Shetland twins!

Well, my Shetlands are almost done!! Sunday afternoon my black shetland ewe (she doesn't have a name) had twins. A ewe lamb and a ram lamb. The ewe was suppose to be bred to my shetland ram DiNozzo, but she decided she liked Herriot, my grey Icelandic ram better. She kept slipping over to his pen, no matter how I fixed the 'holes' in the fencing. So I decided to just leave her there and see what happened.

Two beautiful black lambs is what happened! And one is a ewe! I am so thrilled!!

I raise my Shetlands for their fleeces and also for meat. So ewe lambs are usually retained as long as the wool is of high quality. The ram lambs are desitin for a freezer. Either mine or someone elses. So, because of that I do not name any of the ram lambs out of my Shetlands. But this little ewe lamb will needed a name, and her mother does too. I am open to suggestions.

My other Shetland ewe had lambs this afternoon. Twin ram lambs. So no names for them. But I will get some pictures of them tomorrow, my batteries were going dead so I had to recharge.

I also purchased three more Shetland sheep. Two ewes and a ram. I will have more on them in a couple of days. One of the ewes, Ester, is also due to lamb any day now. The other ewe doesn't look to be pregnant.

More posts coming soon!

The Icelandic lambs are all here!!

I came home a little early from work yesterday and both Evra and Garnet were in labor! Nothing like sharing the pain.
Evra lambed first and had twins. A ram lamb (weighing 7lbs 10oz) and a ewe lamb (weighing 7lbs 10oz)

 

This is Evra's the ewe lamb, Biscotti. I think she is a grey moorit or maybe just a grey.

 

This is Evra's ram lamb, Brizben. I think he is a black badgerface.

This is Garnet's ram lamb, Budster. I think he is also a black badgerface.

Budster? Yep.... Look at those horn buds!! Poor mama!!

I ended up having to help Garnet with him. And he is sporting the stylish sweater because he was very chilled when I went to check on him a little later in the evening. I brought him into the house and wrapped him in a blanket and then wrapped a heating pad around him and then held him while he warmed up. He seems to be doing just fine now, but I will wait to take the sweater off until the weather gets a little better. It is a very damp cold right now.

So, now all that is left are the Sheltand ewes!

I love goat kids!!

This is not a very quality video, need to read up on my camera's video section a little.

But, oh my, do this goat kids make it really diffucult to get anything done!!

And another one. Just isn't the same as seeing them in person.

The kids are all born

9 kids from 5 does in 10 days!

The first set of twins were born on Sunday March 6th. The mother is Agatha and father is Rufus. They were born about 1:30 in the afternoon. I really did not want to breed Agatha because she was not even a year old yet, but because my farm is still a work in progress, she did not want to stay with the weanling ewe lambs and kept going through the fences. I was afraid she would get tangled up and really hurt herself or worse. So I left her with the does and the buck and hoped she would be alright with the pregnacy. She produces two small doelings, both weighing about 4 pounds. I was worried Agatha did not have enough milk and bottle feed the smallest doeling for a couple of days and also had her nurse off of Cedar for a couple of days.

I am happy to report all are doing well now and both are growing very nicely.
I have named them Brenda and Babs. Babs is a very bright white and Brenda is an off white, technically I think she is considered a faded red, but not sure. The color is only noticable when they are right next to each other. Sure hope Brenda gets just a hair darker as she grows so I can easily tell them apart. I really don't want to put an ear tag in them yet.

The second set of twins were born Tuesday March 8th. Unfortunately, they were born in the early morning and Cedar, the mother, had them outside in the cold rain. Neither one of them survived. They were both black doelings. The only good thing was I was able to supplement Babs off of Cedar for several days while Agatha developed more milk.

The third set of twins was born Saturday March 12 at about 6pm. The mother is Abby, a red doe, and the father is Rufus a black. The two of them look almost identical. But one is a buckling and the other a doeling. They both already have their mothers sweet personality. The doeling is named Bailey and the buckling is named Baxter. I was away on a fiber retreat and Rob did a great job of being nurse 'father'.

The only single kid born was born Sunday March 13th at about 7pm. The mother is Cedar and the father is Rufus. I was very surprised when I saw that this doeling was white! Both mother and father are black. So I will have to do some investigating into the mothers pedigree and see if there is any whites or spotted in her lineage. The buck, Rufus, has no pedigree so I don't know anything about his lineage. I was watching her stand up for the first time and I had not gone in yet and I thought Cedar had pooped on her babies back! Then I discovered that it is a little spot!

The last set of twins was born on Tuesday March 15th sometime early afternoon. When I got home at 5pm they were dry with tummies full. The mother is Ziva and the father is Rufus. I was thrilled when I saw that they were both doelings!! And one of them was brown! They should be friendly like their mother.

I still need to come up with names for three of them, but I am SOOOO thrilled that I ended up with six girls!

So far this has been a total opposite of last year. I just hope this doesn't mean that the four pregnant ewes will have all single ram lambs! But, I guess if they were all healthy I would still be very happy.

There is going to be lots of 'work' getting these kids friendly. I love that kind of work! :)

First of the babies!

We had a very nice surprise this afternoon!

They where born about 1 o'clock this afternoon. The mother is Agatha, my wild child! These are Agatha's first kids. I had planned on leaving her open because she was only born last year, so she is still very young! But, boy, has she been a fantastic mother!! She cleaned them both off quickly and stood quietly while they tried to find the food source.

Of course, she is the only angora goat that I had not sheared yet so the poor babies where trying to nurse on fleece! So I was able to catch her and give her a quick trim job. Not complete, but enough the babies will have an easier time of finding their next meal.

I am happy to report they both have had several small meals and are pretty cozy in their sweaters under the heat lamp. I was afraid that the sweaters where going to be too small, but they seem to be doing there job.

Oh my, I almost forgot to mention.....

Twin Doelings!!!!!!

I can hardly believe it! First time mom produced twin doelings!! I am so excited! I hope this is a peak into the future for the other 8 momma's tobe.

And their names? Well, one of them will be named Brenda, after a friend of mine, in fact her birthday is today!! I haven't come up with a second name yet. It must start with the letter B.

Better go check on them. :)