Anyone Need a New Ram?

Anyone need a new ram?  I've decided I don't have the heart for sending lambs to market.  Because I have limited acerage fenced that means I need to stop creating more.  My current ewe flock has all the colors and textures I will ever need for my hobbies.  Therefore I've decided to find homes for my boys.  First is Flash, he is a yearling cormo/shetland/finn cross.  He has a nice stocky build and is a deep dark chocolate brown wool.  He is a respectful boy but will come up to the gate to get chin scratches.  He would make an excellent ram for a spinner's flock.  Update:  My friend Dustin has agreed to take Flash, so Flash is going back where he came from to make nice morrit babies this year.

The other boy I need to find a home for is Thor.  Thor is a registered Shetland ram that was born here at Storm Warning.  He is a proven yearling who settled all of his ewe flock last year at six months of age.  I cannot say enough good things about this boy, he has it all, nice build, fleece, and temperment.  Please contact me if you read this blog and need a new ram for your flock.

The New Girls

Two new additions to my flock.  I know I said I was done, but I've decided that size does matter.  One of our goals is to produce market lambs.  I however am not willing to do that without having nice fleeces for my spinning and to blend with my angora for sale to other spinners.  I already had a cormo wether and so we have decided to add a small cormo breeding flock.  To start this adventure I purchased the two ewe lambs above from Westfield Woolies.  Two very wonderful ladies, Ruth and Alison, I recommend them highly if you are interested in this breed.  On the left is China who is pure Cormo and on the right is Arielle who is 3/4 Cormo and 1/4 BL.  They've got another year to grow and then I should have some nice Cormo lambs the following spring.

Germany

Boy has this fall been busy.  First I traveled to Germany for work.  Most of the trip was dedicated to my work elements, but I did get to travel a bit over the weekend since I was there for two weeks.  I went with a couple of co-workers to Neushwanstein castle.  It is very beautiful and in the foot hills for the Alps.  This made for quite a hike up to the castle and it was pouring rain.  It still was worth the walk and I'd do it again.

Guardians

Finally the guardians have arrived.  Meet Nuella and Noel.  I adopted these two llama girls from SELR.  I had to wait a while for transport to be arranged, but they are worth the wait.  Nuella is really friendly and likes to be petted.  It was almost hard to get a good picture of her.  I turned them out with the sheep yesterday.  The sheep are not quite sure what to make of these big things roaming their pasture but I'm sure they will adjust soon.  Noel is Nuella's daughter and a bit shy, I'm trying to win her trust with hand feeding.  Noel did decide to wade through the yucky scummy pond that is slowly drying up in the drought.  She got a bit muddy and had some green ornamentation for a while yesterday.  I hope she stays out of it now.  I guess I need to buy her a wading pool.

I also made a trip to Under The Son Shetlands and brought home two new girls.  Opal is a white shetland ewe and Aluetian is an emsket ewe lamb with a spotted face.  I think my flock is now complete.  I plan to use my two shetland ram lambs for breeding this fall on all of my ewes.

Here is a whole flock photo.  They still have some green in the pasture but you can see it is getting thin.



Flock Update

Lambing is over for this year.  The ewes all did a great job, no issues with any of the arrivals.  Shetlands are excellent mothers!  My husband was home on duty for the last two and loved it.  So much so that we are now building a ram enclosure and planning to keep at least one of the ram lambs in tact as a future sire.  All of the ewes are in great condition and very milky.  Finally tally: 1 white ram, 1 black ram, 2 moorit ewes, 1 black ewe.  I really wanted to add some moorit ewes and I got them!  I think they will all be retained.  I'm also adding an emsket ewe that I've reserved from Theresa at Under the Son.  She has a nice list of shetlands available this year so if you are looking for additions you should email her.  Above is a pic of the flock eating from the new feeder my husband built.  Also a group photo of the new additions.  Now I'm on the hunt for a guard llama so I can let the sheep out at night to graze on my abundant pasture.  My husband would like to do less mowing!

