So Trickster is coping well in his new environment. However, Lothario aka Harry has broken a horn. It's hard to not look at the sheep in the backyard as I leave to go outside, there they are. What I saw, I would only believe because I saw.. Charity, probably tired of being chased around by the boys put a stop to it by flipping Harry onto his side. It was quick, a cloud of snow from him falling made it all the more spectacular and it took a few seconds for me to register what just took place.Very odd indeed!
So a little later as I am touring to check on water-I do this frequently in winter as it freezes and these guys don't have a heated tank, I see Harry doing laps around the shelter with his head tilted. Oh no! Not this polio thing again!! And then I see blood and his horn bent close to his head. Holy Crow! Did the ewe do this or rather the impact from her flipping him?? Here I thought rams were dangerous!! Sure enough the poor boy has a broken horn and man, do they bleed out! Lots of blood vessels involved. The good thing is that it was cold and very little chance of bugs getting into the wound attracted by blood. Then the weather got colder and the blood was frozen to the side of his head. The boy is fine now. I keep monitoring but I do call him "Dirty Harry " now...
The day before yesterday, the big rams broke out. It happened shortly after the morning feeding. I was walking past the barn with some water for the turkeys and I heard the sound of something moving from within the barn. Sounds much different than chickens make.. I pushed the door open to see the boys, Magnus and Liam playing around in their old pen that I should be cleaning but with all the wind recently makes it impossible to pile anywhere. Liam decide to bash on one of the doors and Magnus was just taking it all in.. After 30 mins of trying to coax them back into their pen, I shut the door,had breakfast and then woke my son and told not asked to come help me put the rams away.My patience with them is waning as it is with my son. At least they were contained in the barn. It's breeding season and one has to keep this in mind when dealing with these displays of behavior.
So dear son went right into the pen where they were. I warned my son about them taking runs at him but he knew and he said: If he even tries to, I'll just flip the bas___! No fear at all. He's tall and big so towered over them, I told him to bend his elbows-makes it look like he has large horns. My son moved slowly towards them and then they took off to where they were supposed to be. Shut the gate, locked it and checked it again and that was that! Took but a few minutes.
In conclusion, rams have been proving to be a pain in the butt. There is something to be said about renting one but OSMA does not find this to be a safe practice due to bio-security...I will leave that topic for now. AI is a bit tricky..maybe no more rams ? But then someone knew someone who is expecting border collies in Feb.came to my attention. That might work!
So now I am waiting to hear from a friend who has trained dogs and had different breeds of herding dogs to hear what she has to say,the pitfalls, what to look for and not make the same mistakes as she did..
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