The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: robate55 on April 03, 2011, 04:04:42 pm
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I wonder if Fleecewife or anyone could answer this question. Is this a topknot on one of my hoggs?
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Fleecewife will be along soon to confirm, but to me (with my very VERY limited experience) it does look like one.
HTH
Karen x
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Oh definitely :) :) You will notice also that she has little scurry horns which go hand in hand with top-knots. Congratulations :)
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Thanks for that. She & her twin sister are both like that with little horns & topknot. Their mother had no horns. Is that also related? Unfortunately they are unregistered so probably not going into the breeding program.
Rose
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Oh no, that is such a shame. Polled Hebs ie no horns, are so rare, as are top-knots. This is because until recently they were not registerable with the HebSoc. Just in the nick of time they have been saved and are now registerable, but perhaps your unreg ones had turned up in a registered flock but were sold as unregistered way back. Polled Hebs are genetically multi-horned, and usually have multi-horned lambs. We haven't been able to work out how the polledness is inherited - there are so few, but none of ours has ever had a polled lamb, although one of our top-knotted ewes has had a top-knotted lamb, although most don't. It's very frustrating. My old avatar on the left has a tendency to sire some top-knotted lambs and in fact amongst those big horns he has the remnants of a top-knot himself. So it could be that the male line is more important than the female, or that the trait needs to come through both parents. Last year we bought in 3 top-knotted ewe lambs, one of which is also polled - she is the first I have seen to combine both traits
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I don't think there were any tiny horn buds on the mother but she looks like this. She is now with Karen so I'm not sure what this years lambs are going to be like. I really love the unusual horn combinations so will try to buy in 1 or 2 new registered ewes later this year with 4 horns
Rose
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Last night she had twins,1 of each but sadly the ram lamb didnt make it.
Karen
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How are the others doing Karen? We have 11 out 6 so far - mostly this weekend.
Rose
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She does look as if she is a polled topknot so hang onto that ewe lamb piggy :sheep: :) :wave: It is a great shame that they are not registered with such diversity in the flock, and unfortunately Hebrideans cannot be graded up.
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Hasnt been a great time for me,lost the first lamb and ewe but on a brighter note 1 horn has a lovely set of twins again 1 of each,still waiting for the others they look like they are about to burst.
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Sorry to hear about your problems. 1horn had 1 of each last year as well. The only problem we've had so far is a touch of pneumonia in 1 ewe but she is improving & rearing 2 lambs well. Do give us a ring if you need help. I know I'm only in my second year of lambing but some of what I learnt at college is coming back.
Rose