Happy Grazing Sheep

The electric fencing is getting better.  We moved the ewes to a plot of land at the front of our property and spread it out further so that they had more room.  They made about 4 or 5 escape attempts yesterday, but today there was only the one and it was a ram.  It's now 3:00 in the afternoon and there hasn't been any since.  As a matter of fact when I looked out my window, this is what I saw.

They look pretty content to me.

Ivy Shows What She's Got

Today I let the new ewes outside along with the old ewes.

But before we did, we spent most of the morning setting up the electric fence behind the barn for them.

But somewhere along the way I did something wrong because there was no electricity getting to the line.  The sheep looked pretty content inside the fence so I felt safe to leave them long enough to go inside and youtube instructions and see where I went wrong.  Not fifteen minutes later as I was sitting in the office at my computer, I noticed something in my peripheral vision outside the bay window facing the front of our property.  It was my sheep.

Any other occassion this wouldn't panic me.  Ivy and I have worked together enough now that she knows that the end goal is to gather the sheep, get them behind me and walk them back to the barn.  But we have never worked with the new sheep.  They were older, bigger and probably smarter than me and Ivy.  After all Ivy is still a young pup just learning to herd.  She's still a kindergartner when it comes to herding.  And our small flock are small and weak, a fairly easy practice herd for a young sheepdog. But not those new girls, they were bigger and braver and would probably laugh in young Ivy's face.

But not owning any other herd dog, I grabbed Ivy and ran outside.  Just as we did, the new girls came running after our original ewes who had been the sheep I saw in the window.  The two herds were separated and couldn't see each other.  Thinking a small group would be easier for Ivy than a larger one, I immediately shouted my commands at her and she flew after the new and bigger ewes.

The above photo is actually not of Ivy herding the sheep but of her playing with the other dogs.  I never have a camera on me when there is something actually noteworthy to photograph.  But anyway, I digress, the new ewes didn't know what to think of Ivy as they had never been herded before.  They had only ever lived in a yard pen before.  Ivy sensed their confusion and came to a standstill in front of the leader of the herd and stared her down hard.  The sheep turned and bolted in the opposite direction.  I knew Ivy had gained their fear.  So I shouted my commands once more and she did as she always does except this time with a group of strange sheep she'd never herded before and did a top notch job of collecting them and bringing them back to the barn for me.  I was so happy and pleased with her but had no time to celebrate as we still had seven sheep on the run back at the front of the house.  We took after them and easy-peasy she herded them up and drove them back to the barn.  After latching the stall pen behind them I turned to her and lavished her with so much praise.  Probably not the thing to do with a working dog but I didn't care.  I was so proud of her.  And super glad we never let Oldest sell her because I couldn't do this shepherding thing without her.

Replacement Ewes

With our ewes failing to reproduce this year, I didn't want to waste a year of increasing our flock so went out and bought some replacement ewes.  We don't own a trailer and I didn't want to spend the cost of renting one so built a livestock box for the back of our pickup instead.

Of all days to pick them up it was cold and wet and raining.  Thankfully though the farm wasn't too far.  I had been communicating with the woman of the house but it was actually her husband who greeted us.  He and their friendly pooch who wanted me to play fetch with anything she could find on the ground.  The sheep were penned in a paddock with a herd of goats and a ram.  Though the ram looked big and mean, he was actually quite friendly and didn't give us any trouble.  The farmer was also super friendly and went above and beyond trying to chase down the sheep we pointed out.  Actually it became quite comical after a while.  But eventually, he wrangled 6 ewes into our tiny livestock box.  I thought it would have plenty room but these ladies are huge!  

We had fun trying to squeeze them through the small door but once all inside off for home we went.  My makeshift livestock box held up

And we were able to keep an eye on the girls (who could also watch us) to see if any stressed or tried to break free.

The only casualty we had was on this one ewe and it happened before we left when the farmer tagged her ear and accidently missed and had to tag her twice.  There was a lot blood.

But the bleeding eventually stopped thanks in part I'm sure to the cold and rain.  In Ontario it is illegal for sheep to leave your farm without having their ears tagged.  When we arrived home we had the task of unloading the ewes and there was no strong and determined male farmer around to help.  I backed the truck as far into the barn as I could and then began unloading.

