Rachel and her ewe flock had a little adventure last Friday... Bombarde had decided all of his ewes were bred so he busted out of the "girls" pen. He made his way to the round pen where Unicorn and his two ewes were and tried to bash his way in. Of course, Unicorn had to bash from his side of the horse panels. Kavan in the other round pen dented the fence up pretty good too. But everything held fast...thank goodness. This all happened after Clancy and I had left for work. When Clancy came home from the mill at lunch time, he encountered Rachel's ewe flock on Spur Corner. Spur Corner is a hairpin curve on our township road about a half mile from our house. Two old trails, Gotter's and Spur Road, cross there. If the girls had decided to get off the beaten path, they would have had several hundred acres of woods to explore. Fortunately, they weren't fond of the deep snow in the ditches so they were sticking to the plowed path. Clancy managed to herd them all the way home with his S-10. Dolce led the flock, Rachel brought up the rear, and Anna Belle, on high alert, pogo hopped all the way. Once back in the yard, the girls followed Clancy and his tub of grain nicely into the pen. Bombarde, on the other hand, was not to be distracted from his siege on the round pen. Clancy put him in the dog kennel and he demolished it before Clancy could finish lunch. On his way back to work, Clancy put Bombarde in the heavy duty sheep hauler we reunite rams in. There was a little too much space in it for one ram, though. Bombarde smashed that to bits too and escaped again. He was back to beating on Uni's pen when Clancy got home from work that night. So he was tossed in the smaller round pen with Kavan and Tormey. (At that point I don't think Clancy cared what happened to him, just so long as he didn't get out again.) The boys probably tussled a bit, but everyone was still healthy and alive the next morning. Today, Clancy and I put Unicorn's two ewes back in with the rest of the girls and we reunited all the rams. Our box for that had been demolished so we just sprayed them all down with perfume and put them in together. Kavan instantly knocked the little stub of his horn off, and he started bleeding. But that was the end of the fighting right there. Unicorn, with his impressive horns, is back to being top ram. Kavan, with a sore scull, will probably be on the bottom rung for a while. Bombarde and Tormey are in the middle, just trying to stay out of every one's way. Hopefully, we will have peace and quiet now until early April when lambing begins.
6 comments:
Oh boy...excitement for the holidays. I am petrified to think of what would happen if mine got out since we live by the highway and we also are in the middle of a bunch of S curves and hairpin corners. The speed limit is supposed to be 45 through that section due to the corners but most people don't go that slow. We have heavy duty wooden posts and heavy guage cattle panels around the entire perimeter, so any escapes only happen between inner pens and no one has ever made it to the highway. Yikes.
WOW. Lucky those girls didn't get a wild hair and go racing through the woods or further down a country road! Glad they are all ok. Those boys sure frustrate me too. Thank goodness mine aren't as 'adult' as yours are...they can't do as much damage :)
Oh my gosh, bad Bombarde! He sure has been giving you trouble. Honestly though, he never bashed things here -- until the day I drove him up to meet you in Grand Rapids. That was a very scary ride when he decided to start bashing the dog kennel inside the van.
I'm glad your boys are together again now, hopefully all the macho displays will be over. But I bet Clancy's ready to fill the freezer with lamb chops.
And Rachel! A half mile away? It's a good thing they stuck to the road and Clancy found them before they got hurt. You decription of Annabelle's return was so cute.
Rams will be rams. Considering what COULD have happened, we aren't too upset about Bombarde. He was just bored because all of the girls were bred. And the round pens are reinforced with no-climb horse fence so they are tough.
Hardly anyone ever drives on our township road. Clancy was more worried that coyotes or wolves would have gotten the ewes than a car. They would have had to go pretty far to get out to a highway.
I'm just glad the ewes weren't exposed to multiple rams and that everyone is in the right pen now.
The boys are more content now that they can assert their pecking order again. They really do prefer each other's company to the ewes after breeding is over. And the ewes seem happier without them too. The girls were romping around this evening. So fun to see them get wild like that. :)
I'll second (or third) the relief that all are well and add that had that been me ~ Bombard WOULD be in the freezer by now!! ;-) I admire your and Clancy's patience & tolerance. I also had to smile at the image of Anna Bell 'pogo-ing' home! I'm glad for you that all is once again peaceful in your little corner of the world...
Happy New Year
I guess there is no "peace on earth" when there are "rams in the land"!
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