More Babies

You might remember this picture of my bird feeders outside my office window. I shared it in one of my first blog postings. Well, Colton and I had gone to Florida during spring break to visit my Mom and Dad. When I came home I saw a bird's nest in the green feeder. I watched for a few days and discovered it was a mama Robin and she had layed 4 blue eggs.

When I got home yesterday from an overnight trip to Chicago, I discovered what I think are 3 babies. I know... they look like plastic ET's ... a face only a mother Robin could love. She's sitting on them now as I type, keeping them warm. After a couple week's of bugs and worms, they will grow into something more resembling a bird.

Our First Lamb

Here is our first lamb born to Delia and Rambo. She is 3 days old in this picture. She is a black mouflon and I feel horn buds, but we'll have to see. There is polled (no horns) ancestry on the sire's side.

I found her early Monday morning. Delia had been nesting all day Sunday ... staying close to the barn, not eating much. So Sunday I busied to get the post delivery stall ready for her and all lambing supplies ready. She only had one lamb this year after a tough breech delivery last year of one of her twins. I was happy for her easy and unassisted delivery!

Here are pictures of Rambo, her sire (solid black) ... this picture is last fall, so he's grown quite a bit since then... And Delia, her dam (moorit mouflon). The ewe is available for sale and will be ready to leave the farm early July.

We aren't expecting our next lambs until the end of May ... kind of an unorganized, unplanned breeding season.

Off To Market

Each year we have a few ram lambs that didn't sell and so their destiny is food on our table. We have a local butcher friend who handles the processing in a USDA inspected facility and prepares the cuts for us. We took 6 lambs last night to his farm and he will take them today.

I also have two intact adult rams who bear genetics not worth repeating. They both have very tight horns and they have had to be trimmed (at $65 a vet visit). One of them has very long legs and that caused difficult births last spring delivering long-legged lambs. These are both hereditary traits and the goal of a good breeder is to cull out the undesirable traits. That doesn't mean it's easy, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. Welcome to life.

Anyway, we were concerned about taking older intact rams to the butcher for fear of a tougher texture and stronger taste due to their raging hormones. A breeder friend of mine said they would still be good ... have it all ground and make some into sausage to disguise the taste. So we'll likely take them as well. We just couldn't take them all in the same trip or the adult rams would have killed the wethered (fixed) rams because they had been living with the ewes.

In Iceland, the sheep are raised primarily for meat, although they are known as a triple purpose breed: meat, wool, and milk. The meat is much milder and more tender than domestic or Australian lamb. It is considered a gourmet meat. We have an upscale grocery store here in Dayton, Dorothy Lane Market. They have been importing Icelandic lamb for a couple of years. I spoke with them last week and they are selling it for ... $24.99 / pound. We plan to approach the meat buyer there as well.

Our lambs are all raised without hormones, antibiotics, pesticides or herbicides. They are also grass-fed and finished. I do not grain feed them.

If you are interested in purchasing any of our lamb, you can contact me at debhoeve@gmail.com

Here is the pricing:

** half lamb into cuts ($5.50/lb)
** whole lamb into cuts ($5.00/lb)
(average yield about 35 - 40 lbs.)

After these orders are fulfilled, we will fill orders for individual cuts, if available. These will be $6.50/lb.

Deliver should be in early February. 50% deposit required on all half/whole orders. We have a small flock and this meat will go very quickly, so do not hesitate!