The Girls Want to be With the Girls

This year's breeding groups are now a thing of the past.

Taking advantage of a lull in the wintery weather, Dan and I moved our three little ramboys into their "bachelor pad" and grouped all our placid, heavy-bellied ewes close to the barn.

If they were all fully grown, we would have to reintroduce the rams in a small stall with old tires or other obstructions on the floor so the couldn't build up enough force to clobber each other to death. As it was, we judged the three boys not much of a threat to each other. In no time, they were all buds again. And today, they celebrated their re-found hoodlum hood by breaking out of the ram pen and eating all the chicken feed in the coop! I chased them back in fairly easily and so far, they've shown no ill effects. In fact, they look quite satisfied with themselves.

The reintroduced ewes, on the other hand, hardly gave each other a second glance. Not even Copper, queen matriarch of our sheepy world, seemed to have much energy for squabbling.

We are expecting our first lambs towards the end of April. This is quite late owing to the time it took to build the shep shed back in November.

While the ewes are occupied with their daily treat of forage extender pellets mixed with grain, I've taken to reaching under those big bellies to check for udders (The ewes are not so keen about my feeling them up, but they'll put up with anything for a little grain.) Nothing yet, but they are looking quite wide, these girls.