Thursday, April 29, 2010

The singleton


On Tuesday, April 27th, at around 6pm Arwen started to go into full labor. I was on my way to knitting group, when I got the call from Tim. I immediately turned around and came back to watch/help out (or as Tim would say, worry incessantly). Arwen did a good job and delivered a healthy brown gulmoget ewe lamb.

Arwen was bred to Gulliver, our black gulmoget ram that we lost due to hypothermia. Such a sweet looking little baby. Makes the loss of Gulliver a bit easier.







Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The triplets cometh ...

What started out looking like this:
Ended up giving me triplets. Viveka was bred to Bach, and she's never given triplets before. Since I was at work and Tim was out at the time of the birthing, we're not sure what order they came in, but we ended up with this little guy. A nice brownish katmoget.


This little guy with the white stripe on his back also appeared. Yes, another katmoget.


The third lamb born was a light looking brown based ewe lamb (normally when we get moorit babies they're so darn dark it's almost as if they're black) that most likely would have been fawn colored. Unfortunately she was stillborn. Looks like, from her development, that she died in utero at the later stage of Viveka's pregnancy. The lamb was fully formed (as far as I could tell) but her eyelids were closed and they appeared sunken in where her eyes should have been. Also, where she should have had a nice rounded looking belly, she appeared as flat as a pancake. Is it possible she ran out of space to grow? Something happened, and I'm sure it was a blessing in disguise, although a bit of a let down.

These are the only ram lambs that came from Bach's randy insistence that he breed everything on the farm that was wooly and female. Unfortunately, it looks as if Bach's insistence to breed others left Rakel (Viveka's twin sister) without being tupped this year. But, fortunately for us, it also looks as if he didn't get any other ewe we didn't want him to have!
Two more to go. Will I get any more gulmogets from Gulliver ... time will tell.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Third and Fourth Babies of the season!

Late last night Mulan gave us twins. She was a bit sneaky. So much for them not eating prior to lambing. She tucked into the minimal grain that we give them each evening and also went out for some hay at about 8pm. When we went out around 10pm, she had already delivered her twins. She gave us two girls. These girls are Bach's lambs. I was hoping for at least one ram lamb, but alas, no go.
I like them much and they both have a bit of white color to them. I'm thinking the one could be grey, but since Bach was modified, perhaps an emsket? Thoughts?
They're adorable, so we'll do a wait and see as to their true colors.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Second baby of the season!

Today Maybelle Sabrina, my white ewe, who was bred to Underhill Bach gave me a lovely looking white ewe lamb at about 2pm. She weighs 7 pounds.


She's just adorable. She has a little patch of phaeo on the back of her neck (at least I believe that's what it is). It's hard to see in this photo as mom hadn't finished cleaning all of the gack off her neck, but it's slightly above mom's nose.


Dare I say I want to keep her? This lambing season isn't bodeing well if I don't have any new lambs on a sales list!

Sunday, April 18, 2010

First Baby of the Season!


Yesterday morning, Sabbath Farm Sylph gave me a beautiful brown based gulmoget ram lamb.
He looks like he may even carry spotting, which isn't surprising as Sylph does carry spotting and his daddy, SheltrgPines Gulliver was a spotted gulmoget ram.
This little guy will most likely be kept here on the farm to replace Gulliver.