Herd Dynamics

 Wilda, you remember: the friendly one, has been full of rushing motherly hormones as of late. Tuesday she was away from the group bowlegged and wide-eyed, her udders full and ready to feed. The next day she was relentless in her attempts to steal Sparkle's baby, apperently chasing them across the field and crawling on her knees. Shawn had to wrestle with her and got her locked away in the pen. All was thought to be good until he saw she had gotten the lamb in the pen with her! WTF?! Finally at 2 in the afternoon she gave birth to two lambs.  Again, they were considerate waiting until Shawn had a day off work to give birth.

 

 

 

Hello!

 

A boy and a girl! Strangely, though, Wilda then broke away from the rest of the sheep and decided to take her lambs over to the "trailer parking lot." Somehow she got the newborns up on a trailer bed and spent the night parked over there. That wasn't a problem because it as a safe place for her to sleep: elevated off the ground, blocked by a dense thicket on two sides. It was the other sheep, however, that were difficult to round up for bed. See, normally they follow Wilda who is more than happy to chase the grain can. The other sheep are more skiddish, and they like to sleep by the fence the coyotes run up and down, and we arn't risking loosing the lamb to coyotes! So my darling dear and I herded the sheep in the dark around the field. We almost got them in the area we wanted when the llama spooked and made them run every which direction while matronly Wilda looked on.


We got the lamb and her mom in the orchard for the night which is safe.

This morning when I wen't to greet Wilda and her new ones everyone else can by to say hi.

Zzzzzzz.....

As for Ross-anna?

She had gotten BIG in two weeks! Almost time for her to enjoy playmates! Expecting our final sheep to birth today or tommorrow.

Wilda is being skiddish around the other sheep, probably expecting them to steal her babies like she tried to steal theirs. Hopefully she will be back with the other sheep soon, they at least are trying to be near her. But right now she is much calmer and has a stoic motherly look on her face not flinching when the babies pull on her teats. The boy has good markings and already big horn nubbins. I think he will make a good sire, so I'm inclined to keep him intact. We will see, though.