|
I was going to just bump my old thread but apparently it's archived. You can find it here and the one before that one here if you have archives I guess. Long and the short of it is that I raise sheep and post pictures of baby sheep (and sometimes goats if they cooperate). The spotty sheep are jacobs, the mostly solid colored sheep are cormos, the ones with angry eyebrows are cvm/romeldales. I mostly sell yarn and wool and breeding stock but I do eat some so don't worry about making eating jokes. Things got off to a little bit of a rocky start. Three of the jacob ewes aborted about 2 weeks ago and sent me into a panic. I had to have the vet out to help pull one of the dead lambs so we did a necropsy (nothing was obviously wrong) and sent in bloodwork to look for contagious diseases. Finally got the results back yesterday that said they're disease free and it was probably some combination of genetic whoopsies, random happenstance, and bad coincidence. It left me pretty terrified that I was going to be digging tiny sheep graves every day during lambing season though. Big sigh of relief today when I came out to a bright and happy little jacob lamb! It's a girl!  First timer Katelyn, who originally came from a farm in NC, had her all cleaned up and ready to go but wasn't sure about nursing. I held mama still a few times and baby caught on really quickly. They're totally fine together now.  The lamb is super active and vigorous already and has bouncing around the pen like crazy. With plenty of nap breaks of course.  I really like how these two have mirrored wonky blazes.   Despite the losses I still have 12 ewes due this week, with probably most of them coming between now and Monday. Then I have a goat due April 24th, a sheep due May 2nd, and two more sheep due May 19th. There were some synchronization hiccups this year. Based on the ridiculously huge udder Aster will probably go later today. Also I love Daisy's horrified face, she's due today too.  I keep thinking Valkyrie is in labor but I'm pretty sure this is just the only comfortable way for her to lay down.  I will update as things happen but feel free to ask questions or share your own baby farm animal pictures!
|
#
¿
Mar 30, 2019 22:17
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 8, 2024 23:12 |
|
|
Have a video before I forget. She is a super active newborn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR5_A-Jq5u0
|
|
#
¿
Mar 30, 2019 22:57
|
|
|
Fluffy Bunnies posted:I'm just over here smirking at your sheep and going "wow guys who's not weaning in March" If I lived in America's taint I'd lamb in January too 
|
|
#
¿
Mar 30, 2019 23:17
|
|
|
I'm glad people enjoy the sheep as much as I do  Long, long night. I got two non-consecutive hours of sleep so forgive the potato pictures. First timer Ladyslipper had a big single two horned ram lamb around 11. First timers having single two horned ram lambs is my least favorite thing because the lambs get giant horn buds and can be hard to get out. She needed a bit of help but managed alright and they figured out nursing right away. I've been really happy with the mothering ability of my first timers this year.  I noticed Jewel was in early labor so I decided to stick around in the barn until she lambed because she usually progresses pretty quick. Whenever she wasn't pacing and stretching and nesting, her daughter Clementine would rush over to snuggle her. I'm not sure Jewel actually appreciated it but it was very cute.  Around 3 am I decided I was frozen and Jewel wasn't doing anything so I went inside for an hour powernap, back out for an hour at 4 before wimping out at 5 and going back in for another hour. She hadn't even gotten to the dripping goo part yet so I figured I had time. Back out at 6 and there were lambs. Oh well, Jewel's a pro and they were clean and nursing and doing great. I was thinking she might have a 3rd set of triplets this year but it's a lovely pair of ewe lambs.  One has boots the other has a dipstick tail both are ridiculously adorable.  Clementine decided they were also her babies so I had to kick her out of the pen, which freaked her out until she popped out her own ewe lamb. She's still pretty sure she would rather have Jewel's lambs so they are penned up on opposite sides of the barn. The lamb isn't great at nursing and clearly had a stressful birth because she pooed herself so I'll be keeping an eye on her.  Aster is in early labor now and a couple others are looking suspicious so it will continue to be a long day. Of course it had to snow too! If I had known I would have waited to pull CIDRs for like two days and avoided all this.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2019 14:27
