Last week we talked about sheep during our Virtual Field Trip.
Have questions? Please post in the comments.
old-style Tunis
Who’s Your Mama?
We are often asked how the sheep in our flock are related. We keep many of our ewe lambs so most of our sheep are daughters, sisters or nieces to the other ewes in the flock. I can pick out familial traits in the sheep, whether wool texture or bodily features, when I am with them, but that’s because I see them daily.
Below is our Flock Family Tree. Names in parentheses are sires (dads). Rosy & Star were our first sheep purchased from a farm in PA and were half-sisters. We purchased Camille from a farm in Ohio, and Coco from NJ (but Coco’s sire was born here, to Rosy). For photos and ages of the sheep in our flock click here.
Not all these ewes are still with us or still breeding. Rosy, Star and Camille have passed, and Abigail, Annie, Bertha and Beatrice have been retired from breeding.
Please post any questions you have!
The Lambs are Growing
The lambs’ first time outside is always exciting as they explore their new surrounding and really stretch their legs.
The lambs love racing around the fields in the evenings, especially when they’re little. It’s always fun to watch them run and bounce through the pasture.
It’s nearly time to wean the lambs from their mamas and the have grown so much over the past 3 months!
This is the end of May and the lambs are 3-8 weeks old.
Here are the lambs a week later. Maya (the Jacob lamb) is 3 weeks old and her horns are peeking through her hair.
Maya is 5 weeks here, and Maggie is 2.5 weeks old.
The mamas and lambs are loving the green pastures, and hang out in the shade during the hottest parts of the days.
Lambs 2019
Lambing lasted about a month this year. We had 12 lambs (plus one stillborn lamb) born to 8 mamas.
Kathleen was the first to lamb with her first lambs. She had twin ewe lambs on April 3rd.
Fiona and Bertha both gave birth on April 7th. Fiona had twin ram lambs…
…and Bertha had a single ram lamb.
Erin gave birth to a ram and a ewe on April 11th.
Esme waited until I was in Allentown setting up for the Allentown Fiber Festival on April 12th to have her twin rams.
Coco had her twins the next day, on April 13th, but the ewe was stillborn and only the ram survived, despite our efforts to revive the ewe lamb. With everything happening so fast, I never took a birth photo of her lamb but did get this one with our barn cam.
Kate gave birth to her first lamb – a ewe – on April 17th. We were so happy that she lambed before Noah was at school since Kate is his sheep.
Izzy was our last ewe to lamb and she gave birth to a single ewe lamb on May 5th.
Kathleen’s ewe lambs, Coco’s ram, and both of Erin’s lambs will be available in early – mid July.
If you are interested in purchasing any lambs please contact us by email or phone, or on our farm Facebook page for more info.
Red Rope Farm 