Nordicsheep Lambs (2002 Lamb List coming soon)

All of the 2001 lambs are gone...we have kept only a couple of the best and have added several new ewes last fall.  If there is anything you are interested in please contact us at lambs@nordicsheep.com

Our rams were put in breeding groups with the ewes on November 23, 2001.  This means that Spring lambs will be arriving around April 15, 2002 through early May.  We used 4 unrelated horned rams and 3 unrelated polled rams this year.  Whether you are looking for horned or polled Icelandic lambs we will have a broad selection of lambs in many color and pattern combinations.  If there is a particular color or pattern you are interested in or wondering what ewe was bred to what ram, please contact us at lambs@nordicsheep.com.  We have selected breeding pairs for color/pattern, confirmation/horning, and dairy potential.

So far some of the color/pattern combinations we have seen in this years lambs (most available in both horned and polled) are:

We will also have available yearling ewes that were not bred as ewe lambs but that are now full grown and ready to be bred Fall of 2002.

The first lambs arrived on 4/16/2002, right on schedule with 20+ more lambs due by the next few weeks.  We will be posting pictures of the lambs and should have our lamb sales list up by the end of May.  We are excited to see the color and pattern combinations based on the pairings we used this year.

Below is the 2000 and 2001 lists for reference...we are really enjoying our Icelandic sheep and especially the lambs.

2001 Lamb List

Lambing 2001

The first lambs have arrived!  On April 5, 2001 one of our newest ewes Sophie gave birth to twins, a spotted black ram with one white foot and a white blaze on his forehead and a solid black ewe.  The ram lamb's markings are almost the same as his dad, Greyspot  who is one of the Sires at Frelsi Farm.  This ram lamb is exception...he is the biggest chunkiest lamb we have ever had with horns at 5 weeks that are over 3 inches long and jet black.  If he does not sell this year we have already decided that he would be a great addition to our sires next fall.

Both Sophie and Greyspot have perfect horns and the lambs will also be nicely horned.  The ram lamb was large at birth and very active and will make a super sire for a starter flock.  Sophie comes from a line of good mothers and is very calm and attentive so her ewe lamb will be a good choice as a foundation ewe.

On April 8, 2001 Grace gave birth to twin badgerface lambs, a moorit badgerface ram and a black badgerface ewe.  Grace had been bred to Panda, a black spotted badgerface ram that was from an AI father, Flekkur.  Both of the lambs have long curly fleece and will be polled like their parents.  Panda is one of the stud sires at Frelsi Farm in Limerick, Maine.  Both Grace and her step sister Celeste were bred to Panda and bought as bred ewes to bring the best of Frelsi Farm's lines to our flock.  The moorit badgerface ram is very nice in that he is dark moorit and clearly polled, a good choice for a polled flock.  His sister is one of the biggest lambs we have this year and will be a terrific foundation ewe.

April 12, 2001 was exciting for us as one of our original ewes Gudrun gave birth  to twins, a white horned ram and a black horned ram.  Both lambs were born with  horns already sticking out.  Gudrun had been bred to Aslan, our head ram so the offspring were bound to be good sized and strongly horned.  Both boys are putting on weight quickly and have nice horns.  As the mother is spotted they both carry spotting.

About 2 hours after Gudrun lambed on April 12, 2001 Elska gave us identical twin white horned ram lambs.  Both ram lambs are strongly horned and will have large frames as we bred Elska to Aslan, our lead ram.  With Aslan and Elska we got them not for the color but for their super confirmation and wide dominant horns.  Elska is the top of the pecking order among our ewes and Aslan rules over the rams.  Either of these ram lambs will make good terminal sires both for build and attitude.  One of them has fantastic horns and both have a dominant posture which is the sign of a good ram.  Both are friendly but let the other lambs know that they are in charge.

On April 13, 2001 our Jezebel gave birth to a large white polled ewe.  While Jezebel comes from a line of ewes that twin, this is her first year lambing so a large single is appropriate.  the ewe lamb is very pretty and has a longer fleece than the other lambs.  Jezebel lived up to her name in that while she was put in with Rex, a beautiful grey badgerface polled ram, she did not want to be with him as Whitie a nicely horned white ram caught her eye and had bred her 2 weeks before Rex and Rambo got to our farm.

Late evening on April 13, 2001, Celeste had twin lambs,  a grey (black) badgerface ewe and a spotted moorit badgerface ram.  The ram lamb was very small and did not make it but it is still impressive that Celeste twinned as a yearling as she was not bred as a ewe lamb but is big enough now for twinning.  The spotted moorit badgerface had the same spotting pattern as his sire Panda.  Her mother has always been a consistent twinner.  Because the ram lamb was moorit and spotted, which are both recessive traits, that confirms that Celeste carries both moorit and spotting (as will her ewe lamb). 