|
|
|
Neddy Seagoon posted:Yay, more newborn lambs! Everything is just way more tight and first timers don't push as hard because they don't know what's going on. Ladyslipper especially would push a little bit then work on nesting for a while then push a little bit more and just wasn't getting down to business despite having a nose and toes sticking out of her back end so I just went head and gave a hand.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2019 16:02
|
|
|
Aster had a ram and a ewe. She was freakishly large but they're just dinky little 5 lb babies so I guess she's just fat. I was really, really looking forward to going directly to bed after my 11 pm barn check but I got there and Poopers (her real name is Hi-Jinx but around here she's always been poopers) had a single leg sticking out the back. Went digging around for the other leg but the lamb was too huge so I just rotated it a bit to get her shoulders out of the pelvis and delivered it with the leg back. Baby wasn't sure if the whole being alive thing was for her but I persuaded her to give it a try. She's 10 lb 14 oz! That's a real big baby for a first timer and I even tried to keep her a little lean so she wouldn't grow an extra large one.  Poopers got it all cleaned up like a champ and was talking to it despite being slightly traumatized about having my hand up in her. Then she remembered food existed and she no longer had an 11 lb baby squishing her stomach and hosed off to eat, which I feel on a personal level but is not how we do things around here. I penned them up and she doesn't hate the baby but she just pretends it doesn’t exist so I have to go and hold her every couple of hours so it can nurse. I’m hoping she’ll get with the program today or one of the cormos will have a single and I can persuade her that she actually had twins. No bottle babies allowed!  After all that I managed to get in bed by 1 and woke up at 4 for another barn check to find Juniper in labor. I stuck around to make sure everything was ok because June has a habit of having twins but then just picking one to actually care about but she saved herself the trouble this year and just had a single ewe lamb. We're at 7 girls and 2 boys so far this year.  7 ewes down, 6 to go. I'm going to start squeezing cormos if they don't start popping out lambs soon. They just want them good and giant so they can get stuck for me. Also, I don't think I shared this with my last thread but Mina's mom had another litter over the winter and the breeder sent me these pics of all her fat baby siblings cuddled up with goats   
|
|
#
¿
Apr 1, 2019 20:29
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Gosh they're so cute I'm always amazed that goats are such a terrible invasive species in so many places despite being so stupid and dying so easily. I think the key is just having a large enough population that individuals dying in idiotic ways doesn't impact the group that much. I knew this year would be a challenge because my mature ewes are all getting up there in years and I needed to start keeping back more youngsters so almost half my bred ewes are lambing for the first time this year. If any ewe is going to have a problem lambing its a first timer so it's not unusual that I've had to pull a few lambs and work a little harder at making sure they're being good moms.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 1, 2019 23:18
|
|
|
Monday night was a night of giant white rams as the cormos finally relented. Started off with Eclair and her 9 lb 10 oz boy.  Then I came in to find our new megachonk of the year winner. Valkyrie had to push so hard to get this dude out that she cast herself over on her side and couldn’t get back up. When I came out he was happily nursing with her flat out. Rolled her back upright and just like Poopers she went straight for the hay. Unlike Poops she brought the lamb with her. He’s 13 lbs 2 oz.   And while I was making sure they were ok, first timer Jaffa had a more reasonable sized 8 lb boy. It took her a minute for the hormones to kick in but she's been a good mom since.  In other cute news, Jewel and Clementine have formed a loose lamb raising commune and they like to sleep in big piles together.  The two lamb one dish look is very adorable as well.  And Juniper's girl has a mustache. 
