Introducing Tulla and Tundra

This morning the ewes were making more noise than usual. I didn't hear any baby cries. I fed the ewes grain. Where's Bella? I went out the barn door and there in a corner of the pasture stood Bella with a look and a shrug "what's the big deal?"  There were the cutest--yes I am biased set of lambs I ever saw..remember I have been waiting for more lambs. A ewe lamb "Tulla" a mioget smirslet krunnet  Good friend Gail says Tulla is musket and is most likely AgAaBbBbSsSsM?M?   citing her sugar lips and light arm pits   A musket ewe is just great with me and a white ram "Tundra"  Mom Bella had them licked clean and they were standing. I moved them into a maternity pen.....Bella is tame and trusts me but was protective of her lambs. So I decided to let them settle in, so Bella could relax her watch, Tulla was nursing and Tundra looks like he has had his fill.  Both lambs have great crimp. You guessed it Tulla with her markings and the first ewe lamb born, she will stay and be added to the herd.
Well its 2 ewes with lambs and 2 more to go.........Lily will be soon  Maybeline another looong month yet.

Till later


Jerry

A beautiful Afternoon.....72, sun and a nice breeze

I am still doing baby watch This is Maybeline a 5 yr old due mid May........she is getting huge. She is the one that started the Shetland fever. I won her over with treats, now she comes up for a chin scratch. Lily and Bella have full udders  just holding out....... Shadow is a great mom to Shade.

Shade is three weeks old today, he is a good sized already, being a single he gets all the milk he needs. He gets right in there and eats pellets with the ewes. He is turning Agouti gray....just image a gray/"blue" fleece, white legs  and bandit eyes. His fleece is very crimped....tight little curls right now. He could be a good ram for more crimp in the next generation........maybe my Shetland ram is right there in the barn. Shade likes to have is back scratched...yes don't make a pet of your ram I know, but he is my only lamb right now!

T

There is 4 acres of green grass and all 8 hens decided that on this little circle of grass they will all stand and peck, its on the best!

F

Fancy Pants Flash showing the hens what he found.

Another quiet day


Jerry

Ode to the Shetland

Shasta

This morning I went out to do chores. I watched my Shetland ewes eating. I like my short stout Shetlands, they eat very little, lamb easy and raise their lambs well. Beautiful fleeces, easy to handle, calm and docile. I have what I have wanted since I saw my first Shetland 25 yrs ago. Back then no one had them,,,a few flocks on the West or East coast. So I farmed and milked Jerseys. Sold the herd, the farm and worked 5 yrs at the West Central Experiment Station in dairy research.Then back to college....I digress...I have want I have always wanted a nice flock of  Shetland ewes. So why mess with that?  

I had thought I needed to cross them with a bigger breed, BFL, Border Leceister, Clun Forest, NC Cheviot

to name a few.  So I have been struggling what to cross on them and I have come to the conclusion  don't cross them  Stay with a good thing and get a nice Shetland ram. I will have 12 Shetland ewes in need of a good ram.

 

We got 2 inches of rain on Monday night, and some rain early this morning. Its greening up nicely...

pasture soon

 

Till Later

 

Jerry 

Lamb watch continues In other news....

My garden is coming up with Iris, day lilies, sedum, primrose, peonies, Queen Anne's Lace to name a few. I have been watering so it gets a good start. (can't get the italic to stop....) The first to bloom" so my forsythia bush.  Delicate flowers, really two petals that a strong wind can destroy, so I enjoy it while it lasts. The rest of the summer its just another bush....nothing eye catching. 
This year I am adding a few more fancy day lilies, double ruffled in colors of strawberry cream and such.  My perennial flower garden and flowering bushes used to run the length of the house 64 ft and 30 ft down the walk--it was beautiful, I am the type to have a clean flower bed...it got to be too much. I was over doing it and not enjoying it.  So Fall 2008 I had a plant give a way, you dig it you can have it. I predug and moved my day lilies and a few bushes up to the save zone. Now the sidewalk is in an arc of grass and the flower bed is 1/5 its original size, but its clean! So the bed is getting better each year as the moved bushes and flowers settle in and take off.  Hence why I need to fill in the holes with more day lilies. 
We haven't have a rain in 3 weeks....we could use one.....our oak trees are still in bud stage, pasture grass is standing still,  I have a theory  In the real heat of summer a tree's leaves curl up to conserve moisture..well along that premise, if no rain falls to moisten the tree buds...it takes longer for the trees to leaf out..just a theory--no date to support it  just my way of thinking. So when I water my young apple trees and bushes I spray water on the branches too.....I don't know.....
So here is wishing your ewes are not holding out on you........and you are getting rain

