Shortest Breeding Season

The last post was about breeding season that started for us on October 3. A week ago, only 24 days later, I called it quits (almost). I had five breeding groups and one non-breeding group. I get tired of feeding hay to all these different groups especially when there is still green feed in the pasture. But mostly I get tired of the rams tearing up the fences. Also, Hug a Sheep Day was the next day and two groups would cause trouble with that. The young ram, Clark was in the most accessible (to visitors) pen and I don't trust him if someone stands right at the fence. In addition I thought that we might need to park behind the barn and that's where Buster's group was. Time to be done with all these groups. I decided that Axle would get to remain with the ewes in case someone had not been bred and Peyton could keep his ewes for another few days. But that meant that Buster, Cayenne, Clark, and Spark (who had not been given ewes) would be back together. I brought the groups in one at a time and separated the rams. That's Buster in the pen. His nose is already bloody because he was ramming the panel to try to get to Axle, the young 2-horn ram in the middle of the photo.Most of the ewe flock was back together now and that was Clark's lucky day! That's him in the background with his head turned away.Meanwhile the other four rams went into their "buddy-up" pen. The point of this is that they are confined enough that they can't do much damage. That doesn't mean that they don't hit each other but at least they can't back up 10 feet and come charging.After a few days of learning to be buddies again they went back to the ram pen with minimal fuss. They all had figured out the pecking order. Cayenne (above) is #2.Cayenne. I love a nice two horn head.This is Spark, Cayenne's full brother, born this year. There is the difference a year makes. Cayenne was born last year.Brothers.Bide a wee Buster is #1 in the ram pen.Buster is 3 years old and Clark is his son from this year. Bookends?Here's the lucky ram who gets to stay out with the ewes for another few weeks. This is Axle, also a 2018 ram. He is wearing a blue marker......and I finally saw some real color. This is ewe lamb, Soprano.Today I moved most of Peyton's ewes back to the flock. Three of them were the Pope Valley sheep that came this summer, and they immediately found their two friends. That's the five or them in the front. Large Triangle, 4-Horn, Small Triangle, White Ear, and Crooked Blaze in the back. (They do have names but I remember them better by what I called them at first.)