SheepGirl's Journal - Photos of the sheep 4/25

[SheepGirl]

I have plenty more pictures of all the different critters, but I asked my mom what she did with my camera cord and she couldn't remember :/ So it may be a couple (more) days!

But the bison was nice in the beginning, but in the last week or two, one of my co-workers, Judy (the funniest girl ever) was doing something with the hay feeder in the field and Cody (the bison) cornered her there and swinging his 200 lb head around her so she was hitting him to get him away and since then Cody held a grudge against her (and me for some reason) but the lady that raised him (my boss) still had complete control over him lol. Apparently he used to be a show bison, too. But my boss she's able to yell all the way across the farm "Cody, stop it!" and he listens! She's done it a couple times haha. But Cody is afraid of Red Bull, the big Brahma steer, so whenever we had to go in and open/close gates, we would always have Red Bull escort us. And actually the last time Judy went in there Cody was blocking her from going back through the gate and Red Bull came over and protected her (he just walked up knowing she needed a body guard, which was pretty cool) and walked her to the other gate on the other side of the field and kept Cody away, even though he was tailing them.

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My uncle that helped us build our fence is coming up with his boy scout troop tonight and they will be camping out in our side yard. There will be 16 teenage boys here Luckily they won't be in my house unless they need to shower or use the bathroom! (I hope they don't pee in my grass, since we don't have any trees on that side...) But anyway we live 45 min to an hour away from Washington, D.C. and Gettysburg so they will be going there and doing tours and everything. My only concern is that they are camping right next to my sheep so I hope the tents don't scare them and they don't feed my sheep anything! But hopefully being boy scouts they know better than to feed the "wildlife." I don't know if my one cousin will be doing boy scout stuff or if she and I will get to hang out and go to the mall or the movies or something...or find something nice to do. 'Cause I only work 5 hours on Saturday and I have off on Sunday

 

[jodief100]

Very nice pics! I love the bison!

We have my stepson's scout troop out once a year, they will be hear in two weeks. They are very good about following the rules, you just have to tell them. The "city kids" do not always know the basic rules of farms. Such as "don't feed the sheep".

 

[SheepGirl]

The guys at work are so funny. Especially the Spanish guys that work the night shift in the grill. They are always like "What's your name? How old are you?" (I'm 16. JK I'm 18 but still you're too old for me ) And it's just like do you not remember the first time I told you? hahaha And two of them are like "Do we look alike? Who's more handsome?" It's like if you both look alike then wouldn't you both be equally handsome? And then the teenage guys, my age or a year or 2 younger and older (from what I was told) have a bet to see who can get my number first. It's just kinda like ummmm.... lol But I have to admit, some of them are pretty cute. Others....ehhh. lol

Oh and tonight I came home from work and my mom was like "We're building a barn in the next couple of weekends and you have to pay for part of it." So yeahhh! (Except the part where I have to pay lol) BUT because I get to pay for part of it, my mom said there really is no size limit (of course when I said 16x24 she kind of rolled her eyes! ). But I have to come up with exactly how much space I need & how I want to lay everything out. I know I want 2 permanent lambing jugs/"sick sheep" pens, a chute along the long side where I can put my scale and have a two way sorting gate to have the sheep go either back to the rest of the barn or up into a loading chute, and a space for a feed/storage pen. Plus I want to have one or two pens on the outside to use as a drylot or a space to put my ram or feed out some lambs. Currently I'm trying to think of what my neighbor had in his barns that I liked or would like to improve upon...so I'm going through the different seasons (breeding, shearing, lambing, maintenance, etc) figuring out how we handled different management tasks and what we used. What my neighbor had was pens throughout the barns with gates in the front and going to different pens, and that's how I would catch my sheep. So I have to figure out if that's what I want to do or just have a big 'loose' area. Decisions, decisions...and I have to make them quick since I have a week or two! (So if you have any suggestions/advice/ideas...feel free to throw them at me )

But anyway the Boy Scout troop is here. Yipeeee......off to go tell them the rules with my sheep & the outdoor kitties. And my mom can tell them everything else.

