It's That Time Again

It's time to put the Perry, the ram, with the ewes again. I could not do it without my assistant (above). (Tomorrow I will explain the dot on the forehead. For now just overlook it.)

I had somehow misplaced his ram shield and didn't want to put him with the ewes until I got another. It arrived in today's mail and we went to get everything ready. In case you didn't know, the ram shield is like the blinkers on a horse. On the ram it allows him to see to the side, but not to the front, thus making it difficult or almost impossible to head butt the ewes and possibly hurt them. Not all rams need one, but Perry gets a little aggressive if the girls are being less than cooperative.

Here's my assistant making sure everything is looking right.

Next comes the marking color. I have blue, green, and red. The color is applied to the area between his front legs. The color will be changed every 16 or 17 days (the sheep's cycle). If there is a mark on the sheeps' bottom then I know they've been bred and I can better estimate their due date.

Here he is all marked up and ready to go.

The ewes always freak out the first day he is with them. They just don't know what to think of the freak with the mask!

By tomorrow everything will be good and they'll be happy again.

Here's hoping for another great lamb crop in five or so months!