stonehavenfarm.com

Here is Puddleduck Lotte…at day 148:

Her udder is huge and showing all the signs of lambing in the next 24 hours, but she looks pretty relaxed and chipper tonight. Since she is a morning lamber, perhaps tomorrow….

In the meantime, McTavish Katie and her new lamb came out of the jug today. Katie kept him inside much of the time, protecting him from those rowdy April lambs, and the curious llamas who wanted to meet their new charge. He is spry and ready to explore the world, but Katie isn’t ready to let him:

I snapped this photo just before he went jigging off:

I am warming to this every two or three day lambing…I get to enjoy each one to the fullest!

The ewes who were bred to Baltazar were due to begin lambing on Saturday. So I had turned on our new wireless baby monitor in the bedroom, in order to hear the goings on in the lambing barn. At 3:30 this morning, I heard a ewe (no question whose voice it was) calling “Lost lamb, lost lamb, lost lamb!!! And she was baa-ing so loudly that one could have heard her without the baby monitor….

So when I got to the barn, I found Katie in the very first stages of lambing (had passed her mucous plug); she hadn’t had gone into real labor yet…but she just knew that (by the way that she was feeling) there MUST be a lamb somewhere!

Indeed there was! A couple of hours later, she gave birth to a handsome little moorit ram lamb…his fleece looks lovely. Good work, Katie!

Today we had a visit from some folks who are in the process of setting up their farm for a small flock of Shetlands. They had lots of questions about fencing, feeding and fostering the sheep they hope to get by autumn.

On seeing the ram-flock and their array of horns, they asking how we choose which boys to keep as rams, and if it was on the basis of which ones have good horns…we said that we choose conformation and fleece first….and hope for good horns!

The answer is too obvious: to have the fewest horn worries, one has to breed with rams who have good horns…and brutally wether (or cull) those whose horns are going to threaten their lives or health. It is painful to make these decisions in the beginning, but it is even more painful to keep on having to make them generation after generation, when horns don’t work.

Although I have no scientific research to back me up, I have come to feel that “good horns” are a result of the right timing of the genetic/physiological signal to rotate relative to the rate of horn growth. Although some turning occurs throughout the first year, the greatest outward rotation is seen at about 10-12 months.

The earliest sign of this rotation is a slight outward flare of the horn tip. This can be seen by early winter of the first year; here is a closer view of the tips of Centaurus’s horns as a yearling:

Here are his horns as a two year old:

Another good example of the beginning turn is Robin Goodfellow’s horns in the first year:

Different rate of horn growth and slightly different horn shape in this 11 month old fellow, but you can see the beginning of a reassuring curl in this photo:

Occasionally the rotation doesn’t seem to occur at all, but the horns keep growing downward and sometimes backward. This ram had a heart-stopping fleece and great conformation, but by the age of 11 months, his horns had not made the rotation forward. He became a wether…so sad.

So if the horns are not growing parallel to the head, and at least a couple of inches from the cheeks by late lamb-hood, we are concerned. And if there is a tendency of the arc of the growing horn toward the face or neck, our experience is that the horns are almost certainly NOT going to make it, and we wether by Ritchey Nipper or surgery….we no longer watch and worry. Only in a very rare circumstance (irreplacable genetics) would we make any other decision.

First of all, this sort of horn growth limits the ram’s productive life, and secondly, we DON’T want to give them the chance to pass on this complex of horn genetics.

Considering all this, it seems so much better to wait to see how any ram’s horns develop before using him for breeding. Here are a few other boys whose horns did not rotate outward:

All are wethers….

Over the years, trying to get to predictably good horns, we have had to bite the proverbial bullet, and make the decision wether fellows with beautiful fleeces and excellent conformation…who didn’t have horns to match. Usually they go to spinner’s flocks, but a few of the special ones get to stay here and produce big, soft fleeces.

So there are some consolations…

What a gnarley subject! Shetland breeders’ preferences are as varied as the sheep: there are those who want NO horns in either rams or ewes….those who want the “normal” Shetland appearance…and those who love horns in either sex (we fall under the latter category).

Each shepherd can choose what pleases their eyes, and makes them comfortable. Most Shetland rams have horns, and most ewes do not. But horned ewes, and polled rams are also acceptable in the registry, as well as incompletely developed horns (scurs) rams and ewes.

Advocates of polled rams say that they are of a milder temperament, and aren’t “dangerous” as horned rams can be. But I submit that ANY ram can be dangerous…or not. A head-butt from any ram can seriously injure a human. There are indeeed bad tempered rams (who shouldn’t be fostered, regardless of whether they are horned or polled), but what made these rams bad-tempered is another issue entirely…

Those who understand how we relate to our rams know that we have a ram-flock of good-tempered fellows. No one who behaved otherwise would stay on our farm. Many have very impressive horns, but some of these boys are genuine sweethearts. And over all the years, we have only culled 2 rams for temperament! This small number was out of 80-some rams who have lived here for various periods of time (some brought in, most born to our flock). Of course, many became wethers for other reasons…

This brings up one big advantage to polled genetics: that there is one less thing to worry about in producing a high quality breeding ram. One is saved from handwringing over a lovely fleece that can’t be passed on because of poor horns.

Having never had a polled ram, I can’t speak from experience, but I would suggest that the mild tempered polled rams come from like-minded stock. OR (more importantly) they are managed in a fashion that encourages good behavior (see our ToughLove page). Their owners aren’t afraid of them, and therefore are able to feel “in charge” of these rams…just as the shepherd should always be “alpha” to their rams!

Stay tuned…lots more to say about horns!

