Showing posts with label 2010 lambing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2010 lambing. Show all posts

Monday, April 11, 2011

Ewes for Sale 2011


DWB 17M Viola
February 13th
Twin
Sire: KRK 1068 Judah Ben-Hur (Triplet. QQ.)
Dam: 0003 Juliet (Triplet. QQ.)
Full Katahdin. Recorded 50%.
Available July 1st
$125


This is a rather poor picture of Portia. She's the lamb facing away, but this gives you an idea of her markings. Better picture comings soon. :-)

DWB 21P Portia
February 21st
Twin
Sire: KRK 977 Johann (Triplet. RR.)
Dam: DWB 10P Hagar (Twin. ?)
Full Katahidin - 65.6% Recorded
Available June 1st
$175


Adult ewe
DWB 10M Dotty
January 29th 2009
Triplet - RR
Sire: AV Louis (Twin. RR.)
Dam: CKN 1104 Amelia (Twin. RR.)
Full Katahdin. Recorded 18.7%

Dotty has lambed twice producing and raising five healthy lambs.
She is a small ewe. Her mother was a good 250lbs, but Dotty was bred much younger and doesn't look as impressive. She's a good mom with excellent lines.

Available June 1st
$175

I know this is a bit of an unflattering view... Another picture coming. :-)

Adult Ewe
0004 Opehlia
March 2009
Triplet - QQ
Commercial Katahdin

Gave us twins this year.

Available June 1st
$150


Red ewe. All three lambs are her 2011 triplets.

Adult ewe
KRK 42 Rosalind
February 17th 2003
Twin - QR
Sire: NF 574
Dam: BSA 114
Registered Katahdin

I've had her for two lambings and she's given me six lambs. Excellent mother. Carries her babies very low. Real sweetie. Good home only. :-)

Available June 1st
$200

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Lambing in Review

The Rams (2011 only)

AV Louis

Bred to two ewes. still waiting on second ewe.

KRK 977 Johann

Bred to four ewes.
Eight lambs (1,2,2,3). Eight survivors. Three ewe lambs, five rams.

KRK 1068 Judah Ben-Hur

Bred to three ewes.
Six lambs (2,2,2). Four survivors. One ewe lamb, five rams.

DWB 14M Leipzig

Bred to one ewe.
Three lambs (3). Three survivors. One ewe, two rams.

The Ewes

CKN 321 Aravis
Birth Info: Twin 2/1/06
2008 - 3/3
2009 - 2/2
2010 - 2/2
2011 - 1/2
Five years old. Nine lambs. Eight successful.

DWB 10A Parsley
Birth Info: Triplet 1/9/08
2009 - 2/2
2008 - 1/1
2011 -2/2
Three years old. Five lambs. Five successful.

VJ 4025 Athens
Birth Info: Twin 3/2/04
2005-2008 Records unknown
2010 - 4/
2011 - 1/1
Seven years old. One year with us. One successful.

KRK 42 Rosalind
Birth Info: Twin 2/17/03
2004-2009 Records Unknown
2010 - 3/3
2011 - 3/3
Eight years old. Two years with us. Six successful.

DWB 10M Dotty
Birth Info: Triplet 2/29/09
2010 - 2/2
2011 -3/3
Two years old. Five lambs. Five successful.

DWB10P Hagar
Birth Info: Twin 4/25/09
2011 -2/2
Will be two years old. Two lambs. Two successful.

003 Juliet (Commercial Katahdin)
Birth Info: Triplet 3/09
2011 -1/2
Two years old. Two lambs. One successful.

002 Ophelia (Commercial Katahdin)
Birth Info: Triplet 3/09
2011 -2/2
Two years old. Two lambs. Two successful.

Maggie (Dairy)
Birth Info: Triplet 5/7/07
2010 (first lambing) - 3/3
2011 -1/3
Will be four years old. Six lambs. Four successful.

KRK Mercy
Birth Info: Twin 7/10/09
Still waiting. :-)


2011
Current total:
9 ewes, 20 lambs. 16 surviving lambs.

Ram Lambs: 11
Ewe Lambs: 5

Posts on various lambing adventures when time permits. We were so blessed yesterday to get two sets of lively triplets! Everyone on the ground is doing well and we hope the ewes raise them all healthy through weaning.

Thanks for reading,
Drowsy Waters Farm

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Who is here to stay?


