# Roving's 2016 Lambs



## Roving Jacobs (Feb 28, 2016)

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.


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## Baymule (Feb 28, 2016)

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


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## luvmypets (Feb 28, 2016)

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!


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## Latestarter (Feb 28, 2016)

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...


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## norseofcourse (Feb 28, 2016)

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


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## Roving Jacobs (Feb 28, 2016)

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!


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## purplequeenvt (Feb 28, 2016)

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


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## Roving Jacobs (Feb 28, 2016)

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.


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## Roving Jacobs (Mar 1, 2016)

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


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## Goatgirl47 (Mar 1, 2016)

Awwww, they're adorable! Congrats!


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## Baymule (Mar 1, 2016)

That's so cute!


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## Roving Jacobs (Mar 12, 2016)

Now it's spotty lamb time. A first timer gave me a little ram lamb on Friday and then I woke up to twins this morning. Forgive the weird lighting and phone pics, my barn is dark.

Bramble and her little ram. He got his head wedged in her pelvis so I had to help pull him. He spent a few minutes not wanting to breathe but once he got going he stood right up and started nursing.




Aster's two, a little ewe on top and a good sized ram on bottom. Aster likes to have lambs in weird places (she pushed them out right into a water trough last year) so the ewe ended up getting a foot stuck under a piece of wood and getting chilled. I warmed her up and tubed her some colostrum and she seems fine now.




I had a lot of issues with lambs from my last jacob ram so I'm really happy with how these ones from my new ram are turning out. They're very active and vigorous right away and I'm not having any more premature lambs, thank goodness.


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## norseofcourse (Mar 12, 2016)

Nice lambs and glad you were there for the single!  I still have three weeks at least...


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## Roving Jacobs (Mar 20, 2016)

I'm up to 11 lambs now I think? Three romeldales, a cormo and 7 jacobs. Still have a cormo and two jacob ewes left to lamb and I will be very glad to be done with night time barn checks. Everyone was supposed to be due within a week of each other but they sure are dragging them out.

It was a sunny, if not particularly warm, day so I kicked everyone who was more than a day old outside to stretch their legs.

Big baby romeldales




















Little baby romeldale, her mom got very sick a few weeks back and didn't have any milk so I'm supplementing her with bottles for now.












Cormo ewe who looks like a little cow








So many spotty little jacob lambs


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## frustratedearthmother (Mar 20, 2016)

I'm a goatie - but that little Cormo/Holstein lamb is (almost) the cutest thing I've ever seen!


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## Latestarter (Mar 20, 2016)

Don't know a lot about sheep, but those spotted lambs are cute! How do they taste?  Sorry... my entire experience with lamb is cooked, and I love the taste.


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## Roving Jacobs (Mar 20, 2016)

Jacobs are delicious actually. Last year I pulled a 3 year old ram out of breeding groups and sent him straight to the freezer and he was the most amazing "lamb" I've ever had. They don't get real big, real fast but the flavor is excellent and it's lean and tender. Plus you can sell the skulls and pelts for more value added products. People go crazy for the big 4 horned skulls.


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## norseofcourse (Mar 20, 2016)

Not only are your lambs super cute, but I'm jealous of your sun!  We had snow all day today!  Luckily it melted almost as soon as it hit the ground, but kept me from doing much outside.  The sheep were quite happy with the cold weather, though.


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## Baymule (Mar 20, 2016)

I love your Jacobs! The lambs are so darn cute!


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## Ferguson K (Mar 20, 2016)

Gorgeous!


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## Roving Jacobs (Mar 26, 2016)

Up to 15 lambs now. Had a pair of accidental jacob/cormo cross lambs and twin jacobs, both sets were ram/ewe twins.

My cormo ram must carry spotting because we ended up with a typical black jacob cross ewe and then a spotty fake jacob ram.




It'll be interesting to see how their fleece turns out. They're very cute for little oopses.




Real jacobs born last night.




It was chilly and my friend was desperate to see a lamb in a tiny coat so I had to oblige. 




Everyone else is growing well and handling the weird up and down weather with no issues. I'm really liking having March lambs so far! The ewes are gestating them longer and they're coming out more vigorous than my usual mid-April lambs. I'm not sure I would risk it with a typical snow belt March though.


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## Goatgirl47 (Mar 26, 2016)




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## Latestarter (Mar 26, 2016)

Wow, they all really look great! Congrats! Even on the oopses   Waiting on any more or are you done now?


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## Roving Jacobs (Mar 26, 2016)

I have a cormo that didn't get marked but is bagging up so who knows when she'll lamb and one last jacob that's due April 10th. It feels like I've been lambing forever!


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## Latestarter (Mar 26, 2016)

May feel like forever, but it has to feel good too, you have some beautiful lambs there! Hope the last 2 go without a hitch for you. Will you be selling most of these or adding to your herd?


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## Roving Jacobs (Mar 26, 2016)

Most of the jacobs will be sold, the romeldale and cormo ewes will probably stay. I have a couple people who wanted cormo fiber wethers and I'm hoping they might want the romeldale (he's QQ so a breeder who wanted him declined) or the jacob/cormo cross instead. They're very sweet, friendly little boys.


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## Baymule (Mar 27, 2016)

Your spotted lambs are so beautiful! Makes me want some Jacobs!


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## Roving Jacobs (Mar 29, 2016)

Maddie the cormo had her lamb last night.  I have a waiting list for boys after two years of the cormos only having boys so of course she is a girl. That's ok, she can stay here with me 

It was a chilly night and Maddie wasn't particularly thorough with lamb drying so the little girl got a coat.


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## norseofcourse (Mar 29, 2016)

Congrats on the lamb - having opposites seems to be a trend this year.  Since I want boys, should I start hoping for lots of girls?


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## Baymule (Mar 29, 2016)

She is adorable. Since you wanted a boy, you can send her to me.


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## Firemedichagy (Mar 29, 2016)

Absolutely adorable!!

Congratulations on your new additions!! 
They are amazing, I love the black and white 

They're all precious but the one that looked like a cow was Oh sooo cute


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## Roving Jacobs (Apr 10, 2016)

My last ewe lambed at 2 am last night, on the one night it got down to 12 degrees. Of course all my other ewes lambed 3-5 days late but this one just had to go exactly on time to not miss me trudging out to the barn in my pajamas in the middle of the night and freezing my butt off.

Thistle had ram/ewe twins and both handled the cold just fine. I shouldn't have even worried, these spotty sheep know what they're doing.


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## norseofcourse (Apr 10, 2016)

They look good!  Still waiting on my last two...


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## Latestarter (Apr 10, 2016)

They are soooooo cute! Glad things went well. So I guess that was the last and you're finally done with lambing for the year!


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## Roving Jacobs (Apr 10, 2016)

Yep, unless those useless goats pull some kids out of nowhere I'm done for the year. 18 lambs out of 12 ewes, 11 ewe lambs, 7 ram lambs. A lot of singles this year, partially because I had a number of first timers but probably because it got super dry last fall and my pastures weren't great going into breeding season too. I'm not complaining though, I'll take healthy singles any day.


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## Baymule (Apr 10, 2016)

I love your spotty sheep! The lambs are so precious! How do you keep from carrying one around all the time and hugging it constantly?


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## Latestarter (Apr 10, 2016)

Ummmm useless goats??


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## Roving Jacobs (May 4, 2016)

Ok, I take it back. They aren't entirely useless.




Taffy, a fading red, was in with my fading red buck to have some lovely red kids. She spent the entire time trying to get into her father, a brown buck, in the next pen over. I guess she must have succeed. Oh well, at least it's a girl. And just about the cutest thing ever.


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## frustratedearthmother (May 4, 2016)

Oh my goodness - she's precious!


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## Latestarter (May 4, 2016)

Wow, look at her! And she has kinda an "Elvis" hairdoo going there


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