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

[manybirds]

Pretty sheep!

Thanks!

sheepgirl,do you raise a particular breed of sheep or just mutts?

They're mutts

Ciqala is 1/2 Babydoll Southdown x 1/2 Montadale
Ali and her twin brother Billy are 3/4 Babydoll Southdown x 1/4 Montadale
Paulie, Katy Perry, and Lady Gaga are 5/8 Babydoll Southdown x 3/8 Montadale

thats ok mutts are the funnest and hardiest! there all very neat looking

 

[SheepGirl]

Pretty sheep!

Thanks!

sheepgirl,do you raise a particular breed of sheep or just mutts?

They're mutts

Ciqala is 1/2 Babydoll Southdown x 1/2 Montadale
Ali and her twin brother Billy are 3/4 Babydoll Southdown x 1/4 Montadale
Paulie, Katy Perry, and Lady Gaga are 5/8 Babydoll Southdown x 3/8 Montadale

thats ok mutts are the funnest and hardiest! there all very neat looking

haha, thanks

 

[SheepGirl]

It has been raining all day. The sheep are all muddy because they just love to lay in the line of the water coming out of the gutter. They are not the smartest animals!

But I got home from my orthodontist appointment at around 11:30 so I made some changes to their 'shelter.' As you all know, they're under my deck so obviously the 'roof' isn't solid. So I laid down a tarp on my deck over the ram pen and laid down some straw, so it's dry and warm for him. But of course, after all that, he decides to lay out in the rain

Then I put a piece of plywood on the stair landing where the door to our garage is to provide a solid roof for the ewes/wether/lambs. Then I put some straw down there and they're all huddled in there all warm and dry

Tomorrow it's supposed to be sunny and 80 so I will probably take the straw out and spread it all over the pen since the stairs is their favorite spot for keeping cool, and having the straw in there will probably get them too warm. And laying down on the dirt helps keep them cooler.

 

[Symphony]

Iowa State has an excellent Sheep program along with other Agricultural colleges. I didn't notice how young you are. Good luck on the college search and remember have FUN.

 

[SheepGirl]

Iowa State has an excellent Sheep program along with other Agricultural colleges. I didn't notice how young you are. Good luck on the college search and remember have FUN.

Thanks

 

[SheepGirl]

So I woke up this morning to my brother complaining one of my sheep was out of the pen. What?! So I looked out the window and I saw the 'gate' had been torn through So I raced into the garage, grabbed some grain, and proceeded to go outside. Lo and behold, it was BILLY. That darn ram. He escaped in January by going through a gate to breed my ewe and today he escaped by going through a gate (though I don't know what his intentions were). When I got there though he was just standing there with an "oh $h!t" look on his face...

He was real easy to get back in. Just had to have a lil bit of grain to lead him back in his pen. He will do anything for grain--it makes him real easy to handle because you can get him to do anything for you when he sees you have a bucket of grain. So then I tied the gate back up real tight--I even double tied it and double knotted it. Then I went and got the ewes some hay and I got Billy a flake of hay and put it in there for him. Then I started filling up their water and I see him start to escape again. He made it halfway under the gate by the time I got over there and then he really started scurrying out of his pen. I grabbed him, straddled him in between my legs while I untied the gate (ughh why did I tie it so much?) and sent him back in. So now I know HOW he escapes I decided to outsmart him and I put a ladder and a roll of fencing in front of the gate Unfortunately I will have to move it every time I will need to go in his pen (to give him hay and to refill his minerals).

After I put up the ladder and fence roll, he came over and checked it out and tried messing with it to see what he could do with it. Well I guess he had a little devious plan because he went and strutted over to his hay and started eating it and I went inside and watched him from our family room window. I saw him munching on the hay, then he realized I was gone, he looked around, and he ran over to the gate, and tried to knock the ladder over Thankfully the ladder is a real heavy ladder he wasn't able to move An hour later, it is still standing strong...let's see if it will hold up over the day lol.

And this morning when my ewes saw me with the grain they were running around and jumping. I guess they thought I'd start feeding them grain 2x a day I give them hay in the morning and grain in the evening, sprinkled on top of the hay still left in the feeder. It keeps them occupied for a good 1-2 hours trying to pick out the grain from the hay.

 

[BrownSheep]

Cement blocks work awfully well for animals that like to go under things

 

[SheepGirl]

That is actually a really great idea, BrownSheep! We have some cinder blocks laying around so I will move a couple over there.

 

[elevan]

Cement blocks work awfully well for animals that like to go under things

x2 on that!

One of my previous bucks was adept at squeezing under impossibly small spots too.

 

[SheepGirl]

I just went out and took a bunch of pictures. Here's a small sample...enjoy

Paulie is growing gray rings around his ears. I have found this to be common in natural colored Babydolls and Babydoll crosses.

Katy Perry has the 'classic' Southdown face. Though I'm pretty sure she's going to be a wool blind ewe due to the type of wool growing around her eyes

Butttt Lady Gaga has a crossbred face to her and she just looks goofy. The white dot on her nose has disappeared a bit, but she still has the black dot on her ear!

This is Ali and Lady Gaga. Ali looks like a kangaroo in this picture. Ali is the twin sister to KP and LG's sire (Billy) and the daughter of KP and LG's dam (Ciqala), making her her aunt/maternal half sister.