Bluefaced Leicester yearling ewe. This photo won 5th place at 2008 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival
Our first fiber animals were three Bluefaced Leicester ewes. They carry both UK Barlaes Titus and Bayshore bloodlines. We picked this breed because we were mainly interested in wool, but we wanted to start with a dual purpose breed. Our farm goal is to breed toward producing the highest quality fleece available. Their wool is tightly purled, fine, dense, semi-lustrous and opens cleanly to the skin. And it is very nice to spin with! Bluefaced Leicesters are considered a large breed, with the rams weighing in around 250 pounds and the average ewe around 175 pounds, but very manageable.
Here are a few interesting facts about Bluefaced Leicesters:
* The Bluefaced Leicester is one of the three Leicester breeds, Bluefaced, Border, and Leicester Longwool. All three types originated in the early 1900s in northern England. The name refers to the dark skin under the fine white hairs covering their faces. The breed is the largest of the native British longwool breeds and the most prolific. The fleece is predominately white wool, but this breed does carry a recessive black gene and natural colored lambs do appear.
Our Bluefaced Leicester ewe, Cissy loves to stick her nose in the snow.
* It is considered a longwool. It has a staple length of 3"-6" with a fleece weight of 2 1/2 to 4 1/2 pounds. We sell our raw fleeces, heavily skirted, at $19.00 per pound.
Two three week old ewe lambs.
Our Rams
We are proud members of the following organizations which contain a wealth of information concerning our favorite breed of sheep and sheep related activities: