The coloured ewe lamb has wonderful fine fleece. The Blue Faced Leicester (pronounced Lester) sheep have arrived, two ewe lambs and a ram lamb that are big enough to breed right now. They made the journey from Valleyview, way up north about 7 hours away. The sheep are from the renown Little Smoky Blues farm. These sheep were developed over a long period of time from traditional long wooled breeds in England, particularly the Wensleydale and Old Leicester and are bred to use as sires for cross bred ewes, called mules. The Blue Faced Leicester sheep are very large, with the rams being over 200 pounds and the ewes around 175. They are good mothers with strong maternal instincts and can support twins easily. They do breed seasonally when the days are the shortest and can be bred the first year if their lamb growth is sufficient. Rams are most often used to improve commercial flocks and improve lamb size and growth. The first cross ewes then are bred back to their breed rams and the influence of the Blue Faced Leicester greatly improves the flock. This has been traditional in England since the turn of the century. The Blue Faced sheep also have a fine crimped long wool particularly sought after by hand spinners. The ram will breed the ewes for quite a few years and the offspring will be sold or bred to other rams, with only the select lambs with exceptional fleece being retained at the Fat Ewe Farm. Welcome home little sheepies.
the ram lamb
The new additions, Blue Faced Leicester lambs, ready to breed now. The back left is a female, the middle the ram and the coloured another female. These are particularly beautiful specimens of this breed.
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