Sheep Shearing

We had our annual sheep shearing on Easter Saturday. Several people of all ages came to  watch. Click on the link to watch the process.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnADLvfb5vs
 

We now have six lambs born. Two more ewes will deliver next month. They are all healthy and pretty frisky running a round like jack rabbits. It is fun to watch them play together as well. It is hard to tell them apart as they all look the same.....black with white faces and black eyes. They look like little pandas.

We are looking forward to our annual sheep shearing event April 23rd, the  Saturday  before Easter Sunday. It usually if a fun event for people of all ages. the sheep don't seem to mind losing their thick coats of wool, especially with the warm weather coming. Finally it is warming up!

Poor rip Tide lost his manhood last week. He was getting very "rammy" and actually dangerous. In hopes of quieting him down we had him castrated. He doesn't chase me now but I think it is because he is still quite sore. Once he is all healed he still might need some "education" as to proper manners. Basically he is a good ram and I hope be becomes well behaved.

New Lambs

The first of the lambs were born last week. He is already feeling his oats and also runs around like a rabbit. Eight of our nine ewes are pregnant and so we expect a lot more lambs in the near future. Mama is eager to get out with the rest of the flock but it is raining outside and we don't want baby to catch a cold.

Well, there have been a few births since our last entry which was some time ago. Buttercp the goat arrived from a family that was leaving CT and low and behold, at 4 AM the next morning she had a little kid, Lulu. Lulu is now more than a month old and is jumping around like a jack rabbit. She likes to jump up on her mothers back or up on just about everything.

Just where do those eggs come from anyway?

Red Sex-linked Hen

Right now the farm has 500 laying hens.  We have 350 Red Sex-linked hens and these are the most prolific. The sex-linked has nothing to do  with their romantic capabilities but that the color of the chicks is on the sex-chromosome. This allows the hatchery to distinguish the boys from the girls. The Red Sex-linked are a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a White Leghorn. The second breed are Black Sex-linked and are across between a Rhode Island Red and a Bard Rock. They are a slightly larger bird and lay slightly larger eggs but not quite so many. We have 100 of these. And the third type is a less common breed,  the Araucana. They lay blue eggs. They don't lay so many eggs but they are a pretty bird.  

Black Sex-linked Hen

Araucana Hen

Araucana Rooster

Rhode Island Red Rooster