The Bachelor Pad

Every fall we get to the point of deciding where exactly are we going to put each group of breeding animals. Always the conundrum since each ram's group has to have a gap between the other group(s). Why? Because rams will fight through fences even if they can't see each other. They will bash down fences, gates and anything in between them to establish who is top dog and to "get the girls". If one ram is older and obviously the dominate ram---they will still fight until the dominate ram can "gather" all the girls from the other side. Needless to say the girls stay well out of this battle and are not that interested in being gathered (most of the time). However during all this the poor shepherd ends up constantly trying to repair all the damaged things and keep everyone apart and in their correct place--not always that easy with rams in the grip of rut. Though they are usually fine with the shepherd ---they can be much harder at this time to control and to get their attention. Bull headed would be the description that comes to mind here---and annoying.
Now fortunately---we have always been successful BUT we have at times had gates accosted when another group did not have an "appropriate" distance. So, as I mentioned--with each year comes the new decision of who goes where.
This year to help us with that---we made a new pen. It is a small area and will technically be the official "bachelor" pen for the rams after breeding and until they go back in with the girls after lambing. Until that period of time however--one breeding group will go into this pen which will make it easier on us as far as keeping a good distance between the other group. Also, as fate would have it we will end up with only two rams. So, with this new pen it actually will work out well for us by allowing more of our pasture to rest during the winter (especially after this hard drought year) and possibly even re seed more of it if it ever rains regularly again.
Ike---who is pictured above with the chicken on him will come in this pen with his three girls. All the rest of the girls will go into the back pasture with our new ram "Tex" (yes, kind of a silly name---but there you have it).
My point of posting this was to show how we are allowing this pen to overflow into the chicken area. Ike as you can see is taking full advantage of it by laying in front of the chicken coop door. This morning I had to change the hinges on the door since Ike kept knocking it close by laying against it. No sooner had I done that then two of the rams (both soon to move to new places) squooshed their selves through the door and hung around inside the coop. The chickens as you can see are fine with this---they just climb over the rams to get in or out.
The "long view" picture up there is the beginning of the attachment to the back of the coop that will be the new shelter for whatever animals end up in this pen over time. A place to keep their hay dry and for them to get out of the worst that winter dishes out (if winter ever comes!). The tarp is a temporary side to help with sun control right now but the roof and posts only took a couple of days to get done. Eventually it will be finished---we are much quicker with animal shelters than our own :-D and a group of sheep will move in for a few months. The girls would be glad to know they are just going to be temporarily ensconced---but since they can't understand me I am sure they will fuss at me all the while they are there.

Rams and cows

Well this evening (Sunday) our oldest Icelandic ram got through the gate and into the cow pasture. We actually didn't have to chase him down as much as we thought we would when we first noticed he was in there. We caught him without much problem. Put his halter on and led him out of the pasture. He was a bit tired but no damage was done to anyone. I know you are wondering what problem there could possibly be with an Icelandic ram in a pasture with cows. In this case: big problems--for us anyways.
It all started last fall as rut approached. If you have never seen Irish Dexter cows---they are short. So short in fact that when a female is young she might not be much bigger than an average ram. Heavier but not much taller. Well, last year I made the mistake of bringing the ram into the barn to shear him as he went into rut. I wanted him to be cool as he started well....getting physical. I chose to do said shearing in the back stall of the barn. What I forgot when deciding this was that Rose--the