Lambing Begins!

Much to my surprise, on my trip home this weekend, I was gifted with the most beautiful little ewe lamb. Margery is the daughter of Bard and Melody. I believe that she will be a gray bersugget, with a crazy panda face that for now I'm calling yuglet.

She is everything I was hoping for from my new breeding ram this year and I am super excited to see how she grows up. 

Spring

Spring is here! Only the inch of snow we have received today is not so convincing...
Lambs are going to arrive soon and in order to make room for the new I figure it would be a good time to highlight the old.
Show season ended with Remy getting champion Shetland at the Topsfield Fair and even more exciting... Pascal's fleece won Reserve Champion Primitive Fleece at Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival!! We are incredibly proud of this bloodline and are very excited to see what lambs this year brings.
Speaking of lambs, we have five bred ewes this year. All five were bred by Bard and should be lambing in the next month. The older brood ewes are Izzy, Eloise, Melody, and Minnie. The fifth is, unfortunately, my best yearling this year, who had an encounter with the ram after the older ewes figured out how to open the gate. So an extra baby will be bouncing around the farm this spring.
I will have plenty of lambs for sale this year as well as a yearling, Faye, and one of my older brood ewes. So if anyone is interested please feel free to contact me with questions! I will be posting more about for sale animals later when all the lambs are born.

North East Youth Sheep Show

This past weekend we made our way out the NEYSS at the Eastern States Exposition! It was loads of fun and filled with the best people :) We made out really well this year and I couldn't be happier with the results.

My border Leicester, who I bought from the farm of Colin Sigmound, got first place yearling ewe and champion white Border Leicester!

Rosie was placed as first place ewe lamb out of a class of 15 other lambs.

She went into the champion round however lost to the other yearling ewes in the ring. However, this picture represents all things wonderful in the sheep world. All four of us are the Bolton crew, these girls are some of my closest friends and to have them all in a champion round with their own sheep was more rewarding to me than any champion ribbon.

Rosie did get her time to shine though after she won best headed ewe

My ram lambs did fabulous and were placed first and second out of another 15 head class. I was blown away and super happy about these two.

Together they went on to win first place pair of ram lambs

Remy even won reserve champion ram!

Overall an awesome show with good competition! I cant wait till the next fair :) Bolton is in about three weeks!

The Newcommers

There are a few newbies on the farm as of recently! One of them is a little chick out of our own farm breeding who is as cute as a button. Her name at the moment is Gladys, however we fear that the name might take a more masculine turn at some point.

Next consists of two more chicks who are still on their way here! This mottled cochin is carefully brooding over her nest :)

The most exciting of all the arrivals is Bellwether Bard! He is a most handsome ram from Trinity farm out in New York. We are super excited to incorporate him into our flock and he will be our stud ram this fall. He has the most gorgeous gray fleece, with a pretty luster and phenomenal crimp. I couldn't be more happy :) At the moment he is separated from the rest of the flock while I get him used to eating grain (he comes from an all grass diet) but not to worry we have given him Dempsey as a friend!

Just look at those facial markings!

 Here are his lovely ladies who he will be breeding with in the fall. All brood ewes are in fabulous condition and are enjoying the grass and the lack of milking lambs.

 Our bunny is enjoying the grass too!

 And Rosie is too cute :) All the lambs have had their scrapies tags put in now and are almost ready for their show next week! The only thing left is a visit from the vet to check them out.

Who Wants Lambs!?

As I mentioned last time I have a couple of nice lambs available this year!


Wildair Remy- Dam: Wildair Eloise Sire: Freddy's Mocha. This ram has champion lineage from both sides and he shows it. This ram is one of my show rams this year and he would be available after the Topsfield fair, the first weekend in October. He has a beautiful, very soft, musket fleece, with a looser wavy crimp.  Price: $350

 Wildair Pascal- Dam: Hythe Thizbee Sire: Freddy's Mocha. Another ram with champion lineage. Thizbee is one of my best brood ewes and is the Dam of Eloise (the mother of Remy). This is a very strong bloodline and I have high hopes for Pascal in the ring and for breeding. He is my other show ram for the year and will be available after Topsfield Fair. He is a beautiful burgesset, and his fleece underneath looks to be white with light gray blotches, and a soft wavy fleece. He has beautiful big horns as well. Price: $300

