2012 Lambs

This years lambs brought a few awesome surprises!One ewe Oma had triplets this year. That was a first for Desert Peach Farm. No ewe here has had triplets.

In my quest for some splashy colors I breed Stonehaven Cielia to her son Desert Peach Clancy and she had these twins. The ewe is the mostly white lamb. Yuglet, Ilget? (Yuglet markings around her eyes with black spots) and her brother looks like Dad with the Bielset marking around his neck and patches of white. .

A big surprise was when Thunderhead Argentina (gulmoget) bred to Desert Peach Rio (katmoget) had this fancy ewe lamb. I'd say she's gulmoget, yuglet with the pinto spots on her body. Since I've never had such colors I could use some help on how to register her and the other fancy lambs from this year.

Here is Rio a grey katmoget. His father Stonehaven Watson (black)Dam WSR Miryah moorit katmoget.

Then Desert Peach Hazel (black iset) had two ram lambs sired by Rio and this is what I got! The first ram is almost HST only minus the T. HST meaning he should have the white Head, Socks and Tail. Brother below is moorit katmoget.

Pretty little ewe lamb from Desert Peach Vala and Desert Peach Moe.

Rio's dam WSR Miryah bred to  Desert Peach Moe had one of my favorite ewe lambs born this year, Lucy a moorit katmoget. I haven't gotten a good picture of her yet cuz she's always on the move!

Two ewe lambs from Desert Peach Kiko and Clancy. Both will fade to grey like their Mom.

Zephyr's Lambs

Here are a few pictures of Zephyrs lambs.

They have graduated from the nursery to grammar school.

Still much too small to go in with the big lambs.

but now they have more room to run and learn to follow their Moms. Hanging with Tru's lamb Kiko who is bigger but the same age. All three will be gray as adults.

One more week maybe then in with the big guys. Their Mom's are getting ready to go out on the mountain and join the flock.

Newbies

...and a great Shetland Sheep story.

I'll start with my story of how clever Shetland Sheep can be even at a very young age. Or should I say instincts are strong in these little sheep. Late in the afternoon I bring the lambs and their Moms to the field behind the barn. There is a tall fence for protection from wild things and stray dogs, and the barn is right there for a warm, dry place to sleep at night.

The ewe's get a few last bits of grass and the lambs rest or hang out after the races have ended. I stand and watch the sheep for awhile. This is my favorite time to just sit and contemplate on my little flock.
Then all of a sudden lambs started baaing, jumping up from their resting spots and running full speed to the nearest ewe. About eight lambs formed a tight bunch around two of the ewe's as they all moved in unison like a school of fish in the ocean. What? Then I looked up and saw a big crow soaring over the top of us. I have never seen this happen before. With no brush to hide under the group made it's own safe place by sticking close together and moving in a large group to keep what could have been a bird of pry from picking out a single lamb for dinner. Shetland sheep never cease to amaze me!
Now the newbies on May 1st Pepper a two year old first time Mom had twins, a ram in the back and a ewe lamb. I call Pepper a gray Ag and she was bred to Watson my black ram and both of her lambs are brown! If you look at Peppers face and legs she does have brown in them. Her face is very black in the winter and it browns out in the summer. Michelle I need some color advise with this type of coloring. Is Pepper gray?
The little ram is tiny but not as much as this picture shows and he is just a crack up. Were ever he goes it's full speed ahead!

The next newbies are my new bees! We have had a bee hive for several years but all the bee's swarmed  last summer and my new bee man had to restock the hive last month. We keep the hive for someone else because I do not want to open a hive of angry  bees to steal their honey. This way we get to share the honey and Mark the bee man has a place to keep more hives.

Sugar Lips

Yes we do have sugar lips! Almost all of my lambs carry the gene, Ag, so when you see "sugar lips", white hairs around the lips of an otherwise dark colored lamb you know that lambs color will fade to a gray or almost pure white like in most of my ewe's.

The ram lamb above from Oma and the ewe lamb below from Charlee are are both what you call katmoget, with dark points on their face, legs, tail and belly. Other breeds of sheep call this marking badger pattern. They already have near white fleece on their backs. I can't tell for sure if they are pure white since their fleeces still have some coloring from the birthing. I'm not sure how they came up with this light fleece since both dam and sire have color.

Charlee, above, has the Ag gene so she is near white now but was dark like her son when she was born. I can't find the name for the white on the ram lambs face, help please. I do think the little katmoget ewe has these markings also. Both have sugar lips!

Above is a little black ram lamb, Bellas, with sugar lips and below my sweet little spotted ewe from Hattie. Her brother will stay pure black! Should the black sugar lip lambs be registered as black or gray?

