The new control paddock survived the Frazier test but only just barely. I swear if these ewes don't stop teasing the poor rams I am going to lock the whole bunch of shameless hussies out in the far pasture and leave em there until November 4th, which is our usual first day of breeding season.
The amorous ewes are doing everything in their power to entice the two rams to come through, over or under their fences for a bit of fun and Frazier has almost managed it twice now. Each time the new fence held but this last time he managed to actually pull the bottom half of one section through the 1 inch staples holding it to the post.
I was finally forced to close off Frazier's access to the barn once again and using the temporary fence create a buffer zone between him and the ewes. This buffer space also worked for a really nice separation area for market day yesterday. In fact it worked so well I have now added another two swinging gates on the list to create a holding space within the control paddock for now on.
Speaking of market day. Man I sure am glad that is past us now. We took 24 lambs, 3 yearlings and 1 older ewe to market and made more than enough I believe to finish buying all the rest of the fencing material I need.
Market day killed most of Thursday but I managed to get more trees cleared and then some rain moved in so I switched to getting the shop set up for the final honey harvest. Today after work I hit the fence project hard again and am now almost ready to start construction of Frazier's shelter. With any luck I might actually be caught up on all this by the end of next week.
Ya I know believe it when it happens.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!
Frazier the fence testing ram. There was a dog that got bred through a chain link fence years ago, never did figure that one out.
ReplyDeleteHah! It's all about motivation,that was a motivated dog.
ReplyDeleteOur ram stays with our ewes all year, but he did recently damage the sheep barn because he was in the mood to do so, and Lester had to chase him away from the gate he was also in the mood to demolish. Perhaps he was ready to do his job but the ewes weren't!
ReplyDeletethose brazen hussies teasing Frazier like that, shame on them :-)
ReplyDeleteWe are working on our final fence and paddock designs. We have modified the original fencing design layout a lot, adding more paddocks and a laneway to work and water the sheep in. Thank you for sharing your design as I have to admit pinching your control pen idea for two places in our design!
ReplyDeleteYou know it's bad when the Rams are counting the days with hash marks on the wall.
ReplyDeleteDo I detect a little smirk on his face? He seems quite pleased that you have officially accepted his challenge of ram-proof fencing. Just be glad he's not 1000 lbs heavier. :-)
ReplyDelete~hobo