|
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2019 17:54
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:A) holy poo poo big lamb Aww, it's ok to ask. Farming is about loss so I don't mind sharing even though its still pretty sad. In 2012 I got a new ram named Windsor. He was a big handsome boy from a highly regarded breeder and I was very excited.  The following year I had a bunch of stillborn lambs. I had necropsies and testing done convinced it was some sort of disease but never got any clear results. Some ewe lambs survived but none of the ram lambs sired by my cool new ram. That year Jewel, my not so secret favorite ewe, had her first lambs, a dead ram and a premature ewe. With a lot of work Clementine survived and grew into a lovely girl.  The following breeding season I vaccinated everyone for every abortion causing disease I possibly could and hoped for a better outcome. Unfortunately I came home from a fun vacation to find all my ewes lambing a week or so early, most of them delivering at least one dead lamb. I dreaded going out every day and seeing more babies I had to bury. When it came to Jewel's turn she had a ram lamb and miraculous it was alive! I was just so happy to see a baby that was alert and breathing but he couldn't stand at all, which meant he couldn't really nurse. I tube fed him for days until he could wobble to his feet and nurse by himself. Jewel was a real champ and took care of him the whole time. I called him Weebles because Weebles wobble but they don't fall down.  He was never quite right but he was mobile and eating well and growing. Then at about a month old he started going down hill. I'd find him in the pasture fallen over and unable to get up. Eventually it was summer and he would get caught out in the sun and overheat. Finally he could barely stand and we decided the kindest thing was to put him down. He was only about 2 months old.  After that I started looking for patterns and reading anything I could get my hands on and discovered that jacob sheep can have a genetic defect called Occipital Condylar Displasia (OCD) that causes skull malformations. It doesn't usually present with stillborn lambs but I think for some reason my sheep were just especially effected by it. I culled my ram and any of his daughters (except Clem because I worked too drat hard to keep her alive to then butcher her later). A couple other ram lambs developed wobbles and were butchered so I cleaned the skulls to find out if my guess was correct. Check out how malformed these skulls and spines are.   I have a suspicion that might have been what happened to a couple lambs I lost this year too. My new boy, Garth, is very distantly related to Windsor but it was so far back that I figured it wouldn't be an issue. Two of the lambs I lost were 4 horned ram lambs sired by him. The other was a ewe sired by a different ram, who produced a lovely ewe lamb with the same mom last year. It could be that the two sets of abortions were just coincidence and they have different causes or they could have all been caused by something else but I probably won't be using Garth again just in case. Anyway, that's the long sad tale of Weebles. He tried so hard and I tried so hard and it just wasn't enough for the little guy but sometimes that's just how life goes.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2019 23:13
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:That sucks - I'm impressed by your detective work, though. A genuine medical mystery and you cracked it and figured out how to save more lambs from Windsor's poor genes. It's also super neat to see Clem doing well - even if she needs to not try to baby Jewel's kids, haha. I used that medical mystery story to get into grad school  It was a lovely time but I learned a lot and I always tell new jacob breeders about the possibility of OCD because I think it doesn't get talked about enough. The 4 horns are super cool but with that much skull weirdness there's going to be some that end up with issues.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2019 01:13
|
|
|
drrockso20 posted:I will fully admit that the whole Weebles situation made me break down crying with how it ended back then, have only had two other animal related things make me that sad in comparison(my cat dying back in 2016 and when Grape-kun died) I cried writing it up and it's been 5 years now. I'm pretty desensitized to losing livestock at this point but the babies still get me. GoingPostal posted:I think it was Windsor that won an all-expenses-paid trip to freezer camp. I believe the comment was 'turned the ram pen into a re-enactment of Oz. I did eat Windsor and he was quite possibly the most delicious mutton I've had. Was it because mean sheep are more tasty? I don't know but I was much happier with him dead than alive. While I don't have a commercial flock and meat sales aren't the main source of income here I do sell quite a few for meat or eat them myself. I have the pelts tanned and give the organs to a friend who makes dog treats and at some point I'll get around to cleaning and selling my piles of skulls so nothing goes to waste. I thought I would feel more bad about it than I actually do. I've got two ram lambs from last year right now named That Fucker and That Other Fucker that I can't wait to send off to be special guests at a feast my friend Abdullah is having. Mizuti posted:Augh my heart! Is Mina excited to see the lambs? MINA LOEV A BABY  She's like 10x larger than them though and is still working on controlling her enthusiasm so supervised visits only from the giant puppy. The end is in sight, two more ewes lambed this morning. Daisy had twin ewe lambs but one was dead when I found it. I'm not sure exactly what happened but only one side of Daisy's udder works and I was just hoping to get a ewe lamb to replace her so I guess it all worked out? This is the only surviving Garth lamb so far. He's bred one other ewe who isn't due until the end of May so it will be interesting to see what happens there. She's very pretty at least!  Petitfour had a big chunker ewe lamb that must have been hard to deliver because she's all poop yellow but she was born and fairly dry when I got out there so good job P.  Just waiting on Maddie now and I can actually sleep through the night again!