Sable German Angoras

As far as I know I'm the only one in the country working on a sable german angora.  Lots of folks love the fawn/tort color and they are working on those.  I however love the color of a rich sable.  For years I've had siamese cats and love the rich sepia brown of their coats.  The most striking rabbit I ever saw was a sable with white boots, much like my snow shoe siamese.  So far I've not had a booted rabbit, but I'm am now on SWF generation 2 of some really nice sable germans.  I've been working on coat texture and color first.  My best buck has a white toe nail, but I think I can breed that out over time.  I don't breed often anymore.  My real day job takes up too much of my time to have a large rabbit herd so I try to keep it down to around 20 animals.  Here are pics of gen 1 of the sables.  I now have gen 2 in the nest box.  The nice thing about sables is that color is easy.  Because the sable gene in on the "c" locus you can breed sable "c chl" to a REW "cc" and you always get just REW and sable.  The babies in the nest I have two REW and two sables.  One of each sex in each color.  The father is my sable buck above and the mother is my 500 gram producing pure german doe.  These babies are now 99% pure german and should have very heavy production and excellent texture.  Not sure yet about toe nails.

First two lambs!

So far we have two new lambs.  Calico and Dolly had their lambs this week.  Calico on the 15th, a moorit ewe, just what I asked for.  Dolly our BFL/Shetland ewe had her lamb this morning, a black ewe lamb.  We have two shetlands left to go Clara and Brocade.  Wonder if I can get lucky and get more ewes?

Shearing

I did not take the time to take pics this weekend. But I did manage to get 6 of my sheep sheared. Yunan rooed so I had previously harvested her fleece and it is already washed and partially carded. The others I did across two days. After taking off the fleeces I can tell I have at least 3 ewes who are bred. UTS Brocade and UTS Clara are both registered shetlands and are bred to UTS Gunpowder a very nice ram that I leased from Theresa in December. Also obviously bred is my shetland/BFL mule ewe Dolly. I really like Dolly's fleece so I'm hoping she has a least one ewe lamb that I can keep. Next weekend I need to catch up on the bunny shearing!

The Flock

Friday was the day that I went to select my new flock of fiber girls. I got up early and drove to Under the Son Farm where Theresa helped me pick out a nice little group of girls. I've been buying wonderful shetland fleeces from her for several years so when I decided it was time for sheep I knew right where to go. She was extremely helpful, pointing out the positive and negatives of every girl. Finally I decided on a flock of 6 ewes who loaded into the trailer and came home with me. First and the oldest is Clara, a 5 year old fawn/mioget ewe. Then there is Yunan who is a yearling fawn katmoget ewe. Then there are 3 shetland ewe lambs a black (Calico), a shaela (Orchids) and a grey katmoget (Brocade). The sixth is a bfl/shetland white ewe lamb. I'm also getting a pure cormo white whether later this fall from my friend Jane. That should give me a wide aray of colors and some very soft silky fleeces to blend with my angora bunny. I'm really enjoying my small flock, Clara is very tame and all the lambs follow her around. That sure comes in handy when I want to bring the flock into the fold in the barn at night. Last night I went out and yelled for Clara and the whole group came a running. Stay tuned as I continue my adventure into shepherding

Changes

Life moves on, after a lot of thought I have found new homes for both of my arab horses. I've had them for many years and raised them on the farm, but as much as I loved them it was getting more apparent that I would not be riding them. My arm has continued to give me trouble since my fall 6 years ago (hard to believe it has been that long). It gives me pain and numbness if something yanks on it and as good as they both were we would have that situation every once in a while with a critter that is a flight animal and weighs 1,000 lbs. I am happy with my decision and they have both went to very good homes where they will be ridden and have excellent care.
The next question was what to do with the grass that grows on my 5 acres. Since I've been in the fiber business for 6 years now the obvious choice was a small spinner's flock of sheep. Hopefully that dream will start to materialize next month. I've got a little bit of fencing to do and then a bit of barn work, but not too much. I'll update the blog with pictures as things happen.

Keeping Warm

Some folks at work were wondering how I keep the bunnies warm in winter when their warm wool coats are sheared. They have to be shorn every 90 days or the coat gets too long for use and it also causes the rabbit to have issues. So I still follow the schedule and shear them, but then they get to live in a heated room in the barn for a while. I spent a lot of time this fall and the room stays toasty warm thanks to a small oil filled heater and 2 inch foam insulation on the walls and ceiling. They also get to wear their little fleece coats.

Satin Angoras For Sale

I've made my selections from this spring's litters. I have the following for sale at this time.

