Since being off-line for nearly a month due to our wireless internet service provider going AWOL, breeding season for my sheep has begun with lambs expected early April, 2011. On Nov. 16th, my new ram Two Bars was put in with the new and younger girls in the sheep barn (9 girls) while Choy is in his pen with Tommy (the wether) and my 3 original girls: Meg, Thelma & Annie because I really like the lambs I got from this match-up in the past...especially Annie giving me wildly spotted lambs. There is an empty field in between the 2 rams with visual barriers on both fences. 7 ewes are being kept in a non-breeding pen (5 ewes from this year and 2 yearlings) and so far I'm happy to report that the lessons learned from last year's breeding season are being implemented successfully. All was well until yesterday morning...
Clio & Emerson (my Bernese Mountain Dogs) have been having a blast with training and walks in the now abandoned front sheep pasture every morning when I do chores. They have been really good and I've been increasing their freedoms and trusting them. I gave them a bit too much freedom and they took off. After chasing them down 5-6 properties over, I was tired and my previously sore foot was worse for the experience. I finished off the morning chores and headed in.
About an hour later I glance out into the sheep fields and see Choy in Two Bar's field. I race out to see that they are fighting and bleeding badly from their heads from bashing each other over and over. They are in a face-off and they aren't paying any attention to me, so I grab Choy's horn and start to drag him back only to see that Two Bars is backing up to ram him again except now I'm in the middle. I let go to grab my shepherd's crook for help. This isn't going to be easy. I return to the 2 rams and grab Choy again and with the hook I grab Two Bars' horn. I'm backing up with one ram who's trying to move forward and the other being dragged forwards with the hook (he's trying to get away now). When I finally reach the first locked gate, I shove Choy to the other side and quickly try to lock the gate, but Two Bars rams it hard before I get to lock it leaving a big bloody spot on the barrier on the gate "Now get out and stay out" he says to Choy! I managed to separate them. I drag Choy back to his pen and see that I had forgotten replace the makeshift barriers to his gate. Just before breeding season, when all rams were together they busted the gate and the large fence post at ground level. Now, I use a bungee cord to keep the post and gate together, I have a little chicken house on the inside supporting that broken post, I have a large kiddie pool and an old tire placed in front of the gate so Choy can't ram it and get out and I have a cinder block on the other side to keep the gate closed...but that morning, I'd forgotten to put it all back after I'd fed them.
So, Choy had pushed his way through the bungee cord closed gate, raced across the empty pasture in the middle and busted a hole in the page wire fence and through the barrier to land himself in the fight of his life with Two Bars for capture of the fair maiden ewes in his pen. Luckily I saw them or I could have had a tragedy, because they would keep fighting until 1 gave up or died.
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