They didn't come out willingly.  Or at least the first four.  They were pulled, yanked, tugged until finally pushing through that small opening like a new born calf out of it's mamma's womb.  The last two ewes we decided to send Farm Girl in and push from behind.  However, the moment she entered their small space, they went flying for the door.  Needless of the fact they didn't fit.  The sight had us laughing all over again.  The biggest, fattest charged for the door came shooting through like a stuffed bullet and proceeded to somersault over the tailgate.  Oye!  The last ewe was much smaller and flew through and down to the stall in no time flat.  At last my ewes were all home, safe and sound.

I'm super pleased with them.  They are all HUGE, much bigger than my own flock and will make great breeders.  They all are already proven breeders and have just weaned lambs.  I am super excited for next years breeding season.

Baaaad

We got a new ewe that I am super pleased with.

Needless of the fact they had named her Bad.

Yes, that was the name they had given her and naturally I wondered what I had brought home.  But she is far from bad.

A bit skittish of course but she'll eventually get use to everyone.  We took her out with the rest of the girls to pasture today and we anticipated a cat and mouse chase.

But she fell in line with the flock nicely.

And even went into the outdoor pen perfectly when herded by Ivy and two novice shepherdesses.

I think we are doing alright.  And Bad?  She got a new name.  Beth.

Hmm

After Dark Carmella gave birth to a stillborn she was left with a retained placenta.

We waited for her to pass it on her own naturally but by the second day, it had not come out.  It did however come out more to the point it touched the ground.

Wanting her to pass it naturally, we decided against administering oxytocin and instead administered 10cc of Penicillin to prevent any infections on the second day and on the third day it finally came off.  Actually, Farm Girl pulled it out.  You are not suppose to pull a retained placenta out especially that many days after birth since the cervix has closed and who knows what damage you can do, but I told her to give it a try but don't tug, simply see if it is just sitting there.  Sure enough, she barely gave it a tug and it popped out of her vulva.

Dark Carmella has been eating and drinking fine and not showing any stress from having the retained placenta in her for three days.  She is running and hopping around outside just like all the other ewes.  However, last night when I made a last check of the night on them I noticed something on the back of her leg.

It looks like more of her placenta or yet another mucous discharge.  I lifted her tail to check her vulva and everything likes nice and healthy there.

I hummed and hawed about taking some milk and colostrum from her still full udder to freeze for emergency backup on any other births, but since I really have no idea why the baby lamb was born deformed, I decided not to in fear there may be some disease present.

Spring Run

After months of being housed in the barn over winter, the ewes romp around stretching their legs.

First Birth and Death

WARNING:  Graphic photos are in this post.  Please do not read on if this will disturb you.




Dark Carmella gave birth about an hour ago to a stillborn.  I will assume it was stillborn as I wasn't actually there to witness it.

It was born very small, the same size as my foot.

It was also born with a deformed jaw.

It was either born this way or it has been chewed on.  It looks chewed to me but have never read anywhere where the mother eats her stillborns.

Dark Carmella still has her placenta hanging from her vulva so we are waiting to see if she passes it on her own or if we need to administer some oxytocin.

As you can imagine, we are very, very disappointed.  We were so excited that we had one confirmed pregnancy only to loose it to death prematurely.  We are keeping a close eye on the other lambs and cross our fingers for healthier births.

First Outing

I let the sheep out for the first time today since winter.  I allowed Ivy to chase them around the barn to exercise what she had already learned as well as exercise her physically.  It couldn't hurt the ewes either as they had been cooped up for several months.

Or at least I thought so.

While I was attempting to take photos of Dark Carmella's udder to post on this blog I noticed a white mucous hanging from her vulva.

It's hard to see it in the above photo.  Here's another attempt.

Not sure if it from the stress of running around or the beginning of her aborting the lamb as she doesn't look far enough along to actually give birth.  I will be keeping a watchful eye on her.

Meanwhile, I wasn't very successful in capturing her developing udder but this was the best shot I got today.

But I did get some nice photos of the ewes enjoying their time outside.