I had a surprise this morning. I thought I was done with lambing, and that none of Spike’s girls caught. I figured his troubles with parasites all last summer stunted his maturity, but I’d give him another year to see if he catches up.
But I woke up this morning to a beautiful new moorit ewe lamb out of Venus. Venus was one of my lambs last year, so I wouldn’t have been heart-broken if she didn’t catch, but thought it was worth attempting. She had the baby up and cleaned, but I hadn’t seen any nursing, so I jugged them.
The curious bit is that the two days that Miguel got out and into that pen were January 13th and February 3rd. That would make due dates of May 28th or June 28, and today is June 2nd.
So now I’ve got to figure out of Spike has any moorit in his background. We know Venus does, because Miguel is her daddy, and he’s moorit.
Spike’s parentage is this, from Dancing Lamb Farm:
This black, horned, ewe lamb is out of my milkiest pureblood Icelandic ewe. Her mom produced more milk than most of my dairy cross ewes last year. One of the Lacaune crosses is the only one to produce more. I’m keeping her twin sister. She would be an excellant choice for someone wanting a true triple purpose sheep (milk, fiber, meat). She’s being bred to DL-325S out of Brendon, an Aboti son with great fleece.
Clicking on the breed book just makes my brain bleed. I’m hoping Frank will figure it out.
I so want to keep this little girl! Moorit is my favorite of all the Icelandic sheep colors, and though I had three moorit lambs this year, all of them are boys.