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Help, please. I'm suffering from lack of baby lamb.
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Jun 26, 2019 10:02
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Glory to Italia! 
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 04:47 |
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I can help! My first lamb left for his new home today. One of the cormos went to go live at Lake Metroparks FarmPark, which is like a zoo for farm animals. He's the sweetest, friendlies little boy so I think he's going to be really happy. I know the lady in charge of the sheep because she breeds jacobs too and I know she does a great job with them.  Miss Mustache is going to a friend who is naming her Pistachio. Friend is also taking Poppy, a 2 year old ewe, so she might wait to take 'Stache until Poppy gets bred this fall.  Jewel's twins, Jasmine and Jujube, are going to AGM and will hopefully get sold as breeding stock there.   Same with Aster's girl, Marion. Her fleece is amazing!  I was going to take Clem's girl to show but she broke a horn so I'll probably take someone else instead.  Indigo's girl is still teeny but I'll probably try to sell her in the fall, maybe if I got to SAFF again I'll take her.  I really like Reba's ram and wish he was going to be old enough to show at AGM but again, maybe he can make the trip to SAFF in October.  With everyone I'm selling decided, here's who I'm buying! He doesn't have a name that I know of but he's coming in from Sweetgrass Jacobs in MI to show at AGM then I'm taking him home. He's a lilac so it will be interesting to see which of my ewes carry lilac.   That crimp! Very excited about this boy. 
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Jun 26, 2019 22:15
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I've been in the hospital since Saturday night so this makes my mood a little better. Thanks for the pictures 
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Jun 26, 2019 22:47
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Beautiful pictures of beautiful sheeps - how on earth did that one girl break a horn?
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Jun 26, 2019 22:48
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StrixNebulosa posted:Beautiful pictures of beautiful sheeps - how on earth did that one girl break a horn? Four horned ewe lambs break them off all the time as they're growing in just being rowdy lambs. Each time they grow back a little thicker and it stops happening as often but up to 8 month-1 year you've really got to watch those four horned ewes. A judge at SAFF last year was snooting about broken/uneven horns in ewes but you really need to bubble wrap them to not get any breaks at all. You can see yearling Pennyroyal busted off both of her left side horns at different points but her right side ones are probably her originals.  The four horned rams generally have thicker horns with more blood flow so they don't break as often as lambs but it's a lot more messy when they do.
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Jun 26, 2019 23:36
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Instant Jellyfish posted:The four horned rams generally have thicker horns with more blood flow so they don't break as often as lambs but it's a lot more messy when they do. Oh I can just imagine. Thanks for the pictures and all the explanations!
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Jun 27, 2019 00:32
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Been having a really hard time mentally, so I wanted to say I appreciate you and your critters.
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Jun 27, 2019 10:27
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Oh no, let me help more then.       Take care of yourselves, friends 
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Jun 27, 2019 14:55
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Is Mina bigger than Major yet?Instant Jellyfish posted:Oh no, let me help more then. That is the most judgemental expression I've ever seen on an animal.
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Jun 27, 2019 15:03
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Is Mina bigger than Major yet? Yep! She's about 90 lbs, he's usually 76 lbs. She's only an inch taller than him at the shoulder but she's approximately a mile long. She's a good baby though  
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Jun 27, 2019 15:41
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Instant Jellyfish posted:Oh no, let me help more then. Dawww, thank you that was an exceptional few posts to come home to.Mina and Major are at least good at pretending to be buds now. Hooray!
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Jun 27, 2019 16:47
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Instant Jellyfish posted:
Choosing to pretend Major loves Mina
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Jun 29, 2019 15:06
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Mariposa refuses to just line up quietly and wait to be let in for dinner like everyone else. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfPsnYTpOps
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Jul 7, 2019 19:46
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I love her. She cannot contain herself. I also know she's probably a pain in the rear end to own because of that. I appreciate you from afar, impatient sheep.
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Jul 7, 2019 22:59
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Chaosfeather posted:I love her. She cannot contain herself. The wild and sassy ones are always my favorites
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Jul 7, 2019 23:07
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Instant Jellyfish posted:Mariposa refuses to just line up quietly and wait to be let in for dinner like everyone else.
