Lambing has begun for Hidaway Farm Shetlands

After much anticipation and checking other sheep blogs to see lamb pictures, we have twin rams of our own.



First, a little about our breeding selections for this year. We used 3 Shetland rams on 13 ewes.



Our adult ram is 3 year old Rare Find Farm Cory. He is a fawn katmoget with a very crimpy fleece. He was placed with Hidaway Farms Ruth (black and white flecket), and Cara (light grey), Maisie (black), Gina (black HST), Daisy (moorit), and Woolstone Cadey (moorit).



Emmett, a ram lamb from Rare Find Farm who is emsket was placed with Jehovah Raah Annie Oakley (grey), Highlander Farms Bethia (grey), Hidaway Farms Miriam (fawn), Sarah (fawn), and Abigail (moorit). He has a medium length, wavy, dense fleece.



We also used Hidaway Farms Razzle, a ram lamb out of Cory who is a grey katmoget with a very soft, wavy fleece. His mother, Gina, is a black HST ewe. We put him with Windswept Shania, a mioget HST ewe and Windswept Martina (black with a white krunet spot) that is a definite spot carrier. We are hoping that this breeding will give us a least one spotted lamb.





On Thursday, March 27th we noticed that Annie Oakley was in the early stages of labor. She is a very friendly ewe and an old hand at lambing. By 9:30 she had produced two small boys. We had her down for Sunday at 146 days gestation which is when she normally lambs. They were probably a little early but are doing very well. One looks black now but we believe that he will be emsket like his father. He also has a white krunet spot. The other little guy is dark but there are signs of light grey inside the fleece like his mother.



On Friday, March 28th our yearling ewe, Miriam ,delivered a stillborn premature ewe lamb. We thought she might not have settled with the ram because there was no progress in udder formation when we crotched them last week. This is the first time we have experienced this with our Shetlands.



Pictures of the rams will come later. This year our sheep naming theme is Famous People. These two are our youngest daughter's and she hasn't decided on names yet.