We are officially "shepherds"

Here's the last two ewe lambs to round our our little flock. Aretha (L) and Avalon on the right.

These girls have not been shorn, so you can get an idea what the wool will look like on the others soon. Icelandics' wool grows so fast and long, it needs to be shorn twice a year.

 

Here's our three ewe lambs, Daisy, Aretha and Avalon just after they were introduced to each other. They immediately bonded and Daisy was so relieved to have company.

 

The girls love tulip poplar leaves!

 

Mike that's great drop the popular and let them eat the brush... hoarder helpers​

 

You betcha! They even love the leaves that have naturally fallen. Next Spring, they are going to help us browse down an area of overgrown bramble and invasives left over from a small clear cut by the former property owners about 5 years ago. Then we will plow and plant it with orchard grass, alflalfa, etc. to make some more pasture for them.

 

Apparently they love maple leaves, too. I don't know about oak, but the next 2 dozen oaks I will be falling are all dead standing and have no leaves. Just have to be careful about cherry leaves. "Wilting" cherry leaves, like on freshly cut or blown down trees or branches, have lethal levels of cyanide if any animal (horse, cow, sheep, goat, etc.) browses them.

 

We breed horses, so I'm like an expert at this stuff. Hint - breeding 2 ewes together won't work.

 

Oh, we have a ram lamb with them. If they let him, he should be good to go.

 

Oh, I'm joking. If you read your first statement word-for-word it suggests "two ewes" and I ran with it

With the horses even though we have a stallion and mares we don't let them do live cover. I guess sheep don't need such formalities.

 

Fun stuff Mike. I had meat sheep at one time after I sold the cattle. Like a bunch of dogs after a while.

 

OOPS! Reeces. our ram lamb decided to try to go after Ms. Bayerl today. I think his ewes are going into estrus and getting him all riled up. Well, he chose the wrong female (human) to go after. BAD CHOICE DUDE. Ms. Bayerl immediately grabbed him by the horns and drove him into the ground!!! She does not take sh*t from anyone! Trust me, Reeces will not try that again!!! Now he needs to focus on his ONE JOB, i.e. knocking up his ewes. Ms. Bayerl is NOT one of his ewes! Otherwise, he is such a sweet boy.

 

Did ya get any pics of the show down?

 

That's funny.
she put him in his place

 

Reeces just figured out what smart men know.. male dominance is all great til ya mess with the wrong woman! he luck boy he didn't mess with miss Bayer kids.. pun intended..

 

Working on a hay feeder today. Just the roof left.

 

The wife has Shetland sheep and we tried feeding them with the goat feeders which are similar.The bad thing about that type of hay feeder is all the VM and other trash that will fall down on the sheep while they're eating and contaminate the wool, especially leafy alfalfa. Most of the wool was unusable. I ended up building a plywood box with holes for them to stick their heads in to eat. You get some dirty wool around the neck, but most of the really good stuff on the back stays clean.

 

Thank for the feedback. Will think about that on version 2.0.

 

Any picts of your design?

 

I have some of these you can simply take for free. We changed to hay huts.