 

[Bridgemoof]

Wow so exciting about the barn! That's so fantastic! And that you get to design it just how you want, that's really cool.

Let us know how the boy scouts went, that sounds like fun! I hope your sheep aren't scared. They probably will get NO sleep because the boy scouts were probably up all night.

 

[SheepGirl]

Well my mom took down my sheep pens Saturday. That made me really mad because now I have no pens should I need to separate a sheep real quick (like for maybe an emergency or something). She said I could put the pens back up out in the field. And I'm like, so what's their shelter?! She's like 'they don't need one' -- she's probably right but I would still want to have one in the pens because it's better in case our neighbor reports us to animal control (they've done it once before, when we "weren't able to control our barn/outdoor cats from going into her OPENED garage and peeing in there"). ughh.

anywayy....the boy scout troop left this morning. they took a liking to our pool table and ms. pac man machine in our basement and then they all fell asleep in our tv/media room last night and then they got yelled at this morning

but anyway my mom said yes to a 16x24 barn! Sooo I think I have the layout I want but my mom said it's an inefficient use of space. So IDK. What do you think? I know I may need to redesign it because we are having the posts 8' a part (like my neighbor's barn) so I may need to adjust the size of my feed/storage area to make it easy to construct.

My whole idea behind it is that I can use the pens as lambing jugs/sick sheep stalls plus I can herd the sheep in there and funnel them into the chute where in the scale area I can also vaccinate, deworm, tag, etc. Then there is a 2-way gate...they can go either to the loading chute or they can go back out into the barn...where during shearing, they're caught as they come out and are sheared/have their hooves trimmed. (When we sheared at my neighbor's we'd have all of them in a pen in the masonry barn and I was responsible for catching the next sheep and moving it out into the shearing pen...I get tired of it real quick, especially when the pen thins out! ) Then with my feed/storage area, I planned it so I have enough room for 2 round bales and then I want to put a shelf 5'-5.5' off the ground and put ~10 straw bales up there. (High enough off the ground so I can walk under when there are no round bales under it.) Plus enough room to store feed & minerals. Right now I have all my sheep supplies/equipment in an old dresser in my garage, so that's just going to move out there. Then the creep feed area is just temporary and only up when I need it. The 4' and 6' panel I will need to put out will be put in the storage area when not in use.

I still don't know where the door(s) is going to be or how big it's gonna be...or even where we're going to put the barn(!) so all of this is just tentative.

 

[Alice Acres]

Congrats on your new barn!

The 1st thing that jumped out at me, oddly, was the hay feeder. It should either be moved, or flipped 90 degrees. The way it's placed, it doesn't give enough space for feeding; and with your door and loading chute out that way, it will either get beat up, rammed into, or create big headaches over time with the flow of the sheep.

I've lifted too many bales of hay and straw to even consider a shelf 5 feet in the air to store straw. I'm all for using vertical space, but that just wouldn't work for me....plus I'm kinda' short. I would consider it for storage though - especially seasonal stuff - lambing supplies, shears, etc.

I like your little corner with lambing pens, chutes, scale etc. I can see that working (I was mentally running my sheep through it.) I don't know what your plans are, will 2 pens be enough? You may need a designated ram pen, if more than 2 lamb simultaneously, if you have sick ones, etc.

One thing we inherited with our barn, is a mounted cabinet on one wall. It's not huge - think like a medicine cabinet type box - and it's right inside the main pen area. It's high enough up on the wall that it is out of range of stock (even when we had steers in there), and little nosy people too. We keep some well used supplies in there, so they are at hand and don't need to go out of the animal pen area to get them. I can't claim credit for it, but we use it and love it.

Is there another door to the outside, or just the loading chute? No pasture access?

Keep it coming!

 

[SheepGirl]

The 1st thing that jumped out at me, oddly, was the hay feeder. It should either be moved, or flipped 90 degrees. The way it's placed, it doesn't give enough space for feeding; and with your door and loading chute out that way, it will either get beat up, rammed into, or create big headaches over time with the flow of the sheep.

I just put that hay feeder there to make it look like non-wasted space to my mom But I do have a small hay/grain feeder that would fit perfectly in that area, giving about 3' all around. And if it doesn't work then I will just drag it out into the open area. And with the two way gate I was thinking of moving it before the sheep gets moved out of the scale area, so it won't get damaged.

I've lifted too many bales of hay and straw to even consider a shelf 5 feet in the air to store straw. I'm all for using vertical space, but that just wouldn't work for me....plus I'm kinda' short. I would consider it for storage though - especially seasonal stuff - lambing supplies, shears, etc.

I wanted to have the shelf to be able to save space and also keep my hay as dark as possible so it doesn't get too exposed to the sun and get sun bleached. I'm short too (5'3") Do you think a 2-step step stool would make it easier? I know our straw bales are really light (35ish lbs) and I won't be using much straw (probably less than 20 bales a yr because I like dirt floors the best and so do my sheep).

I like your little corner with lambing pens, chutes, scale etc. I can see that working (I was mentally running my sheep through it.) I don't know what your plans are, will 2 pens be enough? You may need a designated ram pen, if more than 2 lamb simultaneously, if you have sick ones, etc.

I think two pens will be enough. Due to the amount of pasture we have, I only imagine I would ever have 10-15 ewes here. This year I only have four ewes, but I'm going to be expanding every year until I reach my limit (or I move out ). What my neighbor did and what I plan on doing is only using the lambing jugs for young ewes (up to 3-4 yrs old)...my old ewe is a pro and a good mom so I'm not going to put her in a jug at all. I was thinking of having the ram use my current sheep shelter (the little 8x8x4' tall building we built) and then having a dry lot or a little bit of pasture. But I don't think I would let the ram use the barn unless he was in there during breeding.

One thing we inherited with our barn, is a mounted cabinet on one wall. It's not huge - think like a medicine cabinet type box - and it's right inside the main pen area. It's high enough up on the wall that it is out of range of stock (even when we had steers in there), and little nosy people too. We keep some well used supplies in there, so they are at hand and don't need to go out of the animal pen area to get them. I can't claim credit for it, but we use it and love it.

Good idea! I was thinking of getting a shallow cabinet, too. But what I'm using now is a dresser...but I'm just worried it will get disorganized quickly because of how deep the drawers are!

Is there another door to the outside, or just the loading chute? No pasture access?

There will be a door to the outside, but I don't know where it's going to be quite yet...mainly because I don't know where the barn is going to be. My mom wants it in the field, but I want it outside of the field so I don't lose any grass since I'm limited on it anyway lol. But my mom wants to use her salvaged doors she picked up on the side of the road destined for the dump, and have them slide, but I really don't want to use them at all because I think they're ugly. And they're not big enough IMO, from what I remember. I haven't seen them in a couple years, though. They've been hiding in our shed

But I want two 4' doors in the center that slide out to the side. They will likely stay open 24/7. I may also put two 4' gates there so I can also lock my sheep in there without closing the doors. And I also want doors I can open to make putting hay in there easy. But symmetry and visual appearance is VERY important to my mom so I'm not sure how I can make the back wall look nice considering I need a door on the feed/storage side.

Thanks for your thoughts & input, Alice!!

 

[SheepGirl]

Okay, here's my updated plan, taking into consideration Alice's points.

Pretty much the same layout except I made the pens 4x5 instead of 5x5 and I made the feed/storage area 8x8. I also moved the creep area in between the pens and the feed/storage area and I also put the chute going down so the 2 way gate won't get damaged. The gate leading out into the loose area of the barn from the chute will stay closed unless in use. This layout also enables me to put the 8x8 area below the feed/storage area to use (ie separate it) while still having enough room for ~10 ewes.