Till later


Jerry
 

Researched "English Blue" of the BFL

I found a good explanation of English blue in an article on Gotland sheep, English blue is co-dominate with katmoget, gulmoget, and gray agouti gene. The parents each contribute a gene for color and a gene for pattern so the possibilities are endless.
My neighbor starts lambing in May.......if there is a promising polled Icelandic ram lamb will get him .I will find a stocky well built ram and then look at the color. Every color and pattern will be available, as she has 50 ewes lambing  bred to White, Black and a Spotted ram, Alot of the ewes having the agouti gene so have "pastel" coloring

Til later
Jerry

Hens are out-n-about!

You might ask what a bowl of rice, a can of dog food and a bowl of eggs have in common?
I read an article last winter, how to get your hens to lay like its summer. Our standard chicken
laying mashes are all plant protein based. A chicken needs some animal protein in its diet.
I bought several cans of dog food at an outlet store...28 cents a can. Since January, my Easter Egg hens
have gotten their laying mash at 24 cent a pound! cooked rice in the AM for something warm
and a 1/3 of a can of dog food.....hens started laying quite respectable for nearly year old hens.
Three days ago, I opened the chicken coop, put up part of a cattle panel so sheep and lamb
couldn't get in but the hens can come and go.  I thought yep now I will start hunting for eggs.
The hens have continued to lay in their nests.  With the rice, dog food, some scratch corn thrown
outside.....and whatever goodies they scratch up,,,,eating very little laying mash
,,,today I got 7 large eggs from 8 hens.....so 8 cents of dog food, 5 cents for rice, 10 cent for a bit of corn...
23 cents for 7 eggs.......pretty good indeed

I have 8  almost 3 month old Easter Egg pullets.......by end of June they should be laying too...
"they" say to wait to introduce pullets to the adult flock until the pullets have stopped peeping
They can stay in their generous pen till they start to lay.....then I will sneak them in.

Till Later
Jerry

New sheep came home!

Yesterday, we traveled to North Branch, 2 1/2 hours east of us to the farm of Terri Drimel. Terri had 2 ewes for sale We arrived and saw some very nice sheep Terri's ram Dougal, her Cheviot ewes, and her yearling very pregnant Finn ewes. Her Finn ewes were of great size and style...very nice.  Her Shetland ewes has great size and very good quality.

I saw a really nice Shetland ewe as she walked across the lot.. She has a presence and a confidence about her. I pointed "who is that ewe"  Terri "That's Lily" I was impressed with Lily's large size. She is long, wide deep stout. A moorit  3 yr old with many years ahead of her. A ewe that is a bit wary....but with treats I will tame her. This morning she was very tame at grain feeding time  Udder filling and very pregnant. Due in 2 weeks to a white Shetland ram. I liked her size and good frame, she just had to come home.   Shorn and in full fleece. last year after shearing Lily went through a rise so her rump fleece is thick.

The ewe I traveled for is Belle.Belle was tied in the corral, patiently waiting her fate.  A HST marked (she has 4 white socks and a white tail tip). Again Belle has a great size to her, she is a large, deep wide stout 3 yrs old. Tame, good confrontation. Look at her well muscled rear leg, good thick bone and wide stance!  I really like her. Belle is due in 2 weeks to a white Shetland ram.
Shown in full fleece and shorn

I am excited some more lambs coming. Right now the only lamb is Shade. I am hoping for a couple of ewe lambs from Lily and Belle. My other Shet ewe Maybeline is getting a very big tummy. She isn't due till May 16th to a Border Leicester/Icelandic ram. And then there is yearling Cher  just starting to make an udder...or at least I thnk so. Cher must have been open when she arrived, so she too is bred to the BL/Ice ram

So my flock has grown a bit. In  July the rest of the ewes are coming home, 6 Shetland ewes from Garrett and BlueBell and Palisade from Gail. A good starter flock indeed.

Till later

Jerry