Purplequeenvt in 2026

Oh I'm so sorry about Patti. It's never easy to let our animals go. Doing the right thing is so often the hardest. :hit

Life on the farm, yes there is death, but new life springs up and captures your heart all over again. Such beautiful SPOTTY babies! I love spots and I love color. Sure I have nice white sheep, but if color comes along, i do Love it! That little boy is wearing his tuxedo! The little girl is just a gorgeous mass of spots!
 
Ida (due 3/21) lambed at 5pm today. She had 2 big boys. Their dad was supposed to the Border Leicester, but there was a gate failure the day she was in heat and the ears and tails are saying their daddy was a Shetland instead. Oh well, they were already crossbred so it doesn’t really matter. I’m not going to dock their tails since they’re fairly short.




I’d been watching Susan all day. She was due on Wednesday, but I was starting to think that maybe she had been rebred for a later cycle because her udder wasn’t very big. Her udder got bigger this morning and she was acting pretty miserable all day.

She finally started active labor around 8p and she was still working on things when I got home just before 10p. She had some nasty discharge and when I checked to see her progress, I felt the tiniest set of legs. I was starting to worry that we might be dealing with an underdeveloped, dead rotting lamb, but that little girl came out kicking and screaming. She’s only 3.2lbs!









I was only expecting 1 lamb from Susan because she wasn’t very large, but after seeing the size of the baby, I figured there was probably a 2nd. There was, but unfortunately it was long dead and very mummified. Hence the gross discharge. Thankfully it wasn’t falling apart and smelly.

Fyne’s boy Froglet escaped from the maternity ward sometime after I got to work he was very upset when I got home and raced right up to me and practically jumped into my arms. He was very happy to be back with his mom and sister. I haven’t supplemented either one with a bottle in several days and they are still fat and sassy.

Freyja’s boys have figured out the milk bucket. They drank all the milk I put out this morning. I gave them more tonight and I’ll give them a larger amount tomorrow morning.
 
Did Susan push out the dead baby or did you have to pull it? Her lamb is a tiny bundle of cuteness. I've never had any mummy lambs born so I don't know the procedure. I'm guessing that you gave her a round of antibiotics. Ida's twins, as a mix, what will their wool be like?
 
Baymule said:
Did Susan push out the dead baby or did you have to pull it? Her lamb is a tiny bundle of cuteness. I've never had any mummy lambs born so I don't know the procedure. I'm guessing that you gave her a round of antibiotics. Ida's twins, as a mix, what will their wool be like?
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I gave it a little tug, but it would have come out on its own. It came away with the placenta.

I’m not going to give her any antibiotics unless she seems like she needs it later. She’ll be staying in the maternity ward for a while given how tiny her baby is so I can watch her closely.

With Ida’s lambs, who knows. She’s already a big mix. She’s 1/2 Shropshire and the other 1/2 is Border Leicester, Dorper, Friesian, and Shetland. Her fleece is usable, but it’s not my cup of tea so I don’t usually save it. Their fleeces should be decent.
 
purplequeenvt said:
Her fleece is usable, but it’s not my cup of tea so I don’t usually save it.
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I've been reading lately about using wool in the garden and as a soil improvement. Everything from wool pellets to the actual unprocessed fleece. Good for moisture retention, degrades over two years putting nutrients back in the soil, deters slugs and snails, etc. I'm going to give it a try with what little wool I get. Though I may get more from a friend with dorpers.
 
I was looking at the breeding dates yesterday trying to figure out if there was any chance that I was going to have any full Border Leicester lambs since none of the BL ewes had lambed yet. Chances were not good.

I released Fyne, Briar, and Meadow and their respective children from the maternity ward and put Imogen and Lisle in there with Freyja and Susan. Imogen’s “due date” was 3/23 and was looking ready to blow. I don’t remember why I put Lisle in there since her due date was supposed to be 3/27. Maybe she was looking ready? No clue, but obviously it made sense to me at the time.

Woke up this morning to triplet ewes from Imogen and twin boys from Lisle. All Border Leicester/Shetland crosses. I was expecting twins from Imogen and a single, maybe twins from Lisle. Imogen was big, but not “probably 3” big.

Makes me concerned about the number P-Ewe has in there. She’s looked like this and had 1, 2, and 3 so really it’s anyone’s guess.


As for the lambs being crosses. I have mixed feelings. I wanted them bred to BL, but I’ve also been debating phasing out the BLs and just keeping the Shetlands. I think I’m only hesitating over the decision because the BLs have been a part of our family’s flock for 26 years. I think P-Ewe is the last BL from the original group that I moved down from VT. Maybe the sheep are making the choice for me.
 
Mini Horses said:
I saw an article about wool on ground, it's improvement, etc. Australia, I think. Made me think "want sheep?" Naaaawhhh. Wool pelts are cheaper 🤣
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Cheaper still, you can probably find someone with wool sheep who will give you their extra/junk wool.

I compost all my trashed fleeces. I turn my compost piles a couple times a year and the wool is composted in less than a year.
 
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