AE Sugar - 1 1/2 year old Choc Agouti Satin Doe 3/10/09 had a litter this spring and I'm keeping her daughter so she is for sale. She has 2 legs. $60

These juniors are all 87% Satin and 13% German, the next gerneration the German will be off the pedigree. These rabbits all have very nice wool. They are priced at $40 and I'll give a discount if you purchase more than one.

Litter 1 AE Hershey / May's Eclipse 5/8/10
SWF Galaxy - Tort buck
SWF Cosmos - Black doe

Litter 2 May's Diana / AE Mac 5/13/10
SWF Macgregor - Copper buck
SWF Macanna - Choc Agouti doe
SWF Macduff - Black buck

I also have 1 German 40%/French 60% cross tort buck for sale, born 3/17/10 $25 he is a bit small, would make an excellent wooler, priced accordingly.

And The Bunny Bunch

There are currently 4 new litters of varying ages and 4 more on the way due over the next month. That will be it for the spring breedings. First is a litter of 2 satins out of AE Sugar and AE Mac. One choc agouti doe and one copper. I'm going to name them after their daddy, Mackenzie and Mackayla. These 2 will be retained for my fall show string. I love the intense color of the satins. Next is the older litter of SWF Partly Cloudy's out of Somehill's Valhalla. Partly Cloudy is 83% german and Valhalla is a grand champion french. She has 8 babies and all but 2 are bucks. I'll be keeping the 2 fawns to see how they mature, the rest are available as spinner bunnies,colors available, tort, agouti and black. I have one new pure german litter in the nest out of Wiley's Hufflepuff and SWF Everest. There are 5 kits and all rew and all will be retained. The last litter is out of SWF Lily also from SWF Everest, Lily is a tort doe who is a bit older, she is a german cross who has the texture I'm after. This litter has 2 rew and 1 black, at least one will be retained for the fawn project, they are 75% german. Litters due over the next month are 2 pure satin litters one of which should be 100% self colors, the other one is another Mac litter. Also due is a red/fawn french litter and a pure german colored litter, hoping to get another pure german agouti from this breeding and some big blacks.

New Kids on the Farm

I thought I'd post all the pics of the spring babies here on the farm. First up are the new kids. 2 Toggenberg doelings are now 2 weeks old. One had a bit of a rough start, seems mom's womb wasn't big enough so her legs were a bit weak. A trip to the vet and lots of exercise has put her on her feet. I cannot tell now that there was anything wrong. They are growing like little weeds. They are both for sale and should make someone excellent milk does. They had their horn buds burned last week so they won't be horned goats. I would love to find some 4Hers who need projects.

Cute Pic

I decided to update the blog and show a photo of the fawn doe from the fall litter. She is a german/english/french cross rabbit, in other words a mutt, but I love the color and the texture of her wool. Her mother and her aunt are my favorite spinning bunnies. I noticed that when I snapped this photo she had her tongue out, don't see that very often when taking bunny pics.

The Pond

After last winter when we lost our breeding pairs of Muscovy ducks to what we believe were neighbor dogs we decided to make pond improvement ones of our goals this year. The first thing we did was to fence the entire pond with small mesh woven wire fence which also has barbed wire along the top. The barbed wire is to keep the horses from leaning over the fence (the grass is always greener on the other side :>) We accomplished the fencing in July, the next mission was how to keep the water open when it gets really cold. Open water allows the ducks a place to escape should anything get under the fence. Well fortunately the answer appeared on craigslist. Now fountains are not cheap, but this person was willing to barter for an older atv we no longer used. So we now have a pond fountain, which is also good for water aeration. Now one last thing to do is to construct a winter shelter for the ducks. They probably won't use it, but we'll make one to offer protection if they want it. Check one more thing off the winter preparedness list. Now if I can just get the windows washed on the house!

