Post...Great Lakes Fiber Show

I apologize for such a delay in posting since the Great Lakes Fiber Show.  This year was even better than last.  Moving the fleece judging to friday evening made a longer day for us, but Saturday morning allowed fiber enthusiasts the opportunity to make their purchases earlier.  It worked out great and it was so nice to meet and talk to everyone.
The picture above is a favorite ewe "Butter Cup"....who never lets me fill the water tanks by myself she insists on being right there with me and if I'm not paying consistent attention by rubbing or scratching her she will paw at me to remind me that she needs my attention.  Behind her are two lambs taking refuge in the shade of a calf hutch, the middle lamb is a ewe with a very consistent fleece from front to back and the little white lamb in the rear is a scurred ram that we will be retaining in the flock.

It is quite difficult to take natural pictures of the flock when all they do is follow you...
This photo shows most of the adult ewes in the flock.  At this time the older lambs were penned up and being weaned.  I find this much easier on the ewes going into warmer weather.  They can put the weight back on their bodies rather than into milk for their babies...when their babies are old enough to eat grain, hay and grass.

A shot of the rams...who also follow along, making it difficult to take pictures.  We have eleven rams at this time.  Several are for sale, pictures will be posted along with descriptions of each.  We have been focusing on fine fleeces and moving toward polled.  If interested in some nice shetland rams, please send me an email we have them....remember, your rams is your most important investment to use on your ewes.  This will determine the direction you move toward with fleece quality....be it good or bad based on your focus.

Have a GREAT DAY!

Lily

Lily delivered this cute little gulmoget ram lamb late this morning.  This was her first lamb and she did wonderful all by herself.  This little guy is out of Wintertime Barqs.

We are finally done with our lambing season...whew!  It's been tiring.  I have three of the crossbred lambs that I am supplementing with a bottle, morning and evening.  Everyone else is doing well.  We ended up with 23 ewes that were bred giving us 41 lambs.  Fifteen of these are crossbred lambs which will be sent to market at 50lbs.  We were pretty even with 20 rams & 21 ewes.
We have 26 shetland lambs, 18 ewes and 8 rams.  Some of these ewe lambs will be available to those looking to purchase lambs.  As far as I can tell (since I've not been 'hands on' with all the lambs) two of the ram lambs look to be polled so those two may be staying since this is the direction that I am going with our rams. 

I will begin evaluating my ewe flock soon as I have quite a selection.  I need to remove a few of the older ewes from the breeding program, who were part of my original flock but will maintain permanent residency.
Other ewes will be available for sale after lambs are weaned.  Right now I am thinking that in the fall I will be putting all of my breeding ewes to my Cormo/Shetland Ram and market all those lambs.
Anyone interested in Lambs, Ewes or Rams send me an email......

Galaxy

Galaxy delivered these two cutie pies Monday morning, 4/20/15.  The darker lamb on the left is a ewe, I'm sure she will lighten up in color.  The white lamb on the right is a ram.  I repeated this breeding with Galaxy and Duroy, hoping for another white lamb.  Yeah! 
We have one more yet to deliver, she just keeps hanging on.......

Audrey delivered twins today

 When I went out this morning I knew Audrey would have something new for us, late last evening she was digging quite a hole in the barn.  This gorgeous little guy is who she claims.

She also delivered a nice little ewe, but she didn't want it and was quite brutal about it.  Earlier in the season a friend has called wanting to ask that if we had any bottle babies they would be interested in them.  They were hoping to have some small tame sheep that they could use when they have events and there would be lots of 'hands-on' by children.  At the time I didn't think I would have any because the shetlands are such good mothers and I've only ever had to supplement lambs born to older ewes.
Well, right now I am supplementing two of the crossbred lambs and didn't want to take on a full time brand new bottle baby.....so after a little thought.....I have over sixteen purebred shetland lambs.  I picked up the phone to call and say, Hey, I've got a lamb for you!  So I know she will have a good home and good life with an experience shepherd. 
...what caused the dislike for her lamb?  Here again I summarize that the little ewe was the first born, became separated and Mom delivered the second lamb in a different location.  After delivering the second she focused all her attention on him and wouldn't accept the little ewe as several hours had passed.  Here again, last night I should have jugged her and didn't.  But I am good with the outcome for everyone.

Lucy lambed April 8th

 While I was home from work feeling under the weather with a 24hr. bug Lucy delivered this beautiful little ewe.  She is cute!

Look at that uniform crimpy fleece.  This is what we have been working for the last couple of years and it is really showing up in our lambs.  This little ewes Sire is Luxor, who's micron information I do not have handy, but he is also a fine fleeced scurred ram.

 These are some of our lambs who figured out how to get out & MUST play on the round bales.
They all aspire to be like the brown crossbred lamb on top of the bale who is 1 month old.

Right now we have 36 lambs born(16 are crossbred) and four ewes to go.  Can't wait until it drys out a bit to get some outside pics.

Chloe delivers April 6th

 Chloe another favorite ewe has delivered these two beautiful little ewes.  Both have very consistent crimpy fleeces. Yeah!!

I expected Kamogets from her this year, as she is moget and the Sire; Evaristo is Katmoget.  But this little ewe looks like she will go musket in color.  We will have to wait and see it the katmoget pattern develops.
Evaristo is one of our own rams, last years micron results on him, micron ave 20.9 & CF 97.4

Bianca delivers April 2nd

Sorry for the late birth announcement.  It has been busy here...with the day job and all.
This beautiful dark brown ewe, Bianca delivered her first lamb on Thursday, past.  This is the last lamb that I was expecting from my now deceased Whistlestop ram #1107.  This is also a ram lamb and has the beautiful black fleece just like his Sire.  He has horn buds, so we can only hope that his horns are good.  His fleece looks wonderful. 
I haven't sent in the Dam's fleece samples yet for micron testing from this years fleece.  I did test her lamb fleece last year and was quite happy with her numbers, Micron ave 18.9 & CF 99.0
Will post Chloe's lamb pics. tomorrow.....