 Wildair Seymour- Dam: Wildair Melody Sire: Freddy's Mocha. Seymour is a big boy with a very solid body, and gorgeous horns. His fleece is a soft,  has a finer crimp, and has grown in a musket. He has his moms personality and is a very sweet boy. Price: $250

 Wildair Poe- Dam: Anna'sFluff Hermione Sire: Wildair Leonardo. I'm very excited about this ram, he is from the first pair of lambs sired by one of my own rams. His dad was a champion in show and his mother is a beautiful black gulmoget ewe I brought in for her pattern. He has a soft gray fleece underneath the black tips, beautiful facial markings, and good horns. He was born much later than my other lambs so he is a bit smaller, but I have high expectations that he will be even lovelier as he grows out. Price: $250

 Wildair Dempsey- Dam: Wildair Melody Sire: Freddy's Mocha. This ram is the twin to Seymour above. He has one of the sweetest personalities of the lambs this year. His fleece is a pretty morrit and in the gulmoget spots on his side it fades to a shade that looks like a brown shaela color. He has nice horns and flashy gulmoget markings. Price: $250

 Wildair Faye- Dam: Hythe Thizbee Sire: Freddy's Mocha. This little ewe is one I would love to go to a family that is looking for a pet. Faye is no happier than when she is sitting in a lap, we call her the lapsheep, plus she is a favorite among friends and family. She has a pretty gray fleece with lots of luster and the cutest face that will win you over in seconds. Price: $250

 The other lambs- These two are not for sale at the moment because I'm going to show them this year and next but they felt it would be unfair for the rest to get a photo shoot. The top picture is the twin of Poe, her name is Paisley. The ewe below is Rosie, the twin of Remy, and loves to show off her flashy package. Rosie has the longest fleece of all the lambs this year and it is my favorite by far.

Notes: All the lambs have been registered! Please contact me with any questions, interest, or even if you just want to say hello! My email is Montana@airey.us A lot of these lambs will be at shows this summer, I'm having my mom show a few of the lambs as well but they will all be available whenever and we would love if anyone wanted to stop by and visit :)

My Mischief Makers

Our lambs have this sneaky tendency to slip into our chicken coup...

 They climb into the run

And they pretend to be sneaky

 These are the faces of pure guilt

 And even the older ewes like to get in on the action

At least they look cute while doing it!

These guys make quite a mess and the poor chickens don't seem to get a day of privacy but there is never a boring day on the farm. 

Next time: Ill have up pictures of the lambs for sale. This year I'll have five rams available and one ewe, which is everyone except my two show girls who I will be keeping until next year. So stay tuned!

2014 Lambs

This year was a great year for lambs! We bred with two different rams. Ram number one belongs to our dear friends (who also show with us) the Towers of Olive Branch Shetlands and Freddy's Farm shetlands. Mocha is a beautiful aged ram with a stellar body and an even more beautiful fleece. The second ram we bred with was Leo, my champion ram from last year.

The first pair to arrive was out of Melody and Mocha. She gave us two beautiful boys, Wildair Seymour and Wildair Dempsey.

Seymour who has turned out to be a beautiful fawn collor



Dempsey has the sweetest face :) he is a moorit gulmoget

 

The next ewe to lamb was Eloise! She was also bred to Mocha. Wildair Remy and Wildair Rosie were the two treasures I received from her. Remy has a stunning fawn fleece and Rosie has a very Eloise-like shaela gulmoget fleece.  Rosie managed to retain her mother's personality as has consistently proved herself to be a minx :)

Remy

Rosie

 Izzy lambed next, she was also bred with Mocha, and her lambs came out flashy as always! Wildair Pascal is the handsome gray bergesset ram who seems to be growing up much like Leo. Faye is the ewe or this batch and has a lovely gray fleece under those black tips.

Faye in front and Pascal in the back

Pascal

 Finally... Minnie lambed! Almost a month after everyone else, in fact. She was bred to Leo and produced two adorable sweet babies. Poe is the boy with the pretty markings on his face, and a nice gray fleece underneath. Paisley is my stunning black gulmoget ewe. Her fleece takes after mothers but is a bit looser from her fathers side. Together they make an excellent end to the lambing season.

Poe on the left and Paisley on the right

Paisley grazing and Poe's but

 

Paisley being a mischief girl
 

 That's a total of eight lambs! Three girls and five boys, which is much better than last years 6 rams and one accident ewe haha. Overall its going to be a great year with these lambs!