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2019 15:43
|
|
|
Neddy Seagoon posted:Are going to check the skulls on the dead lambs and see if Garth's passing on OCD? The first aborted lamb was extremely rotten and I nearly barfed helping the ewe deliver it so it got buried ASAP. The second aborted lamb the vet and I did a necropsy on and I checked out its skull in the process but it had been a really hard birth and it was hard to tell if damage was genetic or from being delivered. I might dig up this last one once its all decomposed and do a check but that relies on me thinking of it in a few months and digging through the compost pile so we will see. Either way I think Garth has got to go, which is too bad because he's very handsome and came from a good friend's flock but that specific ancestor's genes just seem to really not work with my girls. Edit: And Maddie lambed! A big white ram. No pictures yet but I'm hoping to take my real camera out later when I dock tails so maybe some actually decent ones today?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2019 17:40
|
|
|
Chaosfeather posted:Shame about Garth, but I sympathize and would personally avoid that ancestor's genetics like the plague after what you've seen. I'm glad Daisy's ewe looks good and healthy, but do you put a warning flag on her due to the possibility of having OCD in her line? Is that something that can be bred out over time, or does it end in culling (or simply not breeding the survivors)? I've thought about it a lot and I've been culling almost everything Clementine produces but so far none of her lambs have had any issues and she has a granddaughter at another goon's farm that seems fine so I'm thinking if they're ok, they're just going to be ok? I definitely proceed cautiously though. I probably wouldn't sell any of their male offspring as breeding stock but at this point I'm pretty sure at least the ewe lambs aren't passing anything bad on. Chaosfeather posted:Mutton is delicious and I hope the two Fuckers enjoy their last season(s) before serving Abdullah's fine meal on a very, very personal level. Who are the fuckers, anyway? I'm curious to know what level of dickery qualifies for "eh, rams" and what level is freezer camp. Chaosfeather posted:As someone who is interested in animal husbandry on a somewhat casual level, do you keep charts of the lines in order to keep everything squared away and documented? I'm guessing you are in good contact with the breeders of the animals you purchase, do you talk to them about your findings? How do they respond? I would like to think that they don't take the genetic fuckups that happen under their watch on a personal level and try to prevent them from happening in the future/continuing that line, but in my experience in seeing poorly bred animals this isn't as common as I'd like it to be. I hope there's another, healthier line available for you to get good rams from, as I think you have endured more than your fair share of scientific discoveries with your lambs. There's plenty of good lines out there and the jacob sheep annual general meeting is happening only like 2 hours away from me this year so I'm hoping all those good lines are going to be showing up. I'm planning on cleaning house of rams I'm not totally in love with and picking up a nice boy. If I could place an order it would be a 2 horned light lilac with under 50% markings and clean legs but we'll see. Just no Michigan sheep because apparently they just don't mix with my Ohio sheep. I'll probably use Isadore again this year too because Izzy is great and I know he produces what I want. Edit: I do keep track of everything in a flock management program and a bunch of excel sheets. Plus the jacob sheep association lets you look up pedigrees on their website so you can always look up a pedigree before you buy anything. Chaosfeather posted:Also, did you get tired of dealing with Goats? Not that I mind baby sheep everywhere, but I still have a hearty chuckle about Heath and his dating difficulties once in a while. Despite my best efforts I still have 9 goats. They're like bed bugs, you never truly get rid of them. Dido, the last of my original goats, passed away over the winter. I came out 2 hours after feeding them dinner to find her down and bloated. I ran in to get my bloat meds and she was dead by the time I got back. She hadn't gotten into any feed or anything so I have no idea why she bloated. Just being a goat I guess. I plan on reducing my flock down to 5-6 this year because there are some that are just nasty and I'm sick of it. Abdullah has been begging me to sell him goats for years so he'll be happy this eid and I'll be happy to not be constantly yelling at goats to stop being loving bitches all the time. I'll have to take pictures of the goats soon, they refuse to leave the barn all winter so they're looking pretty trashy right now but they'll be sheared soon. Instant Jellyfish fucked around with this message at 21:49 on Apr 3, 2019 |
