I took these photos a week or so ago, and they've been simmering in my computer. Now they want out! All of our Scottish Blackface lambs are a result of artificial insemination with semen collected in Scotland from real Scottish - Scottish Blackface rams. We used one of the rams last year, and two others this year. The little beauty below is "Bonnie's Girl" by ram #3631. We hope she develops mom's lovely flowing, long fleece along with dad's superb conformation. These two boys are out of our nicest fleeced ewe, Luna. Luna also has wonderful, wide, sweeping horns. In our very small flock, within this low NA population breed, Luna is the least related to our other ewes. We bred her to the "third" imported semen line (#4236) hoping for a ram lamb. She gave us Wicket and Teebo. Thank you, Luna!
The left hand lamb in the photo below is our 75% Scottish lines ewe lamb. She's the daughter of the first Scottish Blackface born in North America of Scottish semen, EverRanch Genesis. She deserves a name, but for now is "Jennie's Girl". She's a half sister to Wicket, shown behind her, and half-first-cousin-once-removed to Bonnie's girl at right. Ram 4236 (sire of Wicket, Teebo and Jennie's girl) gave us more substance and darker color than Ram 3631 (sire of Bonnie's girl and EweOne's triplets). The 4th lamb in this photo is Bubba, single son of our BFLxBL Hortense and Gotland ram "Denzel". Bubba is the biggest lamb we've had at EverRanch.
The Scottie triplets are still confined in the oversized jug in the barn. "Butch" had his splint changed on Monday - it's now a bright red. The good new is that his leg appears to be healing well, and just possibly they'll remove his splint next Monday! We'll keep them in the pen maybe another week, just to have him get used to walking on it, then have to introduce all 4 of them gradually to the pasture. Whew.
- Franna
Go, green!
1 day ago
2 comments:
What wonderful pictures, Franna! I was glad to hear that "Butch" is recovering...I know how that must've worried you. Wouldn't it be wonderful if WE healed as fast as these little lambs? One of our young boys twisted his lleg running and had to recover in a jug with his brother and Mum. Then whe I let him out I was worried it was too soon and he'd do it all over again. Turns out he was fine. :)
I've been meaning to ask if you spin the SBF fleeces and what you do with them??? They are a breed I love to watch but I've never spun as I heard most were rug quality wool.
Thanks for sharing your babies with us!
Oooh, maybe it is a very BAD idea to visit, with all those other breeds of sheep to "turn my head." Keep me focused on the Shetlands, Franna; keep me focused on the Shetlands!
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