Meet the Sheep

Have you meet the sheep on the farm yet? First, meet MY sheep: his name is John and he is a ram lamb. I bought him at the flock and fiber festival from drumcliffe farm. He is a fantastic little ram and I think he will do his job well.

Infact, he spent all weekend next to the ewes at the festival and was feeling, um, hot blooded to say the least. When we got him to the farm and introduced him to the girls they all were stomping their hooves as if to say, "oh my! who is this?! just showing up?! harumph!" HE on the other hand started licking his lips (or actually tasting the air) and proceeded to chase them. Well, it was funny to watch him chasing the three ewes, and the confused llama chasing whoever! In the end, though, the yearling ewe felt things she never felt before and..um, shall we say they are boyfriend and girlfriend now?

Hunka hunka burnin' love

 It took a few days for the other two ewes to get used to him, but they seem to like him now.

One thing, though, is the ewe are very tame. That is okay with ewes, but John, as a ram, can NEVER be tamed. When rams are tame they are no longer afraid of humans, and that is when they start to hurt people. For now, I can pet Wilda when she comes up, but I cannot let myself pet John. He needs to always fear me, even when he is grow (just like a real son!)

So lets meet the sheep! (Meet, i said, not MEAT!)
 We have Wilda, the friendly sheep. She gets in my face when i have out the camera, she is also the one who will walk inside the house if you let her. Crazy sheep

Standing like the champion she isn't. Nice try!

 Then there is bright eyed Sparkles.She is very pretty and learning from her aunt Wilda how to beat up coyotes....sadly, they confuse my dog with a coyote sometimes. Anyway, Sparkles is Johns ewefriend. 

 Then, there is Sparkle's mom: Ariel. She's the one with crooked horns. She is also the most skiddish.

Now here is the fun part: the sheep are Jacobs sheep. This breed can have 1, 2 or ever 3 sets of horns. However, its kind of a crap shoot. All of these sheep had parents with 2 sets of horns, yet they all only have one set. John's sire had a total of 4 horns, his mom had 5 horns! And John? He has only two. Because all the sheep come from lines with multiple horns IF the gene skips a generation, or if it is recessive I have a good chance of getting at least a few (if not all) lambs with multiple sets of horns. Come spring we shall find out.

By the way, if you are interested in learning more about Jacobs then check out http://www.jsba.org/