New Baby Pics

More new babies arrived at 3:30 am on Wednesday morning. How do I know what time they were born? I was there... This doe is an older doe. I had previously bred her and the delivery did not go well. I waited a long time, thought I would not breed her again, but then decided to try to get some replacement germans for my wool herd. I only had one german buck who I had kept, the best one I had, but I'd try several times to get babies from two does who kept going false, so I thought he was sterile. Turns out he is not. To make a long story short, the poor doe was in labor all day, rearranging her nest a bunch of times and then stretching out and panting. I was checking on her every few hours all night long, so finally she had them. One dead kit, who I think was stopping up the works, but 7 little pink wigglers finally arrived. She is being an excellent momma, but there are a couple of small ones in there so we will have to wait and see. Some of these will be available for new homes in a couple of months.
Also above is an updated pic of the last litter. Look closely, the front two kits are fawn and choc agouti. I love the choc agouti to spin, very similar color to the fawn, but with choc fiber mixed in to give it a tweed effect. I'm retaining 4 out of this litter, fawn, choc agouti, tort, and the little choc runt, who you can see in the pic, is very small.

Babies Galore

We've been blessed with a bunch of babies lately. One bunch was planned, expected, while the two other batches were of their mama's making.
First up, my new bunny litter out of my fawn doe Breeze. She has 6 nice kits, 1 runt who is chocolate, a fawn, a tort, a chocolate agouti, and two whites. All of the colors are being added to my wool herd, the two whites will probably be available for a spinner home. These are 57% german, the rest is mostly english. I absolutely love the texture of Breeze's wool for spinning and wanted to have some younger bunnies in the herd to carry on for their mom.
Next is my little banty hen who stole away into the woods and made a nest behind the dog kennel. I guess she knew the dog would not let anything get her. She emerged with 5 little puff balls. We don't need any more chickens, but they sure are cute and bantys don't eat much. I know I have another chicken who has been mia, but I saw her for a brief bit the other day. I think she has a nest in the hay bales but I haven't found it yet. She is an americauna so maybe I can sell some of those chicks to a new home.
Last but not least is my muscovy duck hatch. Mom Blackie decided to make a nest under the front porch out of my reach. I did not think they would hatch, but surprise they did and now she has 7 little yellow balls of fluff. Now mind we really did not need more ducks as I bought some day old muscovy babies this summer and they are now big and on the pond. Winter seems to be hard on the ducks though with predators. We've tried to keep them safe this year by building a fence all the way around the pond, but who knows if it will keep everything out when the pond freezes. Anyone know of a cheap source of a water aerator to keep the ice from forming? Anyway I probably won't thin the muscovy flock until spring.
Enjoy the baby pics.

Busy Weekend

Wow what a hectic weekend, time to go back to the real job and rest! Saturday I woke up at 2 am to finish the knitting on the sock class project so I'd be ready to turn the heel in class. Did manage to grab a couple of more hours of sleep before I had to get up and do chores.
After the class I sheared and sheared, temps close to 90 with high humidity caught me off guard. This cool weather we've been having lulled me into a sense of security with rabbit coats. I think when the temps started to rise I was more stressed than they were though. But it was time to get them sheared because in 90 days I can harvest. I like to try and time my winter shearings to November and February. November because it is not quite too cold in early November and February because we generally get a warm up period in there for a couple of weeks. That also allows me to time the last shearing in May before it gets too hot.
Sunday brought more shearing and then we had to go and load hay. I've gotten all but two of the bucks sheared to the skin again, toe nails done, and ivomeced all except the doe who has a litter and another doe who is possibly bred, she also kept some wool on belly and chest to pull. If she doesn't kindle in two weeks then she'll get sheared as well.
Next weekend I need to start work on the horse stalls, the flood really did a number on those.

Agouti Update

Well a new year has started and yipee we fixed the computer. Our satellite access at the farm cannot run on wireless. We've found by hooking straight in it doubles the speed so now I can upload to the blog again.
We've had a busy year since moving back to the farm. The summer flew by with so much to be caught up outside, the garden, the fences, mowing, etc. Then my husband's mother passed away in the fall. I then got a new job with the company I work for so it was quite hectic. I'm looking forward to a more stable pace now in 2009.
I wanted to post an update on my pure german agouti baby I was so excited about when she was born last Feb. She is now an adult and has turned out very nice. I want to register her with IAGARB, but first she has to be a mom. I find if I don't get them bred by 1 year of age it becomes difficult. So I tried last month and she didn't take so last week I bred her again to Everest, an awesome german boy. She seemed more receptive and I witnessed several breedings so I'm hoping for babies around the 28th of January. I also bred Emmaline to my black buck Thunder, so the new year should bring lots of color.