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2019 21:44
|
|
|
I said I'd get some lamb pics so here you go. Petitfour's ewe lamb.  Valkyrie's massive ram. All the white boys have temporary lamb tags so I can tell them apart.  Daisy's girl.    Juniper's girl with her Tom Selleck mustache.    Aster's girl   Aster's ram    Clem's girl  Jewel's girls      Maddie and her boy  KIWI! This is Katelyn's girl and she's so funny and sweet and will probably be staying. Her face looks funny sometimes because she sucks her tongue.    Hope you're all ok with big dumps, I can split them up in the future if people prefer.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2019 23:07
|
|
|
Chaosfeather posted:Hah, any chance you can get one last shave from those rams before they depart? Shame about the fighting, but you're right that's not acceptable, especially if you keep them around for breeding purposes. StrixNebulosa posted:Honestly the single best thing this series of threads has done for me has introduced me to the concept of spotty lambs I don't even have that many sheep patterns anymore! The jacobs are all dominant/extension black with white spotting. When you get into the agouti genes there's a wild amount of color and patterns. It was interesting to delve into when I had more of the cvm/romeldales but at the end of the day if I wanted to be a geneticist I would have just become a geneticist and spots are enough for me. 
|
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2019 14:59
|
|
|
The opposite of baby lambs, but last month Jazz turned 14 and I thought you might appreciate pictures of her party. She got animal crackers, her favorite! 
|
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2019 19:22
|
|
|
Baby sheep are very soft and good to pet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4E6MR5WdcI I had a class to teach new farmers about lambing today and people did a good job pretending to listen but I know they were really just watching adorable baby sheep.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2019 02:09
|
|
|
It is hard to take pictures of lambs when they are on top of you and chewing on your hands/hair/camera. Daisy's girl  Miss Tache   Ladyslipper's awkward little boy. If he was a person be wearing overalls and sucking his thumb while tugging on the hem of his mom's shirt.  Aster's girl  Aster's sassypants little boy   Jaffa's boy. He has such a sweet baby face.  Jaffa's boy in front, Valkyrie's boy in the back. He's just a huge massive lunk who loves scritches and attention.  Clementine's girl in front, Jewel's girls on either side.  Kiwi chilling out for a single second after parkour-ing off my back for the past 30 minutes.  Top hay is the best hay.   Major looking not at all murderous.  
|
|
#
¿
Apr 17, 2019 18:13
|
|
|
Neddy Seagoon posted:I hope that's her actual name. And if not, why not? I'll probably end up selling her and her new owner can name her but if I end up registering her first that will probably be her official name. Aster's ewe has also discovered that pets are good. Sorry about the fb video link, my phone didn't want to upload to youtube for some reason.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 18, 2019 21:53
|
|
|
Easter surprise! Truffle was due on the 23rd but looked suspicious this morning so I tossed her in the feed room while I went to my parents' house for Easter dinner. Came home to a pair of nice warm and dry goat kids all snuggled into the hay. The silver brown is a doe, the regular brown is a buck.  
|
|
#
¿
Apr 21, 2019 23:47
|
|
|
A friend of mine's coworker (ob/gyn office) was shocked at pictures of 3 day old goats bouncing around but baby ruminants get up and going pretty quick. These goats are actually much less active than the lambs were at this point. Baby goats tend to get parked places while mom goes and grazes then comes back to collect them so they're not as active right away. Lambs are expected to follow their moms from place to place when they graze so they need to be able to keep up asap. I often go out and have to search high and low for the baby goats because they're hidden away someplace unexpected. A lot of the angora goats tend to have singles but Truffle is a big fat chunk and has twins. If only one of the goats got knocked up this year I'm glad it was her.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 23, 2019 00:59
|
|
|
More baby goat pictures. They were very sleepy.  