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Jul 7, 2019 23:52
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It was finally AGM weekend! I've been waiting for a year for this show and it was so much fun and now I'm exhausted. This is the jacob sheep breeders association's annual meeting and show, which moves around from year to year. This year it's fairly local so I got to help out and showed a bunch of sheep. There were over 100 jacob sheep there and they were all gorgeous so I did not have high hopes of placing. The last two shows I've been to I've come in third both times and I was hoping to sneak in a third this time as well but I was prepared to watch other lovely sheep do the winning. I even set up my camera and tripod to take win pictures for people. But then I kept winning!  My 2 year old ram, Hawthorn, that has spent the past year at someone else's farm won 1st in aged rams. He was so chill! At one point I handed his lead to a random person spectating while I showed ewes and he just stood there like an angel until I came back for him. Then his older sister, Daphne, won 1st in aged ewes, and his daughter, Pennyroyal, got 2nd in yearling ewes. In the yearling class I kept thinking the judge was pointing at the person next to me because the sheep there was bred by someone who beats me constantly and eventually the judge had to be like "no you, get over here".  Then they got third in pair of ewes, didn't place in small flock, and I almost didn't enter the best adult fleece class because I was extremely hot and tired but the sheep were already ringside so I grabbed Daphne and in we went. I was shocked when the judge walked over and shook my hand for best fleece! There were some of the best sheep in the country in that show and I'm so amazed that a judge thought I was their caliber.  So this morning I finally packed up and headed home with the help of my backseat driver, Ashe. I showed up with 5 sheep and came home with 8 despite selling one somehow. I'll introduce the new girls when I've had more than 4 hours of sleep and they look a little less rough from the travel. 
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Jul 21, 2019 23:30
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You've spent years making fantastic sheep, dude. You deserve it.
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Jul 21, 2019 23:57
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What an awesome story! Can't wait to see the new ones.
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Jul 22, 2019 00:15
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That's incredible, well done! You absolutely deserve it.
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Jul 22, 2019 00:50
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congrats! that's so cool!
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Jul 22, 2019 17:12
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Congratulations! You've been working your rear end off so I'm really happy that you and your critters are getting recognized!
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Jul 22, 2019 21:25
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Thanks everyone! It's extra special because Hawthorn and Daphne are both out of Johnnie, who was in the first set of lambs born on my farm way back in 2011. She's Twofer's sister and their other brother, Roman, is still at the farm I sold him to being fat and sassy so clearly that was a good batch. Here are the new girls! They’re originally from a flock in WV but I got them super cheap from someone in NY. The owner actually dropped the sheep off at the show and then left without me paying for them or communicating with me in any way so that was weird. I'll send her a check for the amount I think I owe her. The one with the stubby horn is Pansy, who is 7 and needs some tlc. She’s way skinnier than she was in the picture I was sent and must have tweaked her knee on her way from NY because she's holding it up and it's all swollen. She's got a pretty significant wool break and is filthy so she's getting sheared as soon as she's settled in.  The bigger girl is Sicily who is 4. She likes to stomp her feet at the dogs and generally seems to be unphased by the move.  Both are lilac carriers and I'm planning on breeding them to Ashe this fall as long as they don't get knocked up in quarantine.
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Jul 22, 2019 23:39
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Congrats on all the wins, I'm glad the judges liked your sheep as much as we all do.
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Jul 23, 2019 04:30
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They are all lovely and they all have lovely names 
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Jul 23, 2019 12:44
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Some fun jacob sheep history about my new ram's maternal great grandfather. Back in the 70s a guy named Jamie Huntsberger got a bunch of imported jacobs from Scotland, then in 1996 he moved them all to Butter Island, a 300 acre island about an hour off the coast of Maine. They were basically feral and ran the whole island for 7 years untouched until Huntsberger lost his lease and was told to get his sheep off. He contacted Royal, the guy who bred Isadore, and asked for help. Like all jacob breeders, Royal never says no to a crazy adventure in exchange for some sheep so he agreed. In the middle of July 2003, they took a lobster boat and set out to capture the approximately 80 sheep that lived on the island. Seven people and 1 border collie headed out and by the afternoon they had 65 Jacobs penned up and began to ferry them across in the lobster boat. Those sheep were then distributed to interested breeders across the country and the woman who I got my new ram Ashe from ended up with a lovely 4 horned boy named Drummond. She worried because she had kids around at the time and these sheep were completely unhandled but I guess the moment Drummond stepped off that boat as a two year old he was a perfect gentleman and spent the remainder of his years a breed ambassador at fairs and festivals letting kids pet him and lead him around. 
