[Jacob-list] freckles?

[WenlochFrm at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/9/00 4:57:05 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
wolfpen at alltel.net writes:

> I don't see one single freckle on this
>  lamb. With his skin so easy to see, I've given him a thorough exam.  Do
>  freckles sometimes show up later?  When? How much later?

In my experience the freckling has usually shown up by at least three or four 
months of age. Some say that freckling present in the first year will become 
more so as the sheep ages, but I can't say that has been true in my flock. I 
do have one ewe that is six years old that was free of freckles, but now has 
some on her face if you want to count that as freckling. And one ram that was 
heavily freckled as a lamb to the point that the white spotting looked grey 
has much less freckling now, and the white actually looks white now. He was 
born in June, so some of the freckling as a lamb may have been caused from 
the sun.

I think it was Joan Horak that said the English believe that freckling is 
linked to  coloring on the legs, and from my experience, I'm inclined to 
agree with that. I love a lot of coloring on the legs and try to breed for 
it, but I keep a couple of rams here that have no leg coloring and are 
freckle free that I can breed back to just in case I get into trouble with 
too much freckling. 

Joan Franklin