And row by row…

This year we created a new garden plot, ammended it with compost, and tilled it several times to discourage the grass from regrowing, and the weeds from sprouting. The corn seeds were sprouted in the house before they went into the new garden plot…they were up above ground within 2 days!

Brook always does the thinning; although I recognize that my attitude is foolish, I find it too traumatic to pull out the young thriving plants…and drop them on the ground.

Notice the healthy crop of weeds behind him. Soon that space will be tilled, (I have no trouble euthanizing weeds…a true double standard!) and the tomatoes and peppers that we have started inside will be set out in the “walls-o-water”. Another little bit of progress…

There have been some larger strides this year…but compared to the multitude of projects, our progress still feels like “inch by inch”.

We have been gradualy improving the fencing over the past 4 years, and a barbed-wire fence (ugh!) along the edge of the horse pasture that was a falling-down when we moved here is now replaced with a New Zealand type fence (you can see the new fence and gate with its H-braces behind the old one). What joy!

This poor excuse for a fence DID keep the horses out of the pastures that they weren’t grazing, but neither it, nor we, could have lasted much longer.

We also put new fencing along the perimeter of the sheep pasture adjacent to our old barn. Wherever sheep will be near the fence, there is a bottom row of hog panel fencing and then two hot wires above. Here is a segment of the fence in progress:

We can attach the Electronet fencing to hot wires on either side, and create more permanent sub-divisions in the sheep pasture, and the hot wires discourage horses pushing on the hog panels.

Life is good!

Lots of busy-ness today…irrigation, refencing new grazing, work in the wool room…but I did get a chance to spend time with the ewes and lambs. The hazy sunshine was just right for photos and the lambs were irresistible!

It was a day for standing and gazing…Ebony’s Eliana was feeling the same.

Some of the lambs are beginning to graze now in earnest; others (like Chloe’s Glenna) are just nibbling at the tall grass seed heads that the ewes won’t eat.

Gyasi (Guro’s beloved ram-lamb) is growing so fast and more handsome by the day. He has a look of royalty about him…..

Guro still dotes on him and keeps him as near as a ram-lamb CAN be kept. But he spent a great deal of time today playing with Egan (our resident rascal).

Egan is growing up handsomely too…and still ignores his mother. I think that she has given up!

For two weeks now, we have been fostering a young mother dog, and her two now-8-week old pups. The mother dog belonged to a young couple who had too many co-ordinates in their lives, and didn’t notice that their “puppy” was getting old enough to get pregnant. She DID…in her first heat (!)

The mother dog (Moon) is a sweet intelligent girl who is very, very happy to be here, playing with our dogs, and helping us with chores and irrigation. She has rediscovered her puppyhood! In her former life, she had been living on a tether…so sad.

Moon had 4 puppies on the first day of spring, two smooth coats and two rough coats…the smooth coats have gone to new homes already, but the rough coated ones are still with their mother. The two pups that are left are so amazingly sweet! We are NOT suffering in taking care of them!

This is Clancy:

And this is Alex:

They are ready to be weaned soon, and we hope that they will find by just the right homes. We have placed them for adoption with Best Friends (who advertise on the Internet service PetFinder) and in the meantime, we are surrounded by cuteness (first lambs, now puppies…how good can it get?) and we will enjoy each day that they spend with us.

On this day, I think about the one who made me a mother….and what love and beauty he has brought to my life….to OUR lives, because we are three. The love goes round and round…Brook, Ben, me…growing with each giving and receiving.

On Ben’s last visit, he put window and door trim in my Wool Room (thank you, Ben), and the visit before that, he spent lots of time in Brook’s shop building a table for himself..his first major woodworking project. Brook guided the process, came up with materials, and shared his knowledge of woodworking with Ben, who in turn created this lovely piece of art.

Ben has a graphic design business, and we have him to thank for our new web-site, and this blog. He works on them when time allows, limited only by slowness of information provided by his “client”. Still more to come, Ben…I promise.

Today we refenced two groups of ewes into new grazings…bringing them up to the highest ground in each pasture. By the time that they are finished in these locations, the grass 5 rotations below will have regrown and we can begin again.

The Border Collies are running in the grazing from which we just moved the sheep, and the grass in the paddock at the bottom of the photo (from two rotations ago) is regrowing quickly.

The month of May has brought us some welcome rain, and the beginning of the irrigation season. The sprinklers in the sheep pastures have had wonderful effects. But sometimes the growth rate does get ahead of us…there are really LOTS of adult Shetlands in the photo, plus a few lambs!

Puddleduck Guro is an experienced ewe who was completely relaxed when she reared twin ewe-lambs in her last pregnancy. But this time, she had a sinlge fawn ram-lamb that she feels is SO special that she won’t let him out of her sight!

She follows him everywhere, and stands beside him when he is sleeping.

Of course, he is a ram-lamb and a free spirit, but she has him amazingly organized! I must say that we think that he is as lovely as Guro does; perhaps he will grow up to fill his grandfather’s “hooves” (our Connor). Having another fawn ram in our flock would be just fine! Did I really say that???
__________________________________________________________________________

The last lambs to be born were out of Cairn Farm Ebony. She is a full-sister to Thor (who is no longer alive) and very valuable to our genetics, as well as being a sweet friendly girl. Her black fleece is now a dark smoky color from age-greying, and like Thor did, Ebony has a soft lustrous fleece and carries the modifier. This year, she had twin ewe-lambs who looks as though they will carry on the family tradition in fleece quality.

The first of these lambs had only the faintest hint of sugar-lips when she was born; she may be a darker grey than her sister.

The head of the second born is splashed with white, but likely these will fade.

Both lambs have exquisite fleeces; it will be hard to decide who gets to stay when the time comes…happily that will be a long time from now!