Celeste's ewe lamb is our hands down winner for prettiest lamb this year.  Grey Badgerface are a pretty color/pattern combination but this lamb in particular has a beautiful face as she has a white mask on her face that gives her a soft feminine look.  In grey badgerface the combination is subtle in that the side look oatmeal/creamy white while the face, chest, belly and up the back that in a black or moorit badgerface is quite dark, in a grey badgerface the dark areas have the light undercoat and dark outer coat of the grey pattern.  This gives a soft transition to the color and adds lots of color variation and multi-hued interest when it is spun.  There is no way that dyed wool can match this type of coloration, which is another reason we love Icelandic wool.

On the morning of April 14, 2001 we had people visiting our farm and while we were showing them our new lambs Helga gave us a single nice sized black horned ewe lamb.  Helga had twins last year and but was really too small to produce two good sized lambs.  She is still growing by next year should be a solid twinner.  Her mother Tinkerbell had singles as a ewe lamb and yearling and by the next year was big enough to carry twins.

Wednesday April 25, 2001 Sally gave birth to a very nice polled white ram lamb.  This was her first time lambing and she took to being a mother right away.  She is a dotting mother and has a good udder for a ewe lamb.

April 27, 2001 will be remembered as a special day on the farm as Beauty, a black horned triplet lambed for the first time and gave us a spotted black mouflon ewe lamb.  Because she was small as a ewe lamb (being a triplet) we did not breed her last year as a ewe lamb so this year is her first time lambing.  She had been bred to Moufi, our grey mouflon ram so that the lamb inherited black and solid as her color and pattern from a her mother and black and mouflon from Moufi.  Both parents have nice horns so she will have good horns.  Helga's lamb is the most exotic color/pattern combination we got this year and is the result of careful and selective breeding.  Because Moufi shows grey and mouflon (both of the pattern genes he is carrying) his lambs had to be either grey or mouflon.

What did surprise us was that both Beauty and Moufi were carrying spotting and passed it on to the lamb.  In Icelandics spotting is an on/off gene with no spotting as dominant so for a lamb to be spotted both parents need to carry a spotting gene and give it to the lamb but do not have to be spotted themselves.  It is this recessive trait that is always a pleasant surprise and is just one of the reasons that we like Icelandic sheep so much, it always keeps us guessing.

On Monday April 30, 2001 Tinkerbell gave birth to twin rams, a white horned and a solid moorit horned.  Evidently there had been a time delay in between the first white lamb being born and the second, the moorit ram because when we found Tinkerbell and her lambs the white ram was already cleaned up and dried off and was roaming the moorit ram was still wet and had just been born.  Because the white ram had wandered off while Tinkerbell gave birth to his brother, he no longer was identifiable by smell for Tinkerbell so she rejected him.  We are raising him as a bottle baby (which helps them to bond to humans better) but he is strong and healthy on his own.  Icelandic sheep seldom reject their lambs except for when the lambs wander off into the flock and take on the smell of the other sheep.  The solid moorit ram is outstanding and already has very nice horns so he would make a great sire for a flock that loves moorit (as we do).

As the sun started to set on May 8, 2001 Birgit gave birth to twin lambs unassisted by us.  The twins are a black horned ram and a white polled ewe.  Both are a good size and should have nice fleece.  She is the most devoted mother we have and never lets her lambs stray and scolds them if they try to run off.

On May 17, 2001 our Fallegar gave birth to a large single white horned ram.  She was bred to Tinker, an Aslan son from last year.  Tinker was the result of Aslan and Tinkerbell, two of our favorites breeding and got the best of both lines.  After breeding him to Fallegar he was sold to Stone Ridge Farm in Garrison, NY. 

Fallegar is a good mother will a very nice udder so the ram lamb should grow quickly as a large single.  He is already showing signs of having nice horns.

The first of this year's lambs started arriving the first week in April and the last of the lambs will be born by the second week in May.  We gave younger ewes a little longer before breeding to let them grow out some more as this helps them when it comes to lambing.

We will have very nice horned and polled lines with a good selection of rams and ewes.  Including ewes that we bought as bred ewes we used 6 Horned ram lines and 3 polled ram lines! This is a very broad genetic base for a small farm operation and insures that if you buy ewes from different lines that you will be able to breed their offspring together without overlap.   Our focus is to be able to represent all of the genetic traits of the breed in our flock with our horned lines being strongly horned and our polled lines to be completely polled.

We are already getting a high amount of interest in this years lambs so if there is a particular ewe's offspring that you are interested in please let us know and we will contact you to let you know who she was bred to and when she lambs what she produces.  To guarantee a particular lamb we require a 1/3 deposit and that will will reserve that lamb for you.  The balance is due upon pickup or delivery.  If it gets close to pickup time and we do not feel that your selection is the best that we offer, we will recommend a more suitable lamb.  We sell only the best of our lambs and cull any rams or ewes that are less than the best.

We will have a good variety of colors and patterns because of our careful pairing at breeding time to match the best ewe and ram combinations for confirmation, fleece, color, and pattern.  We select for these qualities in this order as all the color isn't anything unless the adult is of a solid build and a good producer.  Likewise we select for fleece quality before color as color and pattern can be added to a line by selective breeding but nothing can beat a fine fleece for hand spinning.

Below is a look at last years lamb list so you can see what some of last year's pairing's were.

2000 Lamb List