Ram Wrestle

What does a homeschool kid do on his down time?  Why, wrestle young rams of course!

Finally!

After weeks of trying to get the sheep to stay inside the horse pasture and graze, today I found them doing just that.  It was so rare that I literally ran back to the house to get the camera to document the moment.  Usually some will graze while others find ways of escaping.  When you have even just one nervous ewe, you have a flighty flock.  So for weeks they would go in only to stand around crying out along the fence line until they planned an escape.  Not sure what was so different for today, but there they were.  Happy, content and grazing.

Naughty Ewes

There's something wrong with this picture.

I bet you think there is nothing wrong, that it is a nice tranquil photo of sheep grazing in a hilly pasture.  Wrong.  That is my horse's pasture trying to grow so that the horse's will have some grass over the summer; and that's my sheep and goats in the horse pasture where they don't belong or are allowed.  I spent most of the day chasing the little ones out.  My replacement older ewes stayed out of the horse's pasture but I think that is because they are too big and fat to fit under the fence whereas my much smaller ewes squeeze through.  If I don't get these girls contained properly, I will be forced to have no other choice but to pen them indoors, in a stall.  Not at all what I want to do.

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.