 8am.  

I found this great idea on YouTube so I shared it with my friend Dave L. and he 

made it (quick and easy).  This has been a great time saver.

A LAMB BOTTLE HOLDER

made from a PVC pipe

#210 Tallulah, #201 Lark, #247 Luvasia & #58 Jasmine

 Well I took Friday off work from my day job to "get myself caught up",

Well, many of the sheep kept me busy on Friday and Saturday.  

Needless to say I didn't get everything done that I had so planned to accomplish.

We had FIVE ewes deliver lambs on Friday

and again on Saturday, another FIVE.

I only had time to snap some quick pics. of the four ewes that gave us purebred shetland lambs.

#210 Tallulah

was bred to Diamond Fred.  She delivered twin rams, a grey katmoget and a black.

#201 Lark

Bred to Diamond Fred delivered a single black ram lamb.

#247 Luvasia

Bred to Moogega delivered a single ram lamb.

#58 Jasmine

Bred to Moogega delivered a single ram lamb.  This was our only delivery today.

We repeated this breeding, hoping for a ewe lamb.  Last year she delivered 

twin ram lambs, of which we decided to keep one of the lambs, who is a very striking 

spotted dark grey with an 18.9 micron average.

This little guy will probably be similar.

Many of these ram lambs will available to new homes.  We expect to have very good micron numbers from them since the two rams that were used this year had 19 & 22 micron averages.

More to come, stay tuned! 

#1511 Lydia, #235 Jaleia, #245 Marisol & #70 Laurel

 It has been busy, working my day job full time and lambing at the same time, makes for some tiring days.

 

#1511 Lydia a moorit flecket ewe

bred to Moogega, a black flecket ram

produced this cute moorit flecket ram.

This little guy will most likely be available to a new home upon weaning sometime in June or there after.

#235 Jaleia a black krunet shetland 

bred to Moogega, who was sold to another shetland breed this past fall.

Produced this duplicate of Jaleia!

This is a ewe lamb.

We haven't made any decisions yet as to who we will be retaining in our flock 

this will be decided at a later date.

#245 Marisol, beautiful solid black ewe,  

bred to Diamond Fred a black katmoget.

Produced this nice sized black ewe lamb with a small white fleck on her forehead.

#70 Laurel, black ewe who has she is getting older has begun to get white fibers in her beautiful wool.

She was also bred to Diamond Fred.

Producing this nice set of twins, a ram (nursing) and ewe (laying).

We've had fourteen ewes deliver, with many yet to got.

We will have quite a few crossbred lambs available once weaned and group pictures will be posted soon.

#161 and #212 Maci

 

#161 Troyana was bred to Diamond Fred and produced this 

beautiful dark grey katmoget ewe lamb, just like her Sire.

Lamb born: March 7, 2022

We've had three other shetland ewes lamb that were bred to our crossbred ram, 

so far it looks to be a year of ewe lambs.

When I went out to the barn on Friday evening, March 11th, I walked in to see

that #212 Maci (bred to Diamond Fred) had recently delivered her lamb as a  first time mom 

she delivered a single ewe lamb that looks to be to be a bit early.

This little ewe is a fighter, she was up and hungry when I found her.

Her mom didn't have her milk in yet so she has been supplemented with colostrum milk.

I did get some milk from her Dam the following day but not much, so I plan to continue to supplement her with milk replacer.  We had a terribly cold weather system come in this weekend,

low's over night of 14 degrees Friday night and 10 degrees Saturday night.

I couldn't leave her in the barn under a heat lamp, it just wasn't warm enough for her.

So off to the house we go!  We've set her up in a laundry basket, which she is not able to get of yet.

Rip was so excited and tentative with her.  Constantly checking on her and licking her face, which actually was a positive experience for the lamb, causing her to respond with tail wags.

The stimulation is very much like she would have received from her mother.

We have hopes to take her back into the barn this week, temperatures are to be much kinder and  under a heat lamp if needed.  We will see if Mom will accept her back, we are hopeful.

Post Shearing Day and continued fleeces sales...

We had a great day today Shearing our Sheep.

Thanks to everyone who came out and helped, many hands make light work!  

We began shearing at 8am and finished up about noon.

We even had three that we were able to Roo.

Many fleeces were sold today fresh off the sheep but we do still have about 30 left.

Several black, a few white, a few grey and several brown or brown based colors.

We will still be available Sunday, March 6th if anyone would like to come and we what we still have available to purchase.

Contact me directly via my email address so I can provide more details if you would like to vist.

These are the rams we currently have in our flock.

The two in the bottom left side are the newest additions.

I plan to share a post on them in the future.

We also had a new addition to the flock during our shearing.  A single ewe lamb.

She is a grey katmoget pattern, but she is a crossbred.

This lamb will be available to a new home sometime in June, once weaned.

Shearing Day - Saturday, March 5th 8am

 Our shearing is will be here shortly.

We've been preparing for this day for two weeks!

Most of the sheep are coated and have beautifully clean fleeces.  A couple had their coats come off and I just didn't get them put back on, so they will have a small amount of VM.

Lambing will begin soon too!  I will be sure to post all of the ewes that deliver purebred shetland  lambs, I only bred 14 ewes pure.  Many of the ewes were crossbred this year and I will share lamb photos but they will most likely be in groups of lambs.

We have an "open house" on our shearing day and invite spinners to come and purchase freshly shorn fleeces from our sheep.

We plan to shear on Saturday, March 5th.  The shearer plans to be here at 8am.

Shearing will begin once he has arrived.

If you would like to come, just send me an email at: 

dschrader001@yahoo.com

I will provide further information for those coming to our open house.

Hope to see you!

Upcoming Shearing Day, fleece pics. & E.S. pup

 A bright and shiny New Year - 2022  

Our Shearing Day is fast approaching!

We will again have an open house during our shearing in early March.

Anyone interested in observing a shearing or purchasing raw fleeces is welcome to come.  Just send me an email.  This way I can keep you updated with more details as we get closer to our shearing date.

Many of the ewes just chilling out in our barn with their coats on keeping those fleeces clean.

 Wonderful white fleece above.

Gorgeous grey fleece above.

Beautiful black fleece above.    

Fabulous flecket fleece above.

Above grey fleece shows a nice dark grey stripe down the center of her back, with lighter grey sides.  Giving a lovely variation of grey color that you can blend together or my favorite would be to separate the shades of grey so you have variation in the yarn.

Above flecket ewe, moorit and white fleece.  This fleece will give you many shades of brown and white and a beautiful and interesting yarn.

Our New English Shepherd pup

Several weeks after losing our English Shepherd, Red in April, 2021  

we went on the search for another E.S.  We knew we wanted another

one of this breed.  

Meet Rip (yes, after the character in the show, Yellowstone)

He is turning out to be a really good dog.

He is not Red and never will be, Rip's personality is much 

different.  He was socialized more than Red was which makes

him more people friendly.  

He has interest in the sheep and would take to working them easily.

These photos were his first experience in the barn around the sheep and not too sure of them.

Above, current photos, now 6 months old.