|
|
#
¿
Apr 24, 2019 20:14
|
|
|
GoingPostal posted:I hope Aster's sassypants little ram is a good one. It'd be a little heartbreaking to know that somebody that adorable is a huge jerkface. (Because holy poo poo that much cute should not be legal!) Sassypants is extremely sweet, although he's in the pack of hooligans led by Kiwi that like to come up to me acting all cute then try to eat my hair. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVxajoGBMLc
|
|
#
¿
Apr 27, 2019 01:40
|
|
|
eating only apples posted:Do you still have Iph and is she still as dumb as a sack of rocks? Yes, she’s still here and still an idiot. Right now she can’t see a drat thing because she needs to be sheared but she’s such a loving bitch at shearing that I save her for last. She spends the whole time trying to bite me in the face so she needs to be muzzled. I had kept her around for Dido’s sake because they were close but Dido’s gone now and that nasty little biohazard gets to go. All she had to do is not be awful and she couldn’t do it!
|
|
#
¿
Apr 30, 2019 04:43
|
|
|
I don't know where she's going yet but she can't stay here. I put up with a lot but seriously trying to hurt people is too much. She tried to rip someone's ponytail off! She does have CAE, which is a virus that attacks the brain in kids and joints in adults. It's not something that can be cured so she'll always have it. It's primarily spread through milk so that's why when she has accidentally gotten knocked up the kids have had to be removed at birth (which she has not cared about at all). That's also how she got it. She was too dumb to nurse and had to be bottle fed. We used raw goat milk from a neighbor who had tested her flock and came up negative for CAE so we figured it was safe. Found out after Iph had been bred for the first time that it had been a false negative and her flock was infected. It can also be spread through blood so she gets sheared and hoof trimmed and vaccinated last to prevent cross contamination in case of cuts. It's not contagious to people or most other animals but sheep can get it and develop a chronic viral pneumonia. I'm not sure if she had mild meningitis as a kid and that's what gave her the lovely attitude or what. I've tried to teach her that getting handled is a good thing that gets you treats, I do the most gentle and low stress shearing I can, and she tries to bite my face off so she's got to go.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 30, 2019 16:21
|
|
|
The first of the stragglers, Mimosa, lambed this morning. Ran out to the barn before going to a shearing job in Pittsburgh and there was a ewe lamb all clean and dry and full. Good job Mimosa!  Also if anyone remembers Sinatra from 2 years ago I got pictures of him all sheared and fat and happy recently. I'm still a little sad I sold him but his people really love him.  He looks so much like his daddy Isadore. 
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2019 01:49
|
|
|
Main batch of lambs are a month old now. Kiwi  Awkward boy  Dipstick tail  Fancy boots  Clem's lamb  Aster's ewe  Aster's sassypants boy  Miss Tache  Daisy's girl  Mimosa's girl, she's small and cute 
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2019 19:49
|
|
|
I've been very busy shearing for everyone in the area but I'm finally done lambing! Indigo lambed on Sunday with a wee tiny 4 lb girl.  She's doing great as a mom but she spends 3+ hours a day screaming for food and it's driving me up a wall. Baby is very cute though.  Reba wrapped things up with a set of ram/ewe twins on Monday morning. The ram is a big strapping lad but the ewe is a bit dumpy.  After watching her hunch around sadly I started supplementing her with bottles for a day and she seems fine now. Just needed a bit of a boost. She didn't want another bottle this morning so I think she's good.  Now to make sure everyone finishes growing up well and find them new homes! I also need to decide who I'm showing at the big jacob breed show in July.
