[Jacob-list] intro, questions

[D Fikar]

We live in southeast Nebraska on a 34 acre farm.  We have 20 Jacobs
ewes, 2 rams, and right  now about 13 lambs with more on the way. We
also have eight Nubian goats, a laying hen flock, several ducks and
cats, three dogs (including one guardian dog, Benny) and 4 cows and a
bull.  Anyone out there in the Nebraska/northern Kansas area?

We got our sheep from Sanctuary Sheep in Phillips, Nebraska.  They were
going to concentrate on Shetlands and Angora goats and we got their
entire flock of Jacobs about four years ago.  Does any one know anything
about them?  I don't know if they were registered at the time or not.
We didn't know enough about anything to even ask.  We also have one ewe,
Lonely, from a person in Omaha.  She is our darkest sheep and her lambs
have been popular with local spinners.  Since then, we have learned a
lot about our sheep, mostly by trial and error.  Now, we need to get a
new ram to keep the flock healthy and diverse but are confused about
what we should be breeding for; so we thought of joining a Jacobs sheep
organization to learn more about the breed.

We have been reading the list for awhile now trying to figure out
whether to register or not and trying to learn more about our Jacobs
sheep.  We have learned a lot about our sheep and have enjoyed the list
but are still confused about registration, philosophy and terminology
used by the organizations.  Maybe you guys can help us.

Our ram has two great horns going straight up about two feet.  He has
never let me measure them.  He also has two horns that curl  around his
head forward.  (Are these forward horns?)   One of his curly horns comes
close to his head and we have cut it because it looked like it was going
to grow into his face but it didn't.  Are the horns supposed to curl
backward?  None of his horns touches each other so I assume they are not
"fused."

Some of our ewes have two curled horns, none touching each other or
their faces and some have four or five horns, two curled two up, some of
the ones going up touching each other.  Is this "fused" and is this
trait unwanted?  Why?  Our sheep are all evenly spotted, except Lonely,
who is more black than white.  She tends to have blacker lambs with
white on their heads and feet.  Some of our two horned ewes have four
horned lambs but all of our four horned ewes have four or five or even
six horned lambs.  Of course, the many horned lambs' horns have all been
touching because there just isn't enough room on their little heads for
all those horns so how do you have many horned lambs that aren't
fused....?

We live out in the country and have a real coyote problem.  Our flock,
guarded by Benny, has never been attacked by coyotes but then these are
not typical sheep.  They are very independant, hardy, intelligent and
fun to watch.  (Especially when they get "happy feet."  Watching them
all leap into the air out in the pasture is a sight and one of the
reasons we keep them.)  We have never had any health problems or lambing
problems, except when Digby, our other ram, got caught on the other side
of the fence when he was born.  His mom then had a second lamb and left
him on the other side of the fence and we ended up bottle feeding him.
That's how we got two rams.  He is a four horned ram, two growing
straight up, two curling around, although one is straighter than the
other.

Photos of these things would really help.  Any good web sites we could
visit to see some of the wanted/unwanted traits?  What is the reasoning
behind the good horn/ bad horn thing?  Four pictures of all of our sheep
to register:  we are waiting till we shear because that's the only time
they would be close enough to get pictures.  Still, that's alot of pics
and someone will have to hang on to them:  how did you take these
pictures?  We have tried to keep good birthing records but we use ear
tags and they sometimes fall out.  (So number 64 used to be number 53, I
think, although she sure looks like Friendly's baby who would have been
number 54....)  What do you use to tag your sheep?

Thanks for your experienced help and advice and we will keep reading.

Rebecca Gonzales and Daryl Fikar
Dorchester, Nebraska