[PipKelpy]

I purchased a few WH ewes with lambs some months ago and when I shout Oi!, they stick their heads up. They are currently grazing Flystrike Central which looks like a jungle due to the mad weather here, even the cattle are grazing some other rough ground that is usually left for winter because it's all gone bonkers here and am still waiting to have it cut! I'm complaining that there's "bloody grass everywhere!!"

Hebrideans are black and apart from the size/build lack of true shedding, extra horns etc, could be seen as a very small down version of a WH.

Has anyone on this site ever thought, "Be nice if it were black? Or any other whole colour?" Or is it just me thinking daft?

I will be putting a Dorset Down on these girls but I can imagine that the cross will be brown or mottled face but the skin the same. I have got a black lamb, twice before, but it came through due to the mother being Shetland. I know certain genetic colours are more dominant but then you're getting technical.

[Buttermilk]

The black of Zwartbles sheep is dominant, so crossbred lambs turn out black when crossed with other breeds.  Black in most other breeds is a recessive gene.

[Fleecewife]

Jacobs are also dominant black but with a spotting gene - first cross is usually mostly black. Jacobs are not, as is usually assumed, white with black spots, but black with quite a lot of white spot.


20% of Hebrideans are dominant black, discovered by putting a dominant tup over white ewes, when half the lambs will be black (if black recessive, all the lambs will be white)


If you want a black sheep, it's simplest to buy a black breed 


A black WH obtained by crossing with a black dominant tup of another breed with a WH would of course not actually be a WH, just another cross breed.

[PipKelpy]

If you want a black sheep, it's simplest to buy a black breed 


A black WH obtained by crossing with a black dominant tup of another breed with a WH would of course not actually be a WH, just another cross breed.

Do agree with both.

I did consider Black Welshmountain and then I had the chance of WH, no shearing!!! I was curious though as I looked at the girls last night and pictured them black, or brown! Purple would be nice but that skin/fleece colour hasn't been mastered yet!

[Richmond]

We crossed our WH ewes with a Soay ram this year. We did wonder what colour the offspring would be but they are all white lambs with the odd brown or black spot.

[Fleecewife]

Texels were brought to Britain as a white breed but, shock horror, you occasionally get a blue one.  Maybe you could do some breeding to get purple from texels  .


Occasionally grey shetlands can look blue too.


Then there are moorit Shetlands, Castlemilks and Manx Loghtans which are all a foxy red, in fact one of the Soay shades is reddish too. Usually the first cross is fairly boring, but further down the line the interesting colours come out.


It's worth finding out something about the genetics of colour if you are even having these thoughts PipKelpy.  If sheep are too mundane, then try cats - you get about 5 per litter and the colours can be most amazing and unexpected, although I don't think there's a truly purple cat - plenty of blues to start with.


The person who did lots of research with both cats and shetland sheep is the late Stephan Adelsteinsson from Iceland

[SallyintNorth]

There is a supposedly Lavender sheep, I think maybe bred from Jacobs.  Had a surf and found this (FB, sorry)

Bred by Liz Tinsley (I think she may have been on here a while back but I can't recall her TAS moniker), using (according to someone on the Ravelry group Tour of British Fleece) Jacob, Poll Dorset, Suffolk and other Suffolk crosses.

[Bramham Wiltshire Horns]

hi
I have seen a picture of a Black Wiltshire Horn but i suspect it was a Cross and so wouldnt be a Wiltshire Horn

i know of People that Use Dorper Sheep with Wiltshire Horns so i guess you you may get a throw off, probably the same if you used a black Welsh Mountain Sheep

i put a Hampshire Down over some of my ewes this year and they have turned out great average 36kg at 10 weeks old, and a great Variety of Colours one of which looks like a Dutch Spotted Sheep

regards

Ryan

[Fleecewife]

There is a supposedly Lavender sheep, I think maybe bred from Jacobs.  Had a surf and found this (FB, sorry)

The lavender Jacobs I've seen are really only lavender at a great stretch of the imagination    More like a sort of faded greyish-fawn.

[Bramham Wiltshire Horns]

Here is my friends Ram lamb

He is half pedigree Wiltshire Horn and Half Dorper (which is also a shedding breed)

I’ve named him Nigel after the boxer aptly named the Dark destroyer 😂

[Tim W]

I've had black pure wilties before ---also some with large black patches on an otherwise white coat
Variation within every breed makes life interesting