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Jul 24, 2019 00:21
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Goddamn, that is a majestic Ram  . You can tell he knew it too and probably just wanted everyone to pet and praise him at all times.
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Jul 24, 2019 03:51
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love those creatures
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Jul 24, 2019 04:07
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Super cool story, very majestic, 10/10 would pet.
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Jul 25, 2019 03:22
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Most of the lambs are closing in on 5 months old now and finally looking less awkward. Still have a bunch to sell but I was able to find hay at a reasonable price so I'm less stressed out about it than I was when I thought I was going to be paying $6 a bale. Logan. He went from being a total dweeb to a pretty good looking young ram. I like his blue eye and his smiley face.    "i'M"  'Stache  Kiwi  Mariposa   Pendragon  Peach  Iris  Jasmine  Jujube  Ashe  
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Aug 24, 2019 19:50
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Ashe has very striking horns!
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Aug 24, 2019 22:13
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i want to kiss their little mouths
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Aug 26, 2019 11:55
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It's all fun and games until someone loses a horn and needs a maxi pad vet-wrapped to their head. The instigator.  The innocent bystander.  The aftermath (yes, my summer barn attire is bear pj pants and crocs)  I had to stick a finger in his head because it was spraying blood.  Hawthorn is totally fine and back out with the boys already. I moved them to a pasture with trees to beat up instead of each other.
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Sep 2, 2019 19:40
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 So where'd you hide the body?
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Sep 2, 2019 20:28
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I'm just glad Hawthorn is okay. Sad about his horn, but I'm glad he's survived that. So I have to ask, how the hell does something like that come off? I was under the impression that only happened if they got stuck in a fence or something.
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Sep 2, 2019 22:05
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Chaosfeather posted:I'm just glad Hawthorn is okay. Sad about his horn, but I'm glad he's survived that. He had an infection in the horn, under the keratin part, when he was living at my friend's house last year. It broke through the keratin and cleared up but left a cavity in the horn that was a weak point even when keratin grew back over it. My friend had warned me about it but there was really nothing I could do except wait to see if it grew out. The boys are getting rowdy because it's fall and I gave them some fresh minerals which always gets them real excited. Hawthorn and George the longwool "wether" (he's really a short scrotum ram) must have clashed and knocked the slightly weakened horn right off. I was out with the horny idiot dogs in a different pasture but I didn't hear it happen. I just walked by and saw Hawthorn standing there with blood shooting out of his head like that Monty Python Salad Days sketch. The fact that it broke where it did means that the skull wasn't involved so the damage will be a lot easier to recover from, it just looked awful.
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Sep 2, 2019 22:25
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I'm so glad he's okay! I have those same pants!
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Sep 2, 2019 22:27
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I am completely ignorant about how horns grow on sheep/goats/ungulates; are they a constant growing thing? The whole length? First thing I thought of when reading about the weak horn was to figure out a way to reinforce it with fiberglass. plaster, or some kind of sleeve. I presume then that they are like cats - it's nearly impossible to keep a cast or other type of restrictive device on them. (edit) thanks for the link - learn something new every day! So...the growth of the horn will eventually overcome/crack the fiberglass, which is good... and, disposition allowing, the subject may tolerate getting the cast off - I imagine it gets irritating when loose, and he can feel it sliding around a bit. AND the horn should rebuild at the break, given a chance to stay in a fixed position long enough to do so. Cool! PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Sep 3, 2019 |
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Sep 2, 2019 22:31
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The horns grow sort of like trees, "up" from the base and "out" from the core. There's a bone core that's full of blood vessels and a sheath made of keratin. I'll try to get some pictures of my skull pile to illustrate at some point. The horns grow the most in the first two years, primarily through the spring and summer, but continue growing slowly throughout their lives. I've seen someone use a fiberglass boat repair kit to fix a horn that was partially broken and just dangling.  I guess if it happened again I'd try that but I didn't think the hollow weak point was as big as it actually was. It was pretty small looking from the outside since the keratin had grown over it. I talked to the friend who had him and I think we decided that if either of us saw an infection like that again we'd drill a tiny hole in the horn where it looked the infection was and use a mastitis antibiotic tube on it. Maybe a fiberglass patch once the infection was definitely gone would be a good protocol too.
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Sep 2, 2019 22:48
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 04:47 |
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Yay, goat science!
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Sep 2, 2019 23:20
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