SageHill
Herd Master
Your lambs are adorable.
Purplequeenvt in 2025
- Thread starter purplequeenvt
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Baymule
Herd Master
Do you ever shear the lambs before they start turning grey? Is their wool softer?
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- #23
purplequeenvt
Herd Master
No. It goes gray really quickly. She’s already gray next to her skin.
She’s called an “Ag gray.” Ag is considered a pattern along with katmoget, gulmoget, solid, and white. Ag is a fading pattern and it masks katmoget, gulmoget and solid. Each sheep has 2 patterns. She’s Ag from her mom (who is Ag/solid) and solid from her dad who is (Katmoget/solid).
I don’t like the Ag gene as it hides so much and I love the colors so I’m trying to breed it out of my flock as much as I can. So far there’s only one obvious Ag. The youngest ram lamb might also be Ag, but I can’t tell yet. 1 Shetland left to lamb and she isn’t Ag so I won’t get any Ag lambs from her.
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- #24
purplequeenvt
Herd Master
2 new Shetland babies this afternoon to new mom, Orla.
Ram and a ewe. This brings the count to 21 with only 4 being boys.
These are the last pure Shetlands out of my ewes. I have the 2 new girls due at some point. My “Shetland Supplier” lady told me today that I’ll be getting the 2 ewes I really wanted. The other person isn’t able to take them until the fall and she needs them gone soon.
Ram and a ewe. This brings the count to 21 with only 4 being boys.
These are the last pure Shetlands out of my ewes. I have the 2 new girls due at some point. My “Shetland Supplier” lady told me today that I’ll be getting the 2 ewes I really wanted. The other person isn’t able to take them until the fall and she needs them gone soon.
Baymule
Herd Master
I love the colors that you have. It’s too bad your friend has to give up her sheep, but with you, she knows they will be loved and very well cared for. Maybe you could make her a shawl from “her” sheep’s wool as a thank you?
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- #26
purplequeenvt
Herd Master
My bottle baby, Lizzie, lambed today.
I had concerns about her mothering abilities since her mom just plopped her out and walked away (she has having nutritional issues) and then she almost died from selenium deficiency. She did great though and had no issues letting him nurse.
I bred her to the Shetland ram because I wanted her to have smaller babies/smaller heads to make delivery easier on her since she’s a smaller ewe. Well, that didn’t work. He’s just over 9lbs.
She’s the last ewe due for a week and then we’ll be in the home stretch.
I had concerns about her mothering abilities since her mom just plopped her out and walked away (she has having nutritional issues) and then she almost died from selenium deficiency. She did great though and had no issues letting him nurse.
I bred her to the Shetland ram because I wanted her to have smaller babies/smaller heads to make delivery easier on her since she’s a smaller ewe. Well, that didn’t work. He’s just over 9lbs.
She’s the last ewe due for a week and then we’ll be in the home stretch.
- Thread starter
- #27
purplequeenvt
Herd Master
I was supposed to work today, but I had a stomach bug yesterday and had a fever all night. Woke up with my stomach feeling better, but with a migraine. I blame the migraine on the weather. We’ve got storms rolling in tonight/tomorrow.
Turned out to be a good thing I took a sick day since I ended up being around to pull 2 giant lambs out of one of my sister’s ewes, and dealt with another of her ewes that lambed. And I got to be there when Lizzie lambed since I was concerned how that was going to go.
Turned out to be a good thing I took a sick day since I ended up being around to pull 2 giant lambs out of one of my sister’s ewes, and dealt with another of her ewes that lambed. And I got to be there when Lizzie lambed since I was concerned how that was going to go.
Baymule
Herd Master
Lizzie is a special girl, and was beyond completely spoiled. LOL I’m glad you were there to help her and your sisters ewes. Things have a way of working out.
Love that second photo.My bottle baby, Lizzie, lambed today.
I had concerns about her mothering abilities since her mom just plopped her out and walked away (she has having nutritional issues) and then she almost died from selenium deficiency. She did great though and had no issues letting him nurse.
I bred her to the Shetland ram because I wanted her to have smaller babies/smaller heads to make delivery easier on her since she’s a smaller ewe. Well, that didn’t work. He’s just over 9lbs.
She’s the last ewe due for a week and then we’ll be in the home stretch.
- Thread starter
- #30
purplequeenvt
Herd Master
I’ve been working on processing my next big spinning project - the alpaca fleece I purchased last fall blended with Briar’s moorit Shetland lamb fleece.
I was initially going to run Briar’s fleece through the drum carder, but the tips were a little brittle (breaking off and causing naps in the carded batt) and there was more vegetable matter (VM) than I was expecting, I decided to comb it instead. It took longer to process and there was more waste, but the end result is much nicer.
Briar
Her raw fleece
Combed top
Next step was prepping the alpaca. That fleece was in pristine shape and I ran it through the carder only once. This fleece came from a young rose gray alpaca called “Lil’ Guy”.
Raw fleece
Crate of carded batts
The 3rd step is blending the 2 fleeces together. I’m mixing it 75% alpaca to 25% wool.
No project would be complete without help from the cat.
I was initially going to run Briar’s fleece through the drum carder, but the tips were a little brittle (breaking off and causing naps in the carded batt) and there was more vegetable matter (VM) than I was expecting, I decided to comb it instead. It took longer to process and there was more waste, but the end result is much nicer.
Briar
Her raw fleece
Combed top
Next step was prepping the alpaca. That fleece was in pristine shape and I ran it through the carder only once. This fleece came from a young rose gray alpaca called “Lil’ Guy”.
Raw fleece
Crate of carded batts
The 3rd step is blending the 2 fleeces together. I’m mixing it 75% alpaca to 25% wool.
No project would be complete without help from the cat.
