This is what Braveheart looked like after I tried putting him and Blackberry in the same grassy lot together. Even though it is SPRING and thoughts of breeding should be fuzzy memories at best, I was not foolish enough to just throw them together. I had purchased a ram shield from Premier (small, polled), and put it on Braveheart first:
As you can see, I had to take up all the slack to fit it to his relatively petite head. He was confused and perturbed by his new head gear, but it did prevent him from sighting in on Blackberry. He even turned his attention to grass for a bit. Then I'm not sure what happened, exactly; I think Blackberry was emboldened by Braveheart's thwarted charges and started charging himself:
Braveheart was backed into a corner, and they were smacking together pretty hard - when they weren't spinning and side-swiping each other:
I finally waded into the fray (asking Jackson to watch my back to no avail) and pulled Blackberry out. I wasn't worried about him inflicting serious injury; I was worried that Braveheart would get that ram shield off and take REVENGE on the upstart punk! Indeed, the shield seemed to be loosening or stretching as they fought, so I put the boys in separate pens and removed it.
Bramble can still squeeze under the gate between the arena and pasture, and did so this morning. I encouraged Jackson to help me move her back towards the gate to rejoin the others, but he's "worthless as tits on a boar" as Rick would say. Except as eye candy!That's it for now from . . .
13 comments:
Ouch! That's interesting,I didn't even know there was such a thing as a ram shield.
Poor Jackson. lol
Yes, boys..............What can I say? They continue to do their "thing". Mine were at it the other morning, too. Poor Jackson.......
We use that handy little phrase a LOT around here...........:) Glad you got them apart without damaging your person!
I am also glad that you were able to seperate them and stay safe. We didn't have success with the sheilds either. I think you need to have them on all of the rams, otherwise the one without a sheild will take advantage of the situation.
I had the same sort of thing here after taking Loki out of the girls last fall. The three wethers I put him in with were almost three times his size (not quite, but close enough). I thought they would kill him. You either have to give them lots and lots of room where they can run away from each other, or squeeze them in so close they can't move at all (works too).
Oh, the joys of having rams, eh?
Giving them lots of room doesn't seem to help if their hormones are telling them to DOMINATE!
I feel for you Michelle...Braveheart is going to be the boss, and I guess Blackberry just isn't going to understand that til he gets his tush beat good. I'm with Kathy, give them lots of room (Blackberry)to run away, and let them at it. They'll fight for awhile and it'll be bad, but I have a feeling if Blackberry doesn't have the advantage of the shield he'll back down quicker! But only if you want to them to 'room' together. Otherwise, seperate accomodations will probably be much easier all around--and lots less drama! I've had my share of fighting rams (with horns) and it's bad, but usually it works out, unless you have to very dominate rams equal in size and age... As far as I'm concerned though, if I could have lambs w/out rams it'd be wonderful! ha...
Tammy
OMG that looks like it really hurts . . . :-( Yikes!
Actually, Adrienne, probably not that bad. He just knocked the horn material off his bone knobs, which caused the bleeding. Their heads seem made for hard hitting!
What naughty sheep! I have that to come when I try to mix Tolly with my tup lambs.
Is this the proverbial, "boys will be boys"? Will Braveheart's horns not grow back?
Definitely, Leigh; boys WILL be boys! Braveheart has never had horns; he has bone knobs that get a little horn material (a 1/2-inch or less), which he knocks off periodically.
Boys sure are a lot of trouble, aren't they? :)
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