Lamb update

Tiger Lily, our yearling mioget gulmoget, had a grey katmoget ewe out of Bond. She’s a good looking ewe lamb at this point, but I can’t say for sure whether she carries spots. We have to be happy whenever we are given ewe lambs!




S’more Sparkles also lambed the other day and gave us these spotted wonders. The male is an Ag katmoget, and the ewe is a spotted katmoget, who I also believe is Ag. I’ll look her over good when I get more time.


The ram is the most interesting lamb we’ve ever had born here. He is almost completely white, with very little black even on his under carriage!


Morning Glory also came through with a couple of neat lambs, a fawn ram, and a black-based ewe. Both are gul-kats!



I really like these two so far! Bond is the father, so both may carry spots, which makes me very happy.



That leaves us with four ewes left to go. Two will likely hold out until well into May as they were the last ones we put in with Bond.

More lambs!

Here are the pictures of Cor de Nuit’s black ram lambs.



It’s too early for me to tell whether they are polled, but I think the solid black one is. Both have soft fleeces, but the solid lamb’s fleece is so incredibly uniform from neck to tail.



He’s going to be very fine, in my estimation. I also think he’ll be polled, but I’ll need some time on that one.


These rams go back to some really interesting lines. Cor de Nuit is out of Justalit’l Lana, who is out of Bramble Dixen. Bond is out of Little Country Night Cap, who is out of Sheltering Pines Pompey Magnus. I like those lines, and I like these rams!

As I said, both lambs are out of Wintertime Bond, who really threw some nice lambs this spring! Bond’s yearling micron test was: AFD: 20.6/Sd: 3.9/CV: 19.1/SF: 19.7/CF: 98.5. His spinning fineness number is an entire micron lower than his average! He is very uniform from head-to-tail, and we’ve been able to get that in some of his lambs! Plus, he carries spots, which wasn’t something I counted on, but thought might be the case. He’s just turning out like I had hoped. Once I saw him after shearing, I knew he was something special. Great conformation!



Last year, V Creek Fantasia had twin yuglet socket katmoget ewe lambs within 10 minutes of each other, and this year, both had their water break within 10 minutes of each other. Jasmine lambed first (not sure if she was born first) and gave us this grey katmoget ram lamb. He carries spots and will either be a half-poll or a clean poll.



Dahlia then gave us this stunning half-poll yuglet socket kamtmoget ram! After I got over the initial disappointment of him being a ram, I soon realized that he was quite nice. His fleece is very uniform from neck-to-tail at this point! He’s quite striking! Bond is the father.



Not to be left out, Wintertime Itasca came through with these absolutely stunning grey katmoget ewe lambs!

These two look even finer than Cor de Nuit’s black ram! Both look very similar in fleece and color, and may carry both polled genes! Bond is a clean poll and Itasca carries it.


We love these two girls! They are 55% UK. I believe both carry spots as well. It would have been nice if they had been moorit-based, but let’s not be greedy. Both could carry moorit, as both parents do.



Violet also lambed yesterday! We had been watching her for 24 hours, and after dinner she decided to lamb out in the pasture. That’s pretty unusual, but it worked out fine. Both of these ewes could carry moorit as well (again, both parents do).
These are the final two Blue’s Clues lambs, and both are ewes, and both are spotted! I like them so far! They are both grey katmogets, and 42% UK. Violet is a strange color for a katmoget. She looks fawn, but is actually black-based. Both lambs took on that color scheme.





That’s where we are so far! We still have seven ewes left to lamb, and two will probably be late. I would expect the other five to lamb within the next week.

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.

Lambs

We finally have some lambs to talk about! Yesterday, Broom Hilda gave birth to this black half-poll ram. His fleece is very dense, soft, and has nice luster. Wintertime Bond is the father and the lamb is 63% UK. Broom Hilda is a Wintertime Blues and Alafair daughter who is either shaela or emsket. We’ll know more once her new fleece starts coming in. Both mother and son are for sale!




On Easter, Constantinople kicked off the season with our first Blue’s Clues lambs. I must say that we are very happy with this breeding!

The ram is the darkest blue-grey katmoget we’ve ever had born here on the farm! I’m a sucker for that color. It’s too early to make predictions about his fleece, but so far so good. It looks a lot like his father's. He also carries spots! I think he’s going to be a good one!

His sister? She’s okay too, I guess. I really like her fleece. Her's looks even more like her dad’s than her brother’s does. It's extremely uniform from head-to-tail! Again, how can anyone know at this age what the fleeces will be like, but they have potential!

The lambs are 55% UK.