[Jacob-list] Jacob lilac question

[Heather Hettick]

I would call Thom's example greying and not lilac.   My lilacs are obvious
at birth because of the different coloring or in the case of the darker
ones, the light eye ring.  I had a ewe lamb born almost charcoal color out
of lilac parents, but she had the eye ring and mellowed to the lilac brown
color as soon as her wool started to grow a bit, although she hasn't faded
as much as her sister.

My lilacs are all various shades of brown, although just like the blacks
some of them fade a bit and seem to turn a greyish taupe color as they age.
Especially after the color change with age, I've noticed that the legs and
face seem to generally keep their original darker shade, but I have none
that I would say have black leg spots.  Maybe this is more a characteristic
of the grey lilacs.  I would think maybe the grey and browner lilacs are
caused by different genes possibly, but as I don't have any I would consider
grey lilacs I can't say for sure.  Mine seem to be carried recessively in my
short experience with them.  So far, I have always gotten only lilacs where
both parents are lilac and a around half the time from a pairing of a lilac
and a black with one known lilac parent.

Do the grey lilacs actually have grey wool or is it a mixture of black and
white that looks grey from a distance?  Mine are actually brown, but they do
grey as they age meaning that white fibers invade the colored patches,
making the spots look lighter.

I was out watching my sheep yesterday, trying to get some decent pictures,
and noticed that all the lilacs have just as black horns and hooves as the
blacks.  I have no striped horns in my flock at this point, although my
original lilac ram did have striped horns and produced two ram lambs with
striped horns last year.

Heather Hettick
Moonstruck Jacob Sheep
Creston, OH
hettick.1 at osu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: jacob-list-admin at jacobsheep.com
[mailto:jacob-list-admin at jacobsheep.com]On Behalf Of Thomas Simmons
Sent: Saturday, August 04, 2001 6:03 AM
To: jacob-list
Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] Jacob lilac question



--And while we're on the subject......

If a ewe grays in some places, butis jet black in others - (even with
distinct jet black spots in the MIDDLE of the grayed areas!) is this really
graying? Or is it evidence of Lilac?  Or ???

thom


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