We’ve had some deep freeze-y weeks, separated by a few days of melting temps. It’s been so nice out the last few days, I figured it was high time to get a few maintenance items taken care of. Several individuals were due for bigger coats, and some post-deep-freeze deworming was in order.
There’s always a few sheep that are consistently a piece of cake to work with – Drew, our Romeldale ram, is a little over-friendly (definitely keeping a wary eye on that one…) but it does make regular maintenance items a breeze. I never even have to herd or chase him, just walk right up, get a hold of his collar, and off we go. The silly goose even seems to think dewormer is downright tasty. When that’s all I need to do for him, I just walk up to the gate, and administer it without even entering the paddock. A few of the girls are treat-greedy enough to make catching them easy, but nobody rivals Drew in this area.
Then there are others that really give you a run for your money. At this extreme is Bronwyn, one of last year’s lambs. She’s far too smart – she refuses to let herself get cornered and even goes so far as to consistently break away from the rest of the group and run right past you, just out of reach. A.J. (our recessive Romney ram) is wary enough that not even treats will lure him into a pen. Even if you’re on the other side of the paddock.
So things went well enough with our routine maintenance – Cupcake, Alice, Coral, Angus, Archie and Drew all got bigger coats. As soon as we can get our mitts on A.J., he’ll get a new one as well and his will be handed down to one of the smaller but growing squirts (probably Bronwyn – won’t that be fun??) McKenzie is giving us conniptions with her panting, but a quick temperature check shows no fever, so we’ll continue to watch her carefully – as long as she’s eating well, it’s entirely possible she’s just overheated in all that wool, and we’ll do our best not to make her move too fast and get stressed out.
Lambs will hopefully be here before you know it – as early as March 3rd!