New Lambs

Charlee... on Easter I left Charlee in a jug while we went to my brothers in town. When we got home she had lambed and gave me a ewe and a ram. He has white around his face and will fade,ag, like his Mom


Charlees ewe is katmoget, my first ever. Very light almost white with brown points. She has Shirly Temple curls so should have a wavy crimped fleece like Charlee.

Oma lambed on the morning of April 6th she also had twins, one ram and one ewe lamb. I was here to see the birth but there is 'trouble in paradise' reminiscent of my lambing in 2008! Excuse me but OH SHIT! I'll talk more about Oma in another post. This little guy is a katmoget also. His sister was a dark brown.

Hattie's lambs were born on the evening of April 5th. She had a black ram and a black ag ewe lamb. The ewe lamb has a white spot on each side of her body right by her front elbows. So she is spotted, but by the time her color all fades she won't show her spots!

"I see a goat Mom."

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny was here early this morning. Two ram lambs from Desert Peach Bella and Stonehaven Watson! These are Watson's first babies. Bella's third set of twins. More information when I have more time.

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Shetland Pictures

Front views: starting with Cider sire to all lambs and K.G. a 4 year old shetland wether with the 5 pound fleeces.

Bella (back) and her ewe lamb Stevie. She is nursing two lambs that size! They graze on this blue grass in the evenings by the barn. The rest of the day they get a small amount of grass hay and browes on the brush in their other 10 acres. They don't even come back to this grass during the day. No grain and no improved pastures! Front views: This is Charlee's wether.

Stevie again. She was named after her blind sister from last year who died.

Charlee's ewe lamb and her wether.

Charlee and her ewe lamb.

and some rear views: the grass has a special appeal right here. Nothing that I did.

This is the best view of one of the ram lambs I still have, Rocco. He kept laying down when I went to get his front end. He is so big and sturdy and is younger than the moorit wether standing in front of him.

Flock, Flowers and Fiber

May Day brought us two more lambs. Desert Peach Nana had twin rams. At the 6 AM check she was out with the flock grazing and at 8 AM when I went out to work in the barn she had both lambs over by the barn The dark lamb is little and whispy and his brother is the opposite heavy bones and flashy.

Both lambs are Ag.

Spring has come again to Reno. We've been getting flowers off and on since February. With loads of rain this last weekend the alyssum and phlox are going strong now.

More Basket of Gold alyssum.

Our little apple tree is just budding out. Love the Hobbit Tree shape.

With all the rain I spent Friday and Saturday dyeing some Blue Face Leicester wool.

Evie's Story

This is Desert Peach Eve. She was born here five years ago. A mistake from her father getting threw the fence and breeding one of his daughters. I like her personality and build so she has stayed. Steve, her sire, produced daughters with very small fleeces, like 1.5 to 2.5 pounds in a year so Steve now lives with a friend and sires meat sheep. His little square body makes him great at that job. Evie looks just like Steve! Eve was in labor yesterday morning when I went out at 8:00 AM. Standing away from the others and not going out on the hill to graze. So I kept an eye on her. By 11:00 no progress was made and her water had not broken so I did wash up and checked her out. I could not find a way to the lambs and guessed she was not dilated yet. She continued to paw at the straw lay down get up and generally be very uncomfortable. She was not pushing nor had her water broke so I gave her till 2:00 and checked again, no progress! Vet time! I called our large animal vets in Chilcoot, California and was told to bring her in to the clinic which is only about 1/2 hour away.

When we got there she was checked over inside and out with a few hands and a cool scope with a camera and light. Yap, her cervix had not dilated yet. She was the hit of the horse clinic! We were placed first in line and the farrier there was so impressed. He had never seen a brown sheep nor a "miniature" one. He was on his knees giving her kisses.

It was decided that she would get a shot of Banamine to help with the cramping but if that was not successful she was to be brought back for a c-section because this could be "ring womb" when the cervix does not dilate on it's own. Everyone was sure she was not even full term because her colostrum had not come in and she was not bothered any more with cramps as she sat and soaked in all the attention.
Back in the truck with a few more syringes of Banamine for the days ahead if she was uncomfortable again and we went home. We were back around 4 PM and Eve was feeling fine and went out to the hill to get some grazing in before dark. At 6 she was still eating by the barn so I went in till the next check of her a 8 PM. Surprise! She had already given birth to a large ewe lamb, picture below, the ewe is in the middle of the picture. After an hour I checked her and she had a large ram lamb coming breech so I pulled him. He's is so big his head was stuck at her hips for a moment.

Evie is one of the smallest ewe's I have and each one of these lambs is around 7 pounds! Evie might weigh around 75 pounds and look at the first picture. After giving birth to 14 pounds of lambs plus after birth and water she is not sunk in or gaunt! Inbreeding did not make a weak sheep in this case. She'll stay longer!