All lambing and kidding is over and I've almost finished weaning the last lambs. Symphony (a bottle baby) is still happy on the bottle. I won't worry about weaning her until the beginning of June or so.

We currently have a whole pen and pasture devoted to the lambs! They are so cute running around together. I would get some good pictures, but there are just a few to many bottle babies (including a very bothersome Boer doeling who doesn't feel at home with that goats). I can't hod a camera steady with all those jumping critters! Hopefully they are learning some manners. :-P

So, the big question was who's here to stay? I had so many ewe lambs this year it was a hard choice.

I'm just going to write a quick squib on the lambs that are staying.
I picked out some pictures from the past, so all the lambs are at varying ages...Not very good for comparing, but at least you can see what they look like. :-)


~DWB 12P~ Florence
1/30/10 - Triplet - Brown and White
Sire: KRK 977 (Johann)
Dam: DWB 11A (Rue)
This was a no brainer because Florence will replace mom. She's not quit as big as some of the younger lambs, but she's long, deep, and sturdy. She's also the only lamb that was born in January that I was considering and I want a "Fall Lamb" for the state fair. :-)



~DWB 14A~ Paris
2/2/10 - Twin - Honey brown and white tummy and tail markings
Sire: KRK 977 (Johann)
Dam: CKN 321 (Aravis)
Just another proof that Aravis is an awesome ewe! Both Paris and her twin Sicily were probably some of my nicest lambs this year. The hard choice was between the sisters. I didn't feel like I should keep both since I already have a bigillion Aravis related sheep (but there is a reason for that).
Sicily seemed bigger to start with, but I just kept observing. In the end I came to the conclusion that part of Sicily's bigness was leg, while Paris seemed to pack it all in the important parts. Yes, she was shorter, but her "pig shape" spoke to me. LOL
So, yeah, Paris is here to stay.

~DWB 11M~ Vienna
2/4/10 - Single - Honey brown with a little bit of white
Sire: KRK 977 (Johann)
Dam: CKN 1104 (Amelia)
So this is my more questionable choice. :-) I haven't got any singles before, and I'm keeping two this year. Parsley I can forgive, but Amelia is a big caliber ewe. She should be able to put out a lot more then this. Last year was her first lambing and she gave me triplets, so I'm hoping this was just due to my epic flushing failure.
Vienna isn't huge for a single, but she's nicely built. If she turns out looking like mom (but no singles please) she will be well worth keeping.
I was going back and forth on her so much I decided I would either keep her or Tamar. Tamar is a yearling who was also on the smaller side. I already had her twin, so I didn't exactly need her. I had a customer come out who was interested in Tamar and not Vienna, so I thought...okay, that was decided for me. :-) Thanks Sue!

~DWB 14P~ Texas
2/8/10 - Single - Dark brown with white markings
Sire: KRK 977 (Johann)
Dam: DWB 10A (Parsley)
Another single...But if I was going to pick a favorite lamb this year it would be Texas. She's big (huge, really) and stocky. She grew out of baby fat cuteness quickly and really looks like a market animal. She'd be perfect at this point if she had a few siblings. :-)
Besides all that, Texas is a sweetie pie and has the prettiest eyes and face! I never try to pick my keepers on their looks or personalities (unless they are nervous or aggressive), but there's no harm in admiring those qualities on a ewe I've already decided to keep. ;-)

~DWB 15P~ Venice
2/12/10 - Triplet - Brown
Sire: KRK 977 (Johann)
Dam: KRK 42 (Rosalind)
A lovely triplet, Venice was an easy choice over her siblings as far as size. (She had a better head start with her own placenta while the other gals shared.)
The most striking quality about Venice is her length. She should have plenty of room to produce triplets herself!


~DWB 13M~ Verona
3/12/10 - Triplet - White
Sire: KRK 977 (Johann)
Dam: Maggie (A woolie dairy ewe)
Verona beats her sister in size, but not on color. Genoa has the most adorable black markings on her nose! Anyways, Verona is the gal that's staying for her overall size and build. I hope for great things from these dairy/Katahdin crosses. I haven't been disappointed yet!


~DWB 18P~ Lisbon
3/18/10 - Triplet - White with black face markings and gray spot
Sire: KRK 977 (Johann)
Dam: Dolly (A woolie dairy ewe)
Lisbon beat her siblings on Katahdininess. Lisbon is my only dairy cross that looks like a Katahdin. She has a much different coat and I'm hoping it will shed. She's also long, deep, and big! She'll be replacing mom.

~DWB ?~ Symphony
4/3/10 - Triplet - Red
Sire: KRK 977 (Johann)
Dam: AV 0155 (Celia)
Symphony is replacing mom. She's to little to say a lot about yet, but she's growing well and quickly. I would have liked to see a higher birth weight to start, but as a triplet from an 8 year old, I'm not to worried about it. Bigness is easier to breed in then the correctness that Symphony exhibits. :-)

And then their is Leipzig, the only ram I'll be keeping.


~DWB 14M~ Leipzig
3/12/10 - Triplet - White
Sire: KRK 977 (Johann)
Dam: Maggie (A woolie dairy ewe)
Leipzig beats all my other lambs in BIGNESS! He is such a chunk. Really built for meat and muscle. I had decided on keeping him for breeding on select ewes in the fall and then using him as are lamb meat in the winter. I still think he could add a lot to a couple of my ewes (more crossing with that extra milk in there too) but I'm still considering. He looks like he might be developing some scurs, and I don't know if it's worth it to breed those in. No matter what though, he's certainly something handsome to look at. :-)

That's nine lambs to stay, eight ewes and one market.

That leaves me with 10 lambs to sell. 5 have already found their new homes, so I have 5, all ewe lambs, left to advertise!

I currently have 5 mature ewes and 5 yearlings (one of which lambed this year). I had 9 ewes lamb this year with 21 lambs. Right now next year I will have 10 ewes, 4 being newbies.
I would like to be expanding more then one more ewe, but we'll see. I might look for a couple more mature ewes. Lord willing, the following year I will have at least 18 ewes lamb! My goal at this point is to stay around 20 ewes and 3-4 rams. I would like to be able to offer starting breeding flocks and have plenty of unrelated stock.

I currently have 2 mature rams. KRK 977 Johann (fully registered) and Louis (no paperwork, but worth it). I will be keeping 1 recorded ram lamb, Leipzig, but we will be using him for meat after breeding season.
However, we are bringing and addition to our flock! We are planning on introducing another KRK ram lamb to our flock this summer!

So..there is just some sheep rambles. :-) It might not have been that interesting for you, but it sure helps me think through things. I'm hoping to update our website soon!

Miss Pickwickian

Drowsy Waters Farm

Monday, May 17, 2010

Barn Photos


Parsley

Vienna

Toffy...looking grumpy

Texas

Symphony

Sophie

Scarlett

Scarlett

Parsley finishing her shed

Paris

Paris

Ophelia...lol

Miss Lonely

Mercy and Juliet

Marsellies

Maggie

Louis

Little Dorrit

Little Dorrit

Broken Squirrel Doe
Three successful Holland litters this week!
Anyways...back to the actual barn animals....

Georgia

Genoa

Ewes taking a break

Ewes going back out to graze. :-)
Juliet, Amelia, Hagar, Aravis, and Ophelia.
I just love, love, love the way Hagar (the spotty yearling) is turning out!

Brunswick

Bo

Bo

Atlanta

Amelia

Alexandra

Bo
Love the sky and the green

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Counting Sheep...

Vienna and Texas

Sicily

Paris and Marseilles

Paris

Paris again...my little pig. :-)

Guess who?

Miss Lonely

And Miss Lonely

Marseilles and mom, KRK 42 (Rosalind)
One of Maggie's Katahdin cross lambs in the background.

Marseilles again...
She's a real clown and very friendly. :-)

Maggie and lambs

So far I am thrilled with these dairy crosses.

Maggie, Verona, Leipzig, and Genoa

Florence and Little Dorrit

Little Dorrit and Florence
First lambs for 2010

And this is my gal, Lisbon.
She's the Katahdin dairy cross that looks the most Katahdiny. She has a Katahdin coat, Katahdin eyes, Katahdin personality, Katahdin build, and so on....
The other 5 lambs could pass as all dairy I think. This one really got the Katahdin gene.

Just so you can see how Hermen is growing!
Hermen the cow and Verona the Katahdin/Dairy cross.

Genoa

Florence! Goof ball! Why are bottle babies such wackos?

Florence and Little Dorrit again....

My girl, Florence. :-)

And this is Emily, Lisbon's triplet.

All wooly...

But very nicely built!

Can you see why I'm having a hard time deciding who to keep on the farm? I was so blessed this year, I can't possibly keep them all!

Final lamb count...
9 ewes - 21 lambs (5 sets of triplets)
17 ewe lambs - 4 ram lambs