Kleinen Wiese German Shepherds

Posted By Sandy Wilson on March 10, 2010

Lambing season has officially begun!  Yeah!  We had several other lambs earlier, but they were bred before we brought them to the farm.  Yesterday we had our first  lamb, sired by Bubba, Jr., who is our new ram this year.    It’s a ewe lamb with quite a fleece already – she is so cute and fuzzy.  We named her Daisy and what a pretty little gal she is.

Daisy - Ewe Border Leicester Lamb

Daisy is only one day old and doing great.  I haven’t heard this lamb cry once, as mom is feeding her very well.  We certainly have some pretty big moms and you can really see how big they are now since they have been sheared.  I like to have them sheared in the Winter much better than the Spring so I can see what is going on when the lambs start birthing and also it avoids fly season.  Luckily we have a barn, so I don’t have to worry about them getting too cold in the Winter, as they have plenty of protection from the elements.

Below are a few of the girls who I should think would give birth soon.  Their bellies are so big!  They seem to waddle around in the barn just fine.  Certainly they can still run when I bring the grain bucket in to the barn; nothing stops them when they smell that sweet molasses!

Those are some pretty big ewes  just waiting to give birth.  I think we are going to have quite a few sets of twins coming real soon.

Category: Border Leicester Sheep | No Comments »
Tags: Border Leicester Lambs

Posted By Sandy Wilson on March 7, 2010

Raw Wool - Sheared from White Border Leicester Sheep

We recently had our sheep sheared and we are awaiting the sheep to give birth to most of our lambs, although we have had a few early ones.  Above is a picture of the raw wool, not yet washed.  You can see the wool has beautiful curls and has such luster even though unwashed at this point.  I love these sheep and their wool is a wonderful to spin.

Washed Wool - still damp and drying.

Here is some of the wool washed and being dried.  It is absolutely beautiful and so white.  It’s going to be a joy when I spin it.  I love the long staple wool for spinning and this wool is so soft when processed by hand.

Roving - Border Leicester Wool

Above is some of the roving that was made from this batch of wool.  It has such luster and shine and it so soft to touch.  I used my 5-pitch combs to align the fibers and then my Diz  to pull through some roving.  Now it is ready to spin.  I can’t wait.  I need to wash alot more wool though before I spin, because once I start, I can’t stop.  It is very addicting once you get going.

Close up of roving.

The roving is so white and clean.  Even if my wool has a little bit of vegetation in it after picking it and combing it, the tiny remaining pieces usually come out beautifully by using my combs and I get a lovely roving that is so clean and lofty looking.  I am thinking of possibly adding some German Shepherd hair to the combs next time and add it to my roving to give a really soft touch to the wool.  It is really neat that you can add almost any type of hair and do blends into your original sheep wool and get a really beautiful look.   Might even have to make a felted ball of wool for my dogs to play with as a toy.  I am sure they will enjoy that, especially if it smells like the sheep!

Category: Border Leicester Sheep | No Comments »
Tags: Border Leicester Wool

Posted By Sandy Wilson on February 27, 2010

Link - our new ram lamb!

This year I brought two new ewes into our flock.  They both gave birth this month – one to a beautiful ram lamb named “Link” and the other to a beautiful ewe lamb we named “Stella”.  I think these two are going to make beautiful additions to our flock.  I can’t wait to see how their fleeces develop.  Now we have three lambs in the barn for our dogs to watch when we go in and feed the flock.  They put on quite a show jumping and running around the barn in front of the dog audience.  They are so darn cute when they are little lambs.  Soon after all our snows melts, I can just picture them on beautiful green pastures!  Can you tell I am thinking of Spring!  Winter has been a bit long for us this year with all the snow and I am anxiously awaiting the melting process!

Stella - our little ewe lamb.

We have had so much snow this year, record high snowfalls actually, and the sheep are just anxious to get out and graze in the pasture.  The dogs are equally excited as I am sure they can’t wait to help take the sheep out of the barn and into the pasture.  I am looking forward to taking the dogs out to work the sheep.

Delta in the newest of snowfalls.

Here you can see Delta and how high our snow is.  It is up to her chest after this last snow fall.  We have had three big storms this Winter and there is a prediction that we may have one more before this Winter is over.  I am predicting a wet Spring!  At least the grass and pastures will have a good start!

Looking forward to warmer weather and working the dogs!

Category: Border Leicester Sheep, Puppies | No Comments »
Tags: Border Leicester Lambs, Delta

Posted By Sandy Wilson on February 19, 2010

This past year we added a beautiful new Border Leicester ewe to our flock.  This morning I went out with the dogs to feed the sheep and water them and to my surprise was a new big white Ram lamb.  It must have just been born before I got to the barn, as mom was still licking it off and cleaning the young lamb.  Right away, I lifted the lamb and carried him into a jug and mom quickly followed after her newborn.  Mom had a great supply of milk and baby lamb was big and very vigorous to say the least – what a handsome boy!  I am always amazed at how quickly these little lambs can get up on their feet and instinctively look for mom’s milk.  Of course the ewe does make her own unique baaaaaing sound and has her own smell that the baby is attracted to.  I always find it to be such a beautiful sight!

