The last lambs of the season (2019 lambing - post #8)

 This pet ewe hogget had a ewe lamb that weighed 5kg earlier in October (2 1/2 weeks ago!). I wasn't well at the time, and am only now getting around to adding her photo to this blog!

Lambing in my flock is officially over for this year, with the birth of this 4kg black ram lamb at about 4:30am on Thursday morning!

More lambs! (2019 lambing - post #7)

This ewe hogget really surprised me with twins on Saturday evening!!

Both are ram lambs, and weighed 3kg.

Both moorit, though pretty dark moorit.

Not sure which Agouti locus allele(s) they show, but I think it will be one of the "blue" ones!

This is only the second time (in two decades) that I've had a hogget have twins. The first time was four years ago when the great-grand-dam of this hogget had twins (the female twin from that set of twins is the paternal grand-dam of this hogget)! This hogget was also from a set of triplets (the second set of triplets that her dam had).

Another lamb! (2019 lambing - post #6)

This will be my only white lamb this lambing!
Another girl, about 3.5kg or so.
Mum is a hogget, and did very well. I wasn't even aware she was in labour until only a few minutes before the lamb was born - so a very low-stress lambing!

Another lamb! (2019 lambing - post #5)

 Another 5.5kg moorit-coloured single ewe lamb arrived this afternoon, about 2:15pm. Her mum is a 2yr old.

Only hoggets (1yr olds) left to lamb... 4/5 of the lambs so far are girls! No sons by the ram hogget that I still have, and only one more girl in-lamb to him...

Another lamb! (2019 lambing - post #4)

Assisted the arrival of this ewe lamb this morning...
Mum is a hogget, and baby was 5.5kg!

Another lamb! (2019 lambing - post #3)

This 4kg ewe lamb was born to a hogget overnight last night - whether before midnight (on the 17th) or after midnight (on the 18th), I'll never quite know!

I think she looks moorit... at least, her wool & face do... her legs are so dark that they look black - so it will be interesting to see what she looks like in another week or two! The white markings on her face look interesting too.

Meantime, the other lambs are getting older (oldest twins are a month old today, and the last two sets of twins were three weeks old yesterday)...

 

Our R2yr Jersey heifer calved (had a heifer calf) just over a week ago, and has needed milking twice a day as she had a lot of oedema & a hard udder... I'm also milking our older cow once a day.
Live has been pretty busy, and I was glad that none of the sheep lambed during all that! I have another 2yr old ewe yet to lamb and the rest of the hoggets - and it looks like ALL my hogget are going to lamb this season!

More lambs! (2019 lambing - post #2)

This white 3yr old ewe has had two black lambs (1M, 1F)
- between 5:00 & 5:30am on Tuesday morning, the 27th Aug.

This black, pet, 2yr old ewe had black twin ewe lambs
also on the 27th of August - but in the evening...

First few lambs... (2019 lambing - post #1)

My first set of twin lambs arrived early Sunday morning (probably just a little before 1:35am, 18/8)...
1M, 1F - and they are BOTH moorit, out of a black dam, by a moorit sire.

Then late Monday (just before 10:15pm, 19/8), this 6yr old moorit ewe had a BIG single ewe lamb, also moorit (as expected, with both parents being moorit)... But look at this lamb's face & tail! SO cute!
This marking (spotting?!) MUST be somewhat recessive, as neither dam nor sire show it!

Winter 2019

Well, I haven't posted much here!

It is currently winter... with all its challenges...
But spring isn't far away - well, we are past the shortest day now!

First due dates I have for any sheep are in August... and I just *might* manage to post when I have some photos...!