Icelandic Sheepskin Pelts - New Arrivals!
Check out Stark Hollow Farm's new arrivals of gorgeous, luxurious Icelandic Sheepskin Pelts from our fall 2013 group of Icelandic sheep raised on grass here in Huntington Vermont. When you see one you like, double click on the image and you will see the description and price in the upper right hand corner of the slide show. Contact us at farmer at starkhollowfarm dot com to order.
Icelandic Sheep Skin Pelt - Renaissance Fair Costume
One of our Icelandic Sheepskin Pelts was made into a gorgeous cape by Brandace of North Carolina for a Renaissance Fair Costume. If you look closely, you will also see a ram's horn which also came from our farm.
This is one of many uses for these beautiful pelts.
Click here to see our pelts for sale: Icelandic Sheepskin Pelts
This is one of many uses for these beautiful pelts.
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| Ren Fair Costume - Sheep Skin Pelt and Ram's Horn |
2014 Icelandic Lambs for Sale in Vermont at Stark Hollow Farm
Check out a preview of Stark Hollow Farm 2014 Icelandic lambs for sale in Vermont...enlarge the slideshow and click "show info" to see more details.
Lambs will be priced for sale in the up-coming weeks. We'll have ewe lambs, ram lambs and adult ewes with lambs. Lambs this year are from 3 incredible unrelated rams, so there are lots of choices.
If you are interested in purchasing breedstock from us this year, please contact us at farmer@starkhollowfarm.com.
Lambs will be priced for sale in the up-coming weeks. We'll have ewe lambs, ram lambs and adult ewes with lambs. Lambs this year are from 3 incredible unrelated rams, so there are lots of choices.
If you are interested in purchasing breedstock from us this year, please contact us at farmer@starkhollowfarm.com.
Newest Arrivals: Tamworth Piglets
Last night, our Tamworth sow, Orange, farrowed 5 gorgeous little piglets. In the midst of shifting southerly and westerly winds, we got a couple inches of rain on top of a snow pack up here on Camel's Hump Mountain of about 3 feet of snow. We had heard many farmers were having difficulty with farrowing this year due to the extreme weather.
With colder than normal temperatures, precipitation and dead of night upon us, I was grateful for the wonderful little piglet creep with heat lamp that Vanessa built in the last couple of days into Orange's farrowing house. The creep is an important part of the farrowing house. It provides a safe place for the piglets to take a break from mama and eventually they will get their own feed in there. Right now, it's a place they can go to get warm after leaving the 90+ degree womb!
Labor lasted about 5 hours and at the end of it, we have four boys and one girl. They took to mama's milk right away. Tamworths are a talkative breed and this is very noticeable in the farrowing house. There is often a lively conversation between mama and piglets which consists of her grunting and snorting and them responding with snorts and squeals. If they fight, mama raises her voice almost as if to say, "come on now, little ones!".
Here are some photos:
With colder than normal temperatures, precipitation and dead of night upon us, I was grateful for the wonderful little piglet creep with heat lamp that Vanessa built in the last couple of days into Orange's farrowing house. The creep is an important part of the farrowing house. It provides a safe place for the piglets to take a break from mama and eventually they will get their own feed in there. Right now, it's a place they can go to get warm after leaving the 90+ degree womb!
Labor lasted about 5 hours and at the end of it, we have four boys and one girl. They took to mama's milk right away. Tamworths are a talkative breed and this is very noticeable in the farrowing house. There is often a lively conversation between mama and piglets which consists of her grunting and snorting and them responding with snorts and squeals. If they fight, mama raises her voice almost as if to say, "come on now, little ones!".
Here are some photos:
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| Piglets under lamp in creep |
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| Piglet Creep |
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| 3 of Orange's 5 Piglets |
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| Little Tamworth Piglets Cozy Up |
New Hay Feeders for Pregnant Girls
New Feeders completed! Hand-made out of locally sourced wood. Designed specifically for our horned sheep to keep wasted hay to a minimum and allow enough room at the feeders for all the pregnant girls...
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| New Feeder in the Winter Paddock |
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| Keeping the Mineral Feeder Upright! |
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| Vanessa & Brem |
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| Laura & Beven |
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| The Girls at their new Feeders! |
Registered Tamworth Pigs
This is Trinity, our Tamworth breeding gilt from last years litter of piglets. She is the classic gorgeous orange/red coloring of a Tamworth and comes from excellent breed stock. She is the result of AI breeding and her sire is a champion Tamworth boar named Rusty. She will have her first litter of piglets this summer here at Stark Hollow Farm in Vermont and we will have some of these piglets for sale. Please inquire if interested in pure bred Tamworth breed stock.
The Tamworth is a heritage breed pig, listed with the American Livestock Conservancy as a Threatened breed.
The Tamworth is a heritage breed pig, listed with the American Livestock Conservancy as a Threatened breed.
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| Trinity - Stark Hollow Farm |
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| Dam - Brixia |
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| Sire - Rusty |
Fall Shearing of the Icelandic Sheep
Icelandic
fleeces come in
a wide variety of colors and are
prized by hand spinners. The 17 colors and patterns these beautiful
animals come in include
black, silvery black, blue to
lavender greys, silvery grey, whites, tans, beige, champagne, moorit
(the brown variations),
including deep dark mahogany reds,
rusty browns, strawberry blondes. The actual color genetics are a bit
more complicated,
but but these words give you an idea
of what to expect from the Icelandic sheep breed.
There are many wonder qualities of the Icelandic breed, but the colors and patterns are one of our favorite aspects of these natural colored sheep.
The Icelandic fleece is dual coated, with a fine, soft undercoat called thel and a longer, coarser outer coat called tog. Staple lengths on these fleeces regularly exceed 10".
We love shearing time, both in the spring and fall, when we get to see how the animals are doing. In the spring, we see how they have fared through the winter and during gestation, lambing and lactation and in the fall we evaluate how they have done through the summer on pasture.
This year, with the introduction of a more sophisticated mineral supplementation program, the flock is looking really great.
There are many wonder qualities of the Icelandic breed, but the colors and patterns are one of our favorite aspects of these natural colored sheep.
The Icelandic fleece is dual coated, with a fine, soft undercoat called thel and a longer, coarser outer coat called tog. Staple lengths on these fleeces regularly exceed 10".
We love shearing time, both in the spring and fall, when we get to see how the animals are doing. In the spring, we see how they have fared through the winter and during gestation, lambing and lactation and in the fall we evaluate how they have done through the summer on pasture.
This year, with the introduction of a more sophisticated mineral supplementation program, the flock is looking really great.
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