|
|
#
¿
May 22, 2019 23:27
|
|
|
my cat is norris posted:When and where is the Jacob show? Wooster, OH July 19-21. Most of the sheepy stuff will be happening on the 20th and there's a longhorn cattle show going on at the fairgrounds at the same time so there's just going to be spotted, horned animals all over the place. I have vague hopes of getting out of my 3rd place rut but no actually plans on how I'm going to do better so we'll see! I'm mostly just looking forward to seeing all my jacob friends (and bringing home new sheep).
|
|
#
¿
May 23, 2019 22:03
|
|
|
my cat is norris posted:Wooster isn't an impossible distance! Maybe I'll come check out the show that weekend and pet some internet famous sheeps. The organizer said that spectators are fine during the show in the morning but the afternoon is all lectures. He forgot to turn off caps lock, how embarrassing. 
|
|
#
¿
May 27, 2019 23:59
|
|
|
I can help! My first lamb left for his new home today. One of the cormos went to go live at Lake Metroparks FarmPark, which is like a zoo for farm animals. He's the sweetest, friendlies little boy so I think he's going to be really happy. I know the lady in charge of the sheep because she breeds jacobs too and I know she does a great job with them.  Miss Mustache is going to a friend who is naming her Pistachio. Friend is also taking Poppy, a 2 year old ewe, so she might wait to take 'Stache until Poppy gets bred this fall.  Jewel's twins, Jasmine and Jujube, are going to AGM and will hopefully get sold as breeding stock there.   Same with Aster's girl, Marion. Her fleece is amazing!  I was going to take Clem's girl to show but she broke a horn so I'll probably take someone else instead.  Indigo's girl is still teeny but I'll probably try to sell her in the fall, maybe if I got to SAFF again I'll take her.  I really like Reba's ram and wish he was going to be old enough to show at AGM but again, maybe he can make the trip to SAFF in October.  With everyone I'm selling decided, here's who I'm buying! He doesn't have a name that I know of but he's coming in from Sweetgrass Jacobs in MI to show at AGM then I'm taking him home. He's a lilac so it will be interesting to see which of my ewes carry lilac.   That crimp! Very excited about this boy. 
|
|
#
¿
Jun 26, 2019 22:15
|
|
|
StrixNebulosa posted:Beautiful pictures of beautiful sheeps - how on earth did that one girl break a horn? Four horned ewe lambs break them off all the time as they're growing in just being rowdy lambs. Each time they grow back a little thicker and it stops happening as often but up to 8 month-1 year you've really got to watch those four horned ewes. A judge at SAFF last year was snooting about broken/uneven horns in ewes but you really need to bubble wrap them to not get any breaks at all. You can see yearling Pennyroyal busted off both of her left side horns at different points but her right side ones are probably her originals.  The four horned rams generally have thicker horns with more blood flow so they don't break as often as lambs but it's a lot more messy when they do.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 26, 2019 23:36
|
|
|
Oh no, let me help more then.       Take care of yourselves, friends 
|
|
#
¿
Jun 27, 2019 14:55
|
|
|
Neddy Seagoon posted:Is Mina bigger than Major yet? Yep! She's about 90 lbs, he's usually 76 lbs. She's only an inch taller than him at the shoulder but she's approximately a mile long. She's a good baby though 
|
|
#
¿
Jun 27, 2019 15:41
|
|
|
Mariposa refuses to just line up quietly and wait to be let in for dinner like everyone else. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfPsnYTpOps
|
|
#
¿
Jul 7, 2019 19:46
|
|
|
Chaosfeather posted:I love her. She cannot contain herself. The wild and sassy ones are always my favorites
|
|
#
¿
Jul 7, 2019 23:07
|
|
|
It was finally AGM weekend! I've been waiting for a year for this show and it was so much fun and now I'm exhausted. This is the jacob sheep breeders association's annual meeting and show, which moves around from year to year. This year it's fairly local so I got to help out and showed a bunch of sheep. There were over 100 jacob sheep there and they were all gorgeous so I did not have high hopes of placing. The last two shows I've been to I've come in third both times and I was hoping to sneak in a third this time as well but I was prepared to watch other lovely sheep do the winning. I even set up my camera and tripod to take win pictures for people. But then I kept winning!  My 2 year old ram, Hawthorn, that has spent the past year at someone else's farm won 1st in aged rams. He was so chill! At one point I handed his lead to a random person spectating while I showed ewes and he just stood there like an angel until I came back for him. Then his older sister, Daphne, won 1st in aged ewes, and his daughter, Pennyroyal, got 2nd in yearling ewes. In the yearling class I kept thinking the judge was pointing at the person next to me because the sheep there was bred by someone who beats me constantly and eventually the judge had to be like "no you, get over here".  Then they got third in pair of ewes, didn't place in small flock, and I almost didn't enter the best adult fleece class because I was extremely hot and tired but the sheep were already ringside so I grabbed Daphne and in we went. I was shocked when the judge walked over and shook my hand for best fleece! There were some of the best sheep in the country in that show and I'm so amazed that a judge thought I was their caliber.  So this morning I finally packed up and headed home with the help of my backseat driver, Ashe. I showed up with 5 sheep and came home with 8 despite selling one somehow. I'll introduce the new girls when I've had more than 4 hours of sleep and they look a little less rough from the travel. 
|
|
#
¿
Jul 21, 2019 23:30
|
|
|
Thanks everyone! It's extra special because Hawthorn and Daphne are both out of Johnnie, who was in the first set of lambs born on my farm way back in 2011. She's Twofer's sister and their other brother, Roman, is still at the farm I sold him to being fat and sassy so clearly that was a good batch. Here are the new girls! They’re originally from a flock in WV but I got them super cheap from someone in NY. The owner actually dropped the sheep off at the show and then left without me paying for them or communicating with me in any way so that was weird. I'll send her a check for the amount I think I owe her. The one with the stubby horn is Pansy, who is 7 and needs some tlc. She’s way skinnier than she was in the picture I was sent and must have tweaked her knee on her way from NY because she's holding it up and it's all swollen. She's got a pretty significant wool break and is filthy so she's getting sheared as soon as she's settled in.  The bigger girl is Sicily who is 4. She likes to stomp her feet at the dogs and generally seems to be unphased by the move.  Both are lilac carriers and I'm planning on breeding them to Ashe this fall as long as they don't get knocked up in quarantine.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 22, 2019 23:39
|
|
|
Some fun jacob sheep history about my new ram's maternal great grandfather. Back in the 70s a guy named Jamie Huntsberger got a bunch of imported jacobs from Scotland, then in 1996 he moved them all to Butter Island, a 300 acre island about an hour off the coast of Maine. They were basically feral and ran the whole island for 7 years untouched until Huntsberger lost his lease and was told to get his sheep off. He contacted Royal, the guy who bred Isadore, and asked for help. Like all jacob breeders, Royal never says no to a crazy adventure in exchange for some sheep so he agreed. In the middle of July 2003, they took a lobster boat and set out to capture the approximately 80 sheep that lived on the island. Seven people and 1 border collie headed out and by the afternoon they had 65 Jacobs penned up and began to ferry them across in the lobster boat. Those sheep were then distributed to interested breeders across the country and the woman who I got my new ram Ashe from ended up with a lovely 4 horned boy named Drummond. She worried because she had kids around at the time and these sheep were completely unhandled but I guess the moment Drummond stepped off that boat as a two year old he was a perfect gentleman and spent the remainder of his years a breed ambassador at fairs and festivals letting kids pet him and lead him around. 
|
|
#
¿
Jul 24, 2019 00:21
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 8, 2024 23:12 |
|
|
Most of the lambs are closing in on 5 months old now and finally looking less awkward. Still have a bunch to sell but I was able to find hay at a reasonable price so I'm less stressed out about it than I was when I thought I was going to be paying $6 a bale. Logan. He went from being a total dweeb to a pretty good looking young ram. I like his blue eye and his smiley face.    "i'M"  'Stache  Kiwi  Mariposa   Pendragon  Peach  Iris  Jasmine  Jujube  Ashe  
|
|
#
¿
Aug 24, 2019 19:50
|
|