Border Leicester Ram Lamb

The ewes are such good mothers and I find the more you leave them alone to do their motherly duties, the better.  It is important to let them bond and let the mother nurture the baby lamb.  The more you interfere and touch the baby lamb, the more you run the chance of having trouble with the mother and lamb bonding.  The only initial care I give is cutting the umbilical cord and then dipping it in betadine.  Then I strip the mother’s teats of its’ wax plugs and make sure mom has a good supply of milk.  Once this is done, I let mother nature takes its course – but I do watch from a distance to make sure the lamb is nursing and mom is ok.  If I find things aren’t going well, then I intervene.  Ninety-nine percent of the time, with healthy ewes and lambs who are mature at birth, there is usually never a problem.

Now our little black ewe lamb, Ebony, will have a new friend in the barn to play with.  They are going to have a good time, especially when the snow starts to melt.  Our snow is still too high for the sheep to go out in the pasture, but I think in a week or so things will be melted enough for the ewes and lambs to go out and play!

"Ebony" - Black Border Leicester Ewe Lamb

Certainly the dogs are very excited now as they will have quite a show going on in the barn with the lambs bouncing around in front of them.  They don’t seem to be frightened a bit about the dogs, but instead very curious.  Usually dogs are pretty curious about the new little ones too.   Next month, the rest of the flock should start to kick in and lambs should be popping out!  It’s a great time of year!

Category: Border Leicester Sheep | No Comments »
Tags: Border Leicester Ram Lamb

Posted By Sandy Wilson on February 15, 2010

Hera von Fafnerhaus

Pictured above is our beautiful Hera, who was bred by Ellen Nickelsberg.  She is a daughter out of Ellen’s Nicky dog who was what I call a “real” working dog.  He was a dog that just had it all and I am so glad that he passed that down to his sons and daughters.    We were so fortunate to have Hera and had been able to breed her to keep these genetics alive.  Hera has given us several litters of pups now and we have kept a few pups from those litters.  Hera has given us so much and we owe much to her for passing down her strong herding genetics along with her intelligence, bidability, and wonderful solid temperament.  We love her so!  She also seems to be passing down good hips too!

Greta von Fafnerhaus

Here also is a Nicky daughter, Greta.  She is a wonder gal, and also our oldest dog here at the farm – she is nine years old and such a happy dog.  She is just a gem and the sweetest loving dog you would want to meet.  Greta is getting up there in years now, so she is retired from any work.  She is just our loving house dog.  She looks much like her father Nicky did and she reminds me of him a lot.  Greta was a lot of dog when she was much younger and taught me a great deal about these genetics and she has made me grow as a dog trainer.

Aiko von der Kleinen Wiese

Aiko is one of the pups that we selected out of our breeding of Hera v. Fafnerhaus and Diesel v. Schulmeister.  We were so fortunate to find Diesel and breed him to our Hera, as they were absolutely the best match that we could have ever dreamed of.  These two dogs just “nicked” – they were the right combination of working dogs  and genetics that possess all the wonderful working qualities that we so treasure.  Aiko is living proof of it.  He really is my dream dog, so to speak.  He is intelligent, biddable, absolutely loves to work, solid in temperament, super athletic build, good hips and health and he absolutely loves life!  I think he is the closest thing that I could have to his grandfather Nicky.  I love this dog!  Not to mention, I think he is one handsome boy and such a faithful companion!

Arla von der Kleinen Wiese

Picture above is Arla; she is the most obedient dog I think I have ever owned.  She is also out of Hera and Diesel and definitely has the herding instinct and she is soooo smart!  I always like to think the male dogs are so smart, but this dog has it over all my other dogs.  She learns very quickly and she is a dog who just wants to please me.  I call her name and she turns on a dime for me.   I could not ask more of a dog.  Arla is the start of our second generation of dogs and she has been bred once to Hawk v. Eichenluft, ScHIII.  These two dogs produced a beautiful litter of pups and of course, we had to save a puppy out of that breeding to hopefully carry on these genetics.  We are watching these pups carefully to see what these two dogs genetics bring to the table.

Delta von der Kleinen Wiese

Delta is the start of our second generation of dogs.  Delta definitely posses some strong work ethic, as she has shown some terrific tracking skills – such dedication for such a youngster.    She  loves to work and is always busy doing something!  This little pup certainly is a live wire with lots of pep and is just full of herself.  She is just a wee babe at 7 months old and has a lot of maturing to do, but I see a lot of things I really love about Delta.  I look forward to watching her grow up and see what comes out in her from both her father, Hawk, and her mother, Arla.   One thing I can tell for sure is she is interested in the sheep (yeah!!!)  and she is a very smart puppy – learns extremely fast and is so quick.  She has a nice compact build and is very athletic – I think she is going to make an excellent working dog  – we’ll see how she comes along as she grows up.

That’s our crew at Little Meadow Sheep Farm along with a few other furry and feathered creatures.  Then there is the matter of the sheep – we have a beautiful flock of white and black Border Leicesters.  They are from quite a few generations of breeding here at the farm to produce beautiful long, lusterous wool and sheep that are healthy and have nice temperaments.  We have had Border Leicester sheep now for 10 years and we love the breed for herding as well as their beautiful wool.

Ebony - our first born Border Leicester of 2010!

This little lamb is really growing.  She was a surprise lamb from one of our first and eldest ewes.  Anyway, she’ll have some new friends shortly as the barn is going to be filled with lots of little bouncing lambs next month!  I can’t wait – lambs are almost as cute as puppies!

Category: Herding | No Comments »
Tags: Kleinen Wiese Dogs