Baa baa black sheep

A lot’s been happening on our farm since I posted a couple of weeks ago about four of our pregnant ewes we hoped would give us black Soay lambs this year. Without further ado, here’s the report on their lambs.

First came Heywood with a stunning set of twins, one medium charcoal grey and the other pitch black. Heywood, you will recall, was solid black as a lamb:

Heywood's black British Soay lamb age day 1

Heywood's black British Soay lamb age day 1

Heywood's black lamb at age 5 days

Heywood's black lamb at age 5 days

Four days later, Darby also produced a black ram lamb:

Darby's black ram lamb age 4 days

Darby's black ram lamb age 4 days

Darby's black lamb shows off his fleece

Darby's black lamb shows off his fleece

Not to be outdone, six days later Vieva produced our third black Soay ram lamb of the year:

Vieva's black ram lamb age 1 day

Vieva's black ram lamb age 1 day

Steve and our friend Ida, who you will hear more about in my next post, discuss the genetic implications of having black RBST Soay lambs in our flock, while Vieva’s ram pretty clearly would just as soon they get on with it so he can get back to work exploring his new world:

Ida & Steve discuss Vieva's black lamb

Ida & Steve discuss Vieva's black lamb

Truth to tell, we are scratching our heads a bit at these results. Only time will tell whether these lambs will remain solid black and whether they can be characterized genetically as self-colored or whether, like their mothers, they will slowly develop lighter places on various parts of their bodies. You can be sure we will track their growth very very carefully. At this point, we are just delighted to have these little Mendelian “experiments” racing around the play yard as though they were nothing special.

But wait, what about Cley, our fourth British ewe who was herself black at birth? Well, just to prove there’s seldom a dull moment when you are raising Soay sheep, here is her lamb, a beautiful light phase ewe who arrived on Mother’s Day:

Cley & her light phase ewe lamb at age 4 days

Cley & her light phase ewe lamb at age 4 days

Go figure … we are!

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5 Enlightened Replies

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  1. robson says:

    Beautiful! All of them.

  2. Dawn Driskill says:

    hello Priscilla,
    Pretty babies! I sent an email to Gevan, I’m sure you read & if you aren’t too busy, maybe you can let me know what you think, too. I know Plumley has some sort of black genetics & she has a grey face, her new ewe lamb, has a grey face too. She also looks a bit silvery, but that could be my wishing to be able to have more evidence of what his/her genetics are. I guess I’m one of those people that tries to get everything in a category so I can plan ahead. If it’s a ewe it doesn’t really matter this year, if it’s a ram, he’ll be in the same pen as the Pennington & Nutley, like Burn, Plumley’s son from last year. Actually I’ll probably do that anyway, just in case, but I would really like to know if the grey face has anything to do with the self color black genetics. I haven’t noticed the grey face in other Soays, but am not up close & personal with the number of sheep you have. What do you think? Thanks Dawn

  3. Dawn Driskill says:

    Just thought of something; which rams did you use for your black lambs? When do you think you’ll be in a position to sell your self colored black sheep? Do you have a number that you are shooting for, that will put you in a position to sell any progeny? Of course since it was semen from only two rams anyway, some inbreeding is inevitable. I would prefer not to inbreed but I think I won’t have a choice if I want self colored black. How much inbreeding have you done so far? Have you gotten self colored black from both of the AI progeny. I have Mustard genetics in Plumley.
    I can’t imagine 7 lb. babies! My sons were only 6 lbs, kudos to the ewes! Thanks talk soon Dawn

  4. priscilla says:

    Dawn, quite a number of the descendants of the 2008 and 2009 AI work have faces that look as though they had been rubbed with ashes or grey dust. It seems to fade as they grow older. We have seen it in descendants of both Mustard and Norris. As you know from reading the posts, both Mustard and Norris were reported to have self-coloration in their pedigrees. If I were you, I wouldn’t try to overanalyze individual animals – you’ll drive yourself crazy looking for meaningful nuances. You have such beautiful healthy lambs — enjoy them! Now, if I could just take my own advice …

  5. priscilla says:

    Our three black British lambs this year were sired by Saltmarsh Glen, although we were not breeding “for” black. Glen also produced quite a number of plain brown lambs. The one we were most surprised by is the tan lamb he and Yarmouth gave us. Never a dull moment with lambing, is there? As for our plans for these lambs, we will for sure keep the three black ones to see what happens with their fleece color and pattern as they mature. On the issue of lamb weight, it will be interesting to update our data, which I believe we haven’t posted since 2011 or perhaps even 2010. We had more than one 7-pounder, but also several very very small lambs, including Tiny Tim. I’ll give you a heads up when we have the updated data ready to put here or on the main part of the website. Thanks for your enthusiasm about lambing and breeding – it is infectious!

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