# Oh Ruby!



## Sheepshape (Jan 8, 2020)

My ewes had their pregnancy scans yesterday and here's some of the girls who are expecting more than one lamb or who need to have a close eye kept on them.






Reasons for 'keeping them close' include first timers , certain breeds (like Blue Faced Leicester etc) as well as the ewes expecting more than one lamb.

Here's one of my favourite Blue Faced Leicesters, Stacey.




 Those lovely curls don't keep out the cold or the wet and BFL lambs are born with just little 'corkscrews' of fleece on pink skin.

However, the reason for this post is to show Ruby. 
Ruby was a the runt of a triplet birth born in May, and about the smallest lamb I have. Ruby made her way, being so small, through the fence from the field of lambs back to her mother. She came down with the ewes yesterday when they came to be scanned. "No need to scan her' says I as she makes her way past the scanner. "Well, actually she's in lamb" came the comment as he ran the probe over her belly anyway. So....Oh Ruby.....she is tiny!





That's Ruby to the right and in the front of two fairly small ewes of her type.

She really is going to need to be closely watched......or maybe I should have done that a couple of months back!


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## Baymule (Jan 8, 2020)

I am smiling. You have a talent for "special" sheep. LOL I am sure that under your care, Ruby will be ok. 

I did not know that about the Blue Faced Leicesters. Those curls look warm to me. Have you ever made anything from their wool? There is a spinner's guild in the next county from me, but I am afraid to inquire. I would have to plunge all the way in, sheep, spinning wheel, learning how to knit, the whole works...…. think I'd better stick to my easy care hair sheep and the things I'm working on already around here. but I sure do admire the whole wool process. ​


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## Bunnylady (Jan 8, 2020)

Gads. I say my rabbits' slogan is "how can we drive her crazy today," and they have been really creative with that over the years, but this is one trick that they haven't managed! 

(yet)  

Fingers crossed for Ruby (and you!)  

That is interesting about the wool on the Blue Faced Leicesters. What Stacey's wool puts me in mind of is an Angora goat's wool. I knew a lady that had two wethers - one a hair sheep, the other an Angora goat - that she kept penned together. She'd ask people, "OK, so which one's a sheep, and which the goat?" As I recall, the goat's wool looked just like that; lovely little ringlets.


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## Sheepshape (Jan 8, 2020)

Bunnylady said:


> I say my rabbits' slogan is "how can we drive her crazy today," and they have been really creative with that over the years, but this is one trick that they haven't managed!


I think that most animals seem to have a wish to have us fretting endlessly about them. My sheep seem to have a wonderful knack of stuffing their heads through the wire fence and then not being able to get it back. One of my lambs managed to get herself entangled in a fallen conifer just a week or two back....it took about half an hour to disentangle her.

Baymule....Blue Faced Leicester fleece. Their fleeces are used for knitwear and command a higher price than the regular 'wool', but the fleece tends to only weigh about half that of other woollies. I have never made anything from the fleece, but gave a couple of fleeces to a lady who spins and she said they were really good to use.The fleece varies a bit on different animals, and Stacey has a particularly good one.


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## Sheepshape (Jan 8, 2020)

Stacey's fleece close up.


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## Mini Horses (Jan 8, 2020)

Baymule said:


> think I'd better stick to my easy care hair sheep and the things I'm working on already around here. but I sure do admire the whole wool process.




Which is why we BUY our woolie clothes!   LOL


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## Baymule (Jan 17, 2020)

When is Ruby due?


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## Duckfarmerpa1 (Jan 17, 2020)

Sheepshape said:


> I think that most animals seem to have a wish to have us fretting endlessly about them. My sheep seem to have a wonderful knack of stuffing their heads through the wire fence and then not being able to get it back. One of my lambs managed to get herself entangled in a fallen conifer just a week or two back....it took about half an hour to disentangle her.
> 
> Baymule....Blue Faced Leicester fleece. Their fleeces are used for knitwear and command a higher price than the regular 'wool', but the fleece tends to only weigh about half that of other woollies. I have never made anything from the fleece, but gave a couple of fleeces to a lady who spins and she said they were really good to use.The fleece varies a bit on different animals, and Stacey has a particularly good one.


My little Pygmy Stormy used to get her head caught in the fence because she has horns.  Chris and I had to go screw in 2x4 by all the squares that were at her height next to the posts.  I’m debudding the kids.  How long does it take you to shear a Sheep? I mean, typically...  good luck with that tiny girl...it must be really hard to keep a close eye on preg ewes, with all the wool covering up the telltail signs of getting closer?


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## Sheepshape (Jan 17, 2020)

Baymule said:


> When is Ruby due?


I'm guessing about mid-April.....I'll be watching her very closely.


Duckfarmerpa1 said:


> How long does it take you to shear a Sheep?


We get the professionals to do it, and it takes about 2 minutes! They are just SO fast.....they turn onto the rump, , go down one side and then turn the sheep to the other side and off with the fleece. Usually not even the least 'nick' at all.


Duckfarmerpa1 said:


> it must be really hard to keep a close eye on preg ewes, with all the wool covering up the telltail signs of getting closer?


To be honest, it isn't at all difficult.This is the typical view of a ewe who is soon to go into labour.



That udder is hard to miss!
I tend to pull their tails up when they are feeding at the  dish to see if their 'parts' are swollen. They are pretty tame and don't seem to be troubled by me doing this. Behavioural changes are obvious, too. Little Ruby is definitely a worry, though.
Some animals seem to make a career of pushing their heads through fences.....


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