Roving's 2016 Lambs

[Roving Jacobs]

For once I'm not waiting for months while everyone else is getting to snuggle baby lambs! Early bird Eleanor the romeldale had twins on the 24th and everyone else is due starting the 9th. Half of my ewes were bred within a week of each other so it's going to be a crazy week. I was worried about lambing early this year but if ever there was a year to do it it's this one.

These little guys will tide me over the next two weeks, they're very friendly and sweet. The dark one is a ram and the light one is a ewe. I posted them on a sheep color genetics group and no one can quite figure out what the boy is, besides handsome They are the product of a mother/son breeding I did in the hopes of revealing what color gene the white dam has but it's really just created a bigger mystery.

 

[Baymule]

Oh my gosh!! Cuteness overload!!! I just want to squeeze my laptop!! Congrats on the gorgeous lambs!!

 

[luvmypets]

I feel you on the waiting part! At least you got a bunch of girls, I only got one this year

Congrats on the adorable,healthy twins!

 

[Latestarter]

Those are some beautiful lambs! Congrats! Hope they hold you over for another week and a half... Then the real fun commences! Waiting and watching here...

 

[norseofcourse]

Congrats - you are braver than me, lambing this time of year - and you're further north!

 

[Roving Jacobs]

It was a big gamble being up in the snow belt and all but I obsessed over weather predictions all last summer and was pretty confident it was going to be a mild winter. So far so good and I'm hoping it lasts!

 

[purplequeenvt]

If he were a Shetland he'd be called katmoget or badger-face.

 

[Roving Jacobs]

The ewe lamb has at least one copy of the badgerface gene (she has the angry eyebrows and two toned tail) but she and the ram look so different from each other that I feel like they have to have different agouti alleles being expressed. Their mom is AwtA? (white is the most dominant agouti pattern) and their dad/her son is probably Albf(light badger)A?. Since neither are white right now the guess is that the ewe is AlbfA? and the ram is A?A? with A? probably being either dark blue or swiss marked.

In the end it doesn't really matter, he's whatever color he is, but it's an interesting thought puzzle and some cool genetics at play.

 

[Roving Jacobs]

Lambs are better in motion of course. I really like this little guy

 

[Goatgirl47]

Awwww, they're adorable! Congrats!