This is what Tom found yesterday when he was doing the farm chores. This is the result of the escapade documented in The Eternal Sheep Question from April 29. Welcome to the world, little lamb.
Feasts of Ice and Fire
Cooking from the Game of Thrones
You Can’t Eat Mount Rainier
Recipes from 1950's Seattle restaurants
Adorable!
What a fun surprise!
Thanks Krista. This once again proves that Shetland sheep are not seasonal breeders.
Definitely not ALL Shetlands are seasonal breeders. Sure is a cutey! Boy or girl?
Thanks Michelle! I have had a surprising percentage of out of season cyclers. It is a ram lamb, and he is a cutey.
Have you ever tried to pencil out how related the out-of-season breeders are? I think it would be interesting to learn!
The ones I know about are Mystic Knoll Austria, Primolana Garbo, Mystic Knoll Ebony, and our Dixie (out of Dodge Daphnie and Sheltering Pines Lewis). Ebony is an aunt to Austria but otherwise they are unrelated.
Considering how interrelated North American Shetlands are, unless heavily influenced by recent AI importations, I was curious and looked up the named sheep’s pedigrees. All the ewes go back on both sides to Dailley stock, so probably have a higher coefficiency of inbreeding than one might initially suspect. Since the original Dailley importation came from an area known for more crossbreeding than some other areas, is it possible that other sheep breeds’ reproduction cycles have influence here? We may never know, but it is interesting to consider!
Austria does have Flett in her background too.
Congratulations Donna! I know the lamb wasn’t planned but what a blessing. Lambs are so cute. Who are the parents?
Jackie
Thanks Jackie! He is a cutey and, since we didn’t have lambs this spring, helps fill a void. Not sure who dad is- all three rams got out that day but Jocko mounted Dixie so it is probably him. But color wise it could also be Shaun. He will be a wether so doesn’t really matter. He’s moorit and shows no agouti signs so likely will stay dark.
What a precious photo! Congratulations on the adorable ram lamb and healthy mom! It’s nice when you know that you plan on wethering him because then you can spoil him rotten!
Have fun!
Thanks Nancy! We will try to spoil him. He escaped from his pen last night, causing his mother great worry. So after dark I was out there catching him and shoring up the pen. he is a little rascal already.
Congrats on the healthy little boy! Dixie looks pleased with herself 🙂
Thanks Denise. I think she is a little shell shocked, having never been a mother before. Her udder is not large so I worry if she will make enough milk. I had not been graining her because looking at her recently I did not think she was pregnant. This is good in a way because since he was a singleton he was not too big but now I worry about her milk production. So far he is looking good.
Congratulations, what a wonderful little surprise!
Thanks Becky!
Beautiful! What an adorable little one.
Thanks Teresa! He is a cutey.
What a lovely little surprise! We had an “incident” that will leave us with some March 1st kids. Oh my…
Sometimes these incidents happen at imperfect times. I hope your March 1st is not too inclimate.