Tupping gone wrong

Remember how I said that the ram had serviced all the sheep and that I'd put him in again just in case? Well, it turns out Little Fecker is not that good at fucking, or better, he's not that good at getting them pregnant, because surely he's applying himself a lot.
The result is that I might have as little as only two sheep in lamb (Selvaggia and Concubine), but hopefully the third time around he managed the other 3.
My mistake, I left it too late and when I realized that he didn't work it was too late to get another one. If I went to get another ram now I would have lambing in June, which means milking until January. No way Jose!!! Better be barren for a year, especially now that we only have 4, hopefully we'll make treasure of my mistake and won't do it again.
There is a chance that LF is just inexperienced, that the Frisian sheep are a tiny bit too tall (in fact the only 2 that are not on heat again are the shortest ones), or that LF is not mature yet. Truth is that probably he is infertile but I like him so much that I'll try to keep him, possibly as a teaser ram. Way to go Little Fecker!

Alcatraz is ready

So there, I finished Alcatraz today. The boy is not going to escape anymore, maybe.
I also set up Selvaggia on her own because the two lambs are super tiny! I was a bit worried yesterday but they seem getting better and stronger. Well done Selvaggia!
On a different note, Moro is going to visit on the 25th April and I am going to drag him to a cheese conference on the 26th. I hope the weather will have improved by then, there is so much wetness that the sheep have been indoor for the past week or so.
Pray the Irish weather God and do your sun dance for us!

2013-04-10

Little Fecker

So the Little Fella, renamed by Whizzie Little Fecker, is quite a handful. He really does not like to be on his own. I did manage last night to put him in his dedicated space but he simply jumped over the pallet during the night. So there, back to square one. I got some timber yesterday and tomorrow I'll sort something out for him. After the Guantanamo site for the chickens I fear we'll have to come up with an Alcatraz for Little Fecker.

Tragedy avoided

Last Saturday I went with Chiara to pick up a young ram in Carlow. I got him at a good price from a breeder of Lacaune who also makes cheese. Well, the little fella was very well behaved and pretty chilled out during the long trip back and he also seemed to adapt to his new place. I had put him where the sheep were first. Then the poor thing had a close encounter with the dogs and got pretty scared. The day after, as soon as he saw Peps, he took off and jumped like a wild animal the 5ft fence and took for the hill. Off he was. Gone, never to be seen in the next 2 days and nights. We went around the whole place and spoke to neighbors etc etc. Then this morning I spotted him on top of the hill above the stable, he was looking at me. I locked the dogs and went up with a bucket and some feed. Although he came closer, he never followed me. So I got back and got the sheep in the upper field and he of course came down because he couldn't resist the appeal of those sexy sheep :) and after some introductions he was in the fence with them. At night he came back with them and slept with them. Tonight I managed somehow to put him into his dedicated space in the big stable. He's a lively fella and he doesn't like to be alone...
In the meantime we also had another two lambs, one female and one male, which brings the total to 2 females and 2 males so far.
The Lacaune is a french dairy breed that is more similar to a Mediterranean one. Their production is smaller but the milk is richer. It is closer to the type of sheep we're looking for, low maintenance, smaller and with better milk. I'm very curious to see how the F1 crosses will perform.
Enjoy the pics