Sheep Updates

Lots of sheepy updates from the past couple days. Saturday morning I found Moose in with the rams. She went through two sets of electric fence and a stream to get there. She looked very happy and Elwood had definitely claimed her.
Sunday we took Rufus up to his new home so we moved everybody around. Moose went into a breeding group with Mercer, Mama and Ruthie. And Elwood's new girlfriends are Hazel, Clara and Chloe. Rufus and Clementine were put into a small stall together (Clementine would ride up with Rufus for company and then be the quarantine buddy for the new ewe lamb we swapped for Rufus.) That left Salem and Hiram to hang out in the barn. I decided to keep the young ones away from the commotion of breeding.  I am pretty certain that Elwood bred Moose on Saturday and Ruth was marked by Mercer's red crayon this morning. It's hard to believe that lambing will be coming around before we know it.

So here is our new ewe lamb, Della.

She has lovely fleece, just need to get a coat on her! She is adjusting well and getting along just fine with Clementine. She has been sniffing my hand and doesn't run away from me when I am feeding her. She will let me pick hay off her fleece while she is eating.

The Rams Meet Matilda

The rams are sporting their new Matilda sheep coats.

This summer I bought a few Matilda coats and liked them a lot, so I bought more. Mercer hasn't had a coat all summer because the only one I had that fit him was black. The poor guy would have been way too hot in a black coat with the record high temps we had this summer. The Matilda coats are a shiny almost reflective silver nylon that seems much better in heat. Hazel is always warm and has been much more comfortable in her silver coat.
Of course now the rams have to check each other out and have been slightly working out their dominance issues again. Thankfully they are just pushing against each other and licking their tongues at each other. They have been smelling the ewes and are getting anxious to start breeding. Soon guys, soon.

Elwood v Mercer

About a week ago my daughter told me she found Mercer, our bigger ram, stuck in the calf hutch with the door up against the fence. Saturday afternoon I found him again stuck in the calf hutch. He was making a very soft, deep baa (more of a growl) and standing, very patiently, looking out.

Once I pulled the hutch away from the fence he still kept looking out the back window.

I have to blame Elwood for Mercer's predicament. Elwood loves to head butt the calf hutch and must have been bashing it with Mercer inside. Hopefully, Mercer has learned to stay out of the hutch when Elwood is being "rammy."

The Meeting of the Rams

Today was a big day for Mercer and Elwood. We've had Mercer now for five weeks and he has been as healthy as a horse. So, quarantine is over and it's time to meet Elwood. First we had to take away his quarantine buddy, Mama Sadie. He was not happy to see her leave! But as soon as we brought Elwood down to his pen he became very quiet and still. And Elwood locked his eyes onto Mercer and stared. It wasn't too difficult to get Elwood into the little pen with Mercer, just a little shoving. For the next day or two they will be confined to the run-in, which is about 5x7 feet. This small space allows for the rams to push and shove each other around but they can't get a running start and really ram the other.

They seemed to be adapting very well. After a few hours they were both just sniffing a lot. Hopefully this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.