October 18, 2010

New Additions & Breeding Groups

Hopefully, we are picking up the new additions to the Shetland flock this weekend. 5 new sheep, 2 ewes and 3 wethers. This means new sheep to spoil and 5 new colors in fleece.
Above is Minwawe Whirlwind, I fell in love with her lovely oatmeal color fleece as well as her markings. Below is Adrian her wethered ram lamb. The two are as probably as close to white as I am ever going to get.

This is Three Ring Buttered Rum, the photo below her is of her twins Timothy and Matthew.

These 5 woolly ones will round out the Shetland flock. Am now content with the size of our little flock, staying within my manageable number, have a variety of colors in fleece (light oatmeal, shades of brown, grey, black and black and white spotted) and there will be at least two ewes for each ram.
With the Shetland search and flock now closed, my next search will be for an Icelandic and a Merino ewe. Jim still swears he is going to have a pair of Merino wool socks out of this obsession of mine.
With the exception of the new ewes we are now officially separated into breeding groups.
Shetlands:
Jackdaw(ram)
Selena
Lark
Jasper(ram)
Pitty Pat
Scarlet
Angoras:
The Sundance Kid(black buck)
Bella (black)
Aurora (white)
Bonnie Lass (white)
Fairchild (white)
Jacob's Chance(white buck)
Barb
Maybelle
Camel

I mentioned the scratching tree in yesterday's post. This is another view. The bark at the bottom continues to slowly be rubbed off.

Til next time...
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

4 comments:

Michelle said...

I had to laugh when I read "staying within my manageable number." Yeah, right -- until lambing season . . . and the NEXT lambing season . . . and so on! heh

JK said...

LOL Michelle I think I was trying to convince myself it is all good. Figure if we are selective in our breeding and let the girls rotate/take turns we can keep numbers down.

Michelle said...

Well, if it were me, I'd buy Merino and Icelandic fleeces instead of getting the sheep unless you REALLY love both those breeds from personal experience, and their fiber. One Merino fleece would probably keep your husband in socks for the rest of his life!

JK said...

Thank you Michelle. Wise woman you are. I hadn't thought of it that way. :-)