Euclid gives more answers

This morning Eirina was pawing the ground and I knew that my third set of lambs was on its way.

Here are the two little hooves emerging. Do you know what my first thought was? Despite having 2 white parents, Eirina does not have 2 'white' genes. And one of her colour genes hiding under the white is black. Yes, its true. Those were my first thoughts. And those details are now carefully recorded in my sheep genetics book. I know, rather geeky... I have always found genetics fascinating! I think if I didn't get a degree in psychology, I would have got one in biology.



Here he is. Yes, our fifth boy. And he turned out to not be part of a set but a single. But he's enormous. Our lambing has followed a weird pattern so far. The lambs have gotten progressively bigger. Euclid, as he has been named, is bigger than Draga's two born on Saturday and they are bigger than Lifa's two born last week. And the weather has gotten progressively colder for each lambing. It was snowing this morning as Euclid entered the world.


As you can see, not only does Eirina have a black gene for colour but she also carries the recessive spotting gene. You can see here, that she is indeed related to Draga. (Draga is the daughter of Eirina's great-great-grandmother - they are both decended from the same black, polled ewe who is a great milker). In fact, when Draga saw him, she thought he was hers (he looks like Mila of last year) and started nickering for him to come to her.

Take a look at those horn buds, eh?! Eirina was a pro and pushed him out with almost no assistance. And he was lively and quick onto his feet. Already so big he has to kneel down to nurse.



Here he is against her so you get an idea of the scale of him.

There you have it. 5 lambs in 7 days. My flock has gone from 6 to 11. I will sleep peacefully tonight. Only Brida left to go and she looks like she has a ways to go yet - her bag is just barely starting to develop.