Spring Lambs

It’s been a while, so I want to try and get caught up on the lambing front. Much has happened (but not fast enough).
First, here is Fantasia’s ewe lamb out of Captain Kidd (a Cor de Nuit son from last year). She’s quite the looker. We haven’t named her yet, but she’s a grey yuglet katmoget. I like her.



The next one is a black ram out of Christmas Holly and Bond. I also like this guy a great deal. He looks like the total package at this point (except being black, of course). Christmas Holly is a Little Country Possum daughter who may carry the polled gene, and Bond is a full poll. I think this little guy is going to be polled, from the looks of things. He is 47% UK. I’ve also proven that Bond carries spots, so this guy might as well.





Sheltering Pines Pyrenee’s Morn is another ewe that we like a lot, and she recently had two grey katmoget rams out of Blue’s Clues. Both are nice and 58% UK. I like them, but I’m more than a little bit disappointed that we didn’t get a ewe lamb out of this breeding. That’s the way it goes I guess.



Yesterday, Onyx Velour had one of our wildest spotted lambs this year, a grey yuglet socket katmoget out of Blue’s Clues. We’ve had a number of ewes single this year, and as disappointing as that is to me, I have to be grateful when they kick out gold like she did. This is one nice ewe lamb! My only question is whether she is also a gulmoget, because, quite frankly, I have no way to tell on a lamb with this much white. Does anyone have a suggestion? I have a hunch she is, but I’m really not sure. It looks like she might have the gulmoget patches where they should be, but there’s not enough black to say that for sure. It could just be the katmoget markings coming through.



Lastly, here are updated pictures of Constantinople’s lambs. They are maturing nicely. She is a fawn yuglet katmoget, and certainly my favorite lamb so far this year (although Onyx’s is close).







Cor de Nuit gave birth to…pause…you guessed it…two black ram lambs. How do you get two black ram lambs out of a breeding that consists of two grey katmoget parents? I mean really? Anger aside, they do look really nice! I’m particularly taken with the solid black one. Bond is the father, so both will either be polled or half-polled. The solid black ram will almost certainly be the finest Shetland we’ve ever had born here. He is something else! These guys are 51% UK. I don’t personally care how much UK blood our sheep have, but I thought I would start including that as a point of reference. Maybe I should state it the other way and call them 49% domestic lines. Anyway, as I suspected, Bond does carry spots, which opens up a lot of possibilities with some of the other ewes he was bred to. Yes, they will most likely be black rams, but at least they may be spotted!


We are anxiously awaiting the next round of lambs, and are quite happy with the results so far (black ram syndrome aside).


I just realized that we missed a few lambs in recent posts. This one is Shioban out of Queen Anne’s lace. An awesome ewe lamb for sure! I really like everything about this girl.




The next one is Bucky out of Persia. Another awesome ram lamb, who, as luck would have it, is a fawn katmoget. So there, we actually defied the genetic odds with this one, but in a good way. Both parents are grey katmogets. I’m very happy with this guy as well, but he really needs to grow into those legs. I think he’ll look much like his mother as an adult, with those long, elegant legs. It’s a look that I really like in a Shetland. I really dislike the short-legged Shetlands.