TAKING ADVANTAGE

In April we had a heavy snowstorm that broke down some of our more vulnerable trees. I left this plum trees limbs for the sheep to eat and they've really enjoyed the leaves and blossoms. Rags(Cormo X on the left)has decided she is a "Shetland" and is now in the lead on many of the sprints across the field on cooler mornings. She'll be headed downstate this summer to be bred to either another spotted Cormo X ram or a white registered Cormo. My other two Cormo X ewes are currently in with a black Cormo X ram. We are hoping for mid-winter lambs to play with.

Meghan sat down for a moment and soon had Wintertime Ruby, Stinkbug(name still pending)and Bailleys in her lap looking for love and attention. Ruby will be bred back to Wintertime Black Forrest this fall for a repeat of the breeding that produced Red & Fudge. Meghan is hoping for that elusive moorit gulmoget ewe lamb she has always wanted.

A NEW BREED OF DUCK?

Two years ago I purchased a black pair of Silky Bantam ducks--an extremely rare breed I was going to raise and promote. Unfortunately I found this breed had some major drawbacks. The eggs failed to hatch repeatedly even though I knew they were viable and could hear peeping. The ducks when I did manage to get a few to hatch weren't the best mothers, and the ducklings tended to be very aggressive towards each other to the point of bloodying wings. So I packed them all up and sent them elsewhere at a major loss. I did retain two pure black female Silky/Australian Spotted Bantam crosses, because we found them to be very lovely to look at and not as aggressive. These two crossbred ducks have proven to be very good layers and setters. One of them crossed with my Silverheaded Australian Spotted male prior to his disappearing one afternoon and we had one female duck born that is a gorgeous shade of blue-grey with darker edges to her feathers. We will be repeating this pairing with a Silverheaded son of the drake we lost and our two black females, as I just love the coloration.
Our blue-grey laced bantam duck(75% Australian Spotted/25% Silky).
The growing ducklings including a female Khaki Campbell(Soup)I got at the pet swap for winter duck eggs(Meghan's favorite breakfast). You can see the wide range of colors available in Australian Spotted Bantams. The lightest ones are Silverheads. The medium colored ones are Blue-head ducks and the darkest are Blue-head drakes. Below is our best layer in the flock. A blue-head who laid an egg a day from August through November last fall after also laying all spring and into July. Many of our ducklings are related to her.

And this is the last of our mature drakes in his nuptial plumage. The more spotting the better by breed standards, so we think he's pretty special. He is a blue-head.

SOFIE UPDATE

On June 1st we moved Sofie to the barn where Meghan rode when she was leasing Tigger. It is a lovely smaller barn that is kept in immaculate condition. There are turnout paddocks and pastures and the horses get nothing but the best of care. Sofie shares the front paddocks with two other mares, and they all get along famously. There is also a nice indoor arena(if you don't mind pigeons occasionally swooping past)and a very large, grassy outdoor arena as well. In the future there will be trails through the woods in the back twenty, but for now Meghan and Sofie like to cool down out in the front yard. Meghan has been working on training Sofie to come down and seek contact on the bit. Sofie had an inverted neck when we first brought her home in April(loads of muscles underneath and not much on top). With the addition of a magnesium supplement to help lessen her tensions(since we don't know her history we aren't sure just what it is that makes her tense), she is starting to relax more under saddle and the result is a much nicer profile.
Here Sofie shows that she can actually bend at the poll and soften her jaw if asked nicely.
This is my favorite photo of late. Who couldn't have fun riding on a lovely coolish summer day with that backdrop?

HEADING OUT & BEING RETAINED

Wintertime Red Velvet(Wintertime Black Forrest X Wintertime Ruby)is going to Canada to help improve fleeces in the polled lines there. He will undoubtedly be doing a little breeding on this side of the border prior to leaving, and Meghan does plan to repeat the breeding that produced him and his sibling Wintertime Fudge. It was a tough decision, but Meghan knows he'll be treated royally and given lots of loving and ewes to breed. Wintertime Maple Sugar(Wintertime Red Velvet X Wintertime Chiffon)is being retained. She was a late lamb, so she will be held over until next season for breeding.

