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Punxy! What a sweet little lamb, congrats!

Its a plant that produces tons of burrs that get all tangled in the fleece and drive me nuts. The goats love to eat it but the burrs get all over their faces and necks and I end up needing to shear them out regularly.

They are more silky than soft as adults but as kids they're like little clouds :love The yarn they produce is very shiny and smooth and takes dye really well. I love it! Their fleeces need to be sheared at least twice a year and you need to keep them out of the burdock otherwise they're a mess...

I do shear them and sell their fleece, usually as yarn or roving, although sometimes I sell locks to doll makers. Angora goats produce mohair, like mohair teddy bears. Angora yarn and sweaters come from Angora rabbits.

I talk a lot about my sheep but I actually have goats too and didn't want them to be left out of all the photos I post. They're lovely, sweet creatures and they produce tons of awesome fleece. These are my new girls I just brought home today from a breeder in Virginia. Angela: She's bred to...

I have some for reintroductions and when the rams are penned inside and get rowdy. It does generally keep them from butting each other but I'm not sure it would stop them from butting buildings. A building is a lot bigger target than another ram. I'm also not sure I would be comfortable keeping...

A fetus-like mass sounds like a teratoma to me, which is just a tumor that starts growing body tissues like bones and teeth and hair and things. It could also be a sibling that she absorbed in utero, like a conjoined twin, that was putting extra strain on her liver. I've never heard of anything...

I had a pregnant ewe go down weak in the hind end before and pretty much just threw the medicine cabinet at her. I gave her a dose of calcium and selenium, a vitamin complex, nutridrench, and made her stay hydradte warm molasses water electrolyte solution. I kept her propped up on her brisket...

I think the max staple length was 12" at one place and 8" at another but its really variable based one what equipment a mill has. From my one ram who produced about 4-5 lbs of nice blanket fleece raw I got 8 skeins of yarn. I think they were 150 yard sport weight skeins.

Plenty of ewes get sheared in the middle of winter and are none the worse for it. They'll be shivery for a few days but as long as they can get out of the wind and get plenty of hay to eat they'll be just fine. Many people shear ewes before they lamb so they will feel that its cold and have...

I've used a bunch of different mills and had a bunch of different results. I'll have to look back over my notes but for now here is what I remember. I really like Still River in CT for my Jacob yarn. Their "slubby" is so cool looking! It's lumpy and bumpy like handspun. They do a good job with...

Definitely 2 and he looks "lumpy" enough that I could see him having more. The second swirls behind are kind of close to the first horn buds so he may genetically have 4 but end up with them fused together so it looks like just 2. It will be clearer in a week or two. I love his wavy coat! He's...

I've never had a Jacob produce scurs so I'm not sure. I would imagine that they would not have the large horn bud since scurs don't have the extensive blood supply that horns do. Don't let that baby man boss you around Bridge! He can't be more than 90 lbs and has got convenient handles. If he...

I've found that if I can't tell how many horns they have as lambs they will have at least 4. The 2 horned ones have really large obvious horn buds. At least with the baby rams, ewe lambs can be a bit trickier and I just have to wait and see with them. Feel free to post little lamb pictures...

Don't know about butchering but it's pretty easy to tell if a ram will have 2 or 4+ horns and their basic horn set right from the start based on their horn buds. 2 horned rams have 2 big swirls right on the top of their heads. You want those swirls to be fairly far apart so you're sure the...

I like the symmetrical ones but JSBA doesn't care. They are supposed to have black or striped hooves but not all black legs. Having white hooves doesn't disqualify them for registration, it's just not favorable.: Jewel is my absolute favorite and I think she looks just perfect but I might be...

I can't wait to get my hands on it! I'm picking up a couple of Romeldale ewes this week who should have some amazing fleece too. They've been micron tested already and I'm hoping to do that with some more of my flock so I know exactly how soft they are and if I'm breeding them in the right...

The Jacobs were sheared in March. I would have to see when the Cormo breeder sheared last year but I believe she does it in February so they are due for a trim. I'm going to make them wait for beginning of March though so I can do them all at once. I like them all done about a month before lambing.

What sweet little sheeps! I just love them :love

I'm picking up two new angora goat does in a couple of weeks who are hopefully a couple months bred. A red and a chocolate who will hopefully be having little red curly babies soon :clap I can't wait for lambing/kidding in general but I'm really looking forward to seeing what those new ladies...