Weaning the Rest

Last night we put the younger rams, 0004 and 0006, in with rams 0001 and 0002. Well, that didn't go well at all. The older rams, who really aren't much bigger, gave the younger rams no peace at all. The pounding was made all the more pitiful with the younger rams' crying for their flock. I knew I could never sleep worrying about them so we let the younger rams back in with the flock. 

This afternoon I decided to give it another try. But first I closed the older rams up in their outer pen. Then I decided to also put Clara and the two younger rams into the older rams indoor pen. I figured maybe the greater numbers would help with the scuffling. After the three younger lambs had been in the indoor pen for a while I let the older rams into the indoor pen and closed the door to the outside pen. I read that it is better to have rams get used to each other in a more confined space so they don't have as much force behind their battering.

Well, there was a good bit of posturing and head butting. But everything went so much better than last night. Here we are winding up:

Contact!

And after a good sniff of everyone's privates:

After nearly three hours the noise has finally died down. You would have thought we were torturing them before. I guess, in a way, we were!