I think the creep area will be permanent and I will just make 4' of the wall exposed to the loose area a creep gate and then I can put a piece of wood halfway down the openings to make it impossible to go through so that way I can put maybe multiple ewes in there with their lambs? It's only 32.5 sq ft so maybe not....maybe I can put 4 feeder lambs in there instead or maybe use it to wean lambs and keep them in there for 1-2 wks. Then maybe I can plan my lambing season to have groups lambing 1-2 wks a part so the lambs have enough space (because if my eventual 10-15-ewe flock has 20-30 lambs that's less than 2 sq ft/lamb! so maybe 5-10 lambs will fit better). but then the lambs who are to be weaned won't have access to their creep area...hmmm. maybe I will use that extra 8x8 space for weaning lambs? hmmm. kind of thinking out loud here lol

Better? Worse?

 

[SheepGirl]

FOUND MY CAMERA CORD!

I asked my mom again where it was and she said to check the computer desk. Lo and behold it was there!

Pictures coming soon...

 

[SheepGirl]

I'm going to organize these photos by species...warning--there are a LOT!

Small Animals

Rex Buck

Guinea Pig

Cattle

Brown Swiss First-Calf Heifer

She lays down in the stanchion when she's bored/doesn't want to be milked by little kids

Brownie, the Jersey bull calf

Red Bull (Brahma Steer) and Samantha (Angus Heifer)

Red Bull

The Angus heifer, Bison, and Brahma steer

Samantha

Red Bull and Cody

Holstein steer (~6 months old) and Holstein heifer (~4 months old)

Equines

Di the pregnant Donkey

Reba, a Belgian mare

Muffin Man, a Miniature horse

Fancy, a Quarter Horse

Hogs

Baby boar

Baby pigs (with Bacon, the bottle baby in the middle)

Sow and baby pigs sleeping on a heating pad

Baby pig

Bacon, the bottle pig. He is only a day younger than the other pigs but he came from a litter of 18. And his mom stepped on his foot. So he was moved to this litter, even though he has to be bottle fed.

Helga

Baby pigs

Cuddled up on a cold night. We put extra bedding in there to keep them warm

Most nights we would take one panel off of the farrowing crate so the sow can get more bedding since it gets cold at night. In the mornings, we'd find her like this, anxious to be fed. Definitely scary as she tried to bite us for her food!

Boarris, the Hamp boar. Sorry for the blurry picture.

Baby pigs attack me when I open the panel for the sow

Look at how much they grew! I felt bad for the sow having huge babies attacking her udder lol

Bacon got smushed

Peanut and Butter, 4 mo potbelly gilts

Jelly, a Razorback gilt -- she was such a biter when she got ready for the pig races!

Llamas & Alpacas

Speckles, Dandy's mom

The three alpacas. The white one has a neurological issue where if she runs she will fall over. So she was always easy to catch and handle. The two black ones were total (female dogs) and soured my experience with alpacas. Never will I own one. I love llamas, though!

The momma alpaca and her newborn cria

Newborn cria

All dried off and perkier

Poultry

The mean goose

An emu

Turkeys

A turkey

Tom

Closeup

A rooster

This turkey always wandered outside the pen and then it would try all day, every day to get back in the pen.

Turkey

Yet another turkey

Another rooster

Sheep & Goats

Ewe with one of her twins (the smaller one) and another ewe's lamb

I think this one here was the prettiest goat they had

Hanging out around the hay feeder

The Jacob x Dorset ewe again

The sheep chillin out

Cookie the goat

Sheep & emus

Sheep, goats, & geese

The new buck. To be honest I didn't think he smelled bad. He smelled like wet straw.

Baby goats (the animal manager, my boss, said they were pygmies)

Katahdin ram with Will the donkey jack

"Wild" Animals

The wallaby (left) and kangaroo (right)

The zebras, Zimba and Ziggy.

Skippy, the very old red deer.

Smile!