And Lil'Country Nightcap is returning to Juliann Budde in August to produce some awesome polled rams and ewe lambs in her flock. Meghan is retaining his moorit polled son Wintertime Bailleys out of Wintertime Ruby.

NEW ADDITIONS TO MEGHAN'S FLOCK

After a long drive to lower Michigan and then another long drive to lower Illinois I was able to bring home a couple new lambs for Meghan's NASSA flock along with two more colored Cormo cross ewes(more about them another time). This is Owl Hill Lady Grey. She is heavily linebred on Enfield Greyling with some Heights Orion and a dash of Greenholme Holly. She's a nice growthy, attractive ewe lamb with some spotting in her background. She'll be going into a breeding pen this fall. Thanks to Sue Kimball for allowing her to come East to us.
Last fall Stephen Rouse was looking for a finely fleeced spotted ram to bring into his flock. Meghan sent Wintertime Fudge to him. At the time Fudge was rather puny in comparison to his full brother Red, but his fleece is awesome and given time everyone felt he'd produce some nice lambs for Stephen. Stephen put him in with his ewe flock and unbred ewe lambs, because he couldn't compete with the mature rams figuring Fudge was too small to do anything. Guess again....


The above scurred ram lamb is a Fudge son out of Sheltrgpines Bengal. Bengal rejected him early on, so he is a bottle lamb learning how to be a sheep now that he has come north. We don't have a name for him yet, but "Stinkbug" seems to be his farm moniker for now. His fleece is as exciting as it looks in the photos, so Meghan is hoping he'll follow in his sire's footsteps and test out in the 17 range as a yearling. We are also hoping his gregarious nature will help him get some ewes bred this fall.

Thanks for giving Fudge a chance Stephen.

NCWGA Stock For Sale

Black twin ewe lamb sired by Winter Sky Captain and out of Winter Sky Kismet. This ewe is very nicely put together with a lovely, typey look to her. Her fleece is consistent and has a nice handle to it. We are retaining her sister. Kibbitz is sold.

Winter Sky Sahra last tested 27 microns and produces flashy lambs. She has also produced polled ram lambs. She is a Winter Sky Sandstone daughter with a more intermediate fleece and gorgeous type. She has a musket moonspot on one side of her spine. $50.00.

Winter Sky Calypso also tested 27 microns her last test and has an awesome, crimpy, musket fleece and smaller build. She tends to be an easy keeper with good parasite resistance. She twins easily and takes good care of her lambs. She had twin ewe lambs sired by Wintertime Black Forrest this year and both are being retained for now. Calypso is $50.00.

Winter Sky Kodachrome is a yearling moorit smirslet/sokket ram with abberant horns that will need trimming just at the tips. He has a nice sweep and balance to his horns which are smaller in diameter. Perfect fluke tail and Orion F2 bloodlines with a fleece that is to die for. He dislikes human interaction and can be tough to handle even with his smallish size. Available for a lamb back to a fiber flock.

Winter Sky Captain is a yearling shaela gulmoget scurred ram who was at the bottom of the pecking order last winter, so he is on the smallish side and definitely not aggressive. He did produce three sets of twins last year. Available for a lamb back to a fiber flock.

Moorit ram lamb sired by Kodachrome and out of a black Wintertime Black Forrest daughter who has an amazingly nice fleece. This ram lamb has horn nubbins so is probably a half-poll. Fleece is coming in silky soft and consistent. Crimp is going to come in later. Sold.

DUCKLINGS EVERYWHERE!

Twinkie duck and her first hatchlings--Cupcake, Hostess, Little Debbie and Dingdong. They are about 10 days old now. All appear to be silver headed Australians Spotteds.Black duck(a Silky/Aussie cross)and her new brood hatched during our heatwave on Thursday. Several will be black like their mom. Three are Australian Spotteds, as I snuck some eggs into her nest.

Blue duck just hatched out her four eggs(this was the third try as the first two batches of eggs under her weren't fertile due to poor weather). She must have thought they'd never hatch as she's been on a nest for 42 days. We found out black duck managed to sneak two of her eggs into the nest. Oh well.

Susan is still working on hatching hers out and since she placed her nest at the base of one of the grain barrels I open up twice a day she is very upset much of the time. She will undoubtedly be rabid by the time her ducklings hatch out,and she's setting seven eggs.