Monday, March 05, 2007

Cram-penned!

Although we finished the new sheep fold last night, it was too late to make the proper introductions before putting all four girls together. So we used the dog kennel panels to split the space and put Bella in with Valentine and Dinah and Rechel together. I figured the latter pair could sort out their differences exhibited earlier in the day without a fence between them to poke their noggins. When we left to go to the house, they were going at it. I could only hope they ended up with nothing worse than headaches.

This morning after doing chores, it was time for the Boulderneigh flock to learn to co-exist peacefully. At Lois' suggestion, their first opportunity to do this was in VERY close quarters. I used the dog kennel panels to create a narrow little pie-slice of a space -- a "cram pen."
In the photo that Lois sent me of ram-penning, her boys look like they are just standing there, so the amount of scrambling and rearing and twisting and climbing that my girls did was alarming. Afraid that someone would stick a slender leg through the chain link and then get pushed by someone else, I couldn't bear to leave them there for the "few hours" recommended. But it worked! After releasing them from their sardine can, I led them to pasture with their pans of alfalfa pellets. They seemed so relieved to have some personal space again that they hardly looked at each other. And whenever I checked on them the rest of the day, they looked like a stereotypically peaceful flock of sheep. (Perhaps the weather contributed. It was positively BALMY!) Tonight they came sproinging after me like good little sheepies, coming into the new quarters for their evening alfalfa pellets with scarcely any hesitation. Hurray!

That's it for now at . . .

5 comments:

Kathy said...

YAY!!!! This will make your whole life so much easier. Makes you wonder about all those mobs of sheep Down Under where they just have to throw them in the mob and hope everyone is OK.

Michelle said...

Well, I suppose when you have thousands, you expect to lose a few to fighting, etc. When you only have four....

melanie said...

Congratulations! You officially have a whole herd. It's really nice when they are out in the larger area doing their thing, but I love to be able to bring mine in from time to time (peacefully!) and give me some sheepytime.

Michelle said...

Yes, sweet sheepytime. Isn't that the main reason we have these creatures? :-) Of course, the fiber is nice, too!

Tina T-P said...

Aahhh, peace in the valley, huh? We have peace now that the boys went to the auction yesterday (not withstanding all the tears that I shed yesterday a.m. when our friend took them away) It will make things easier to have everyone together - BTW, that yellow blossom on my blog from last week is witch hazel - it blooms in Feb and is very fragrant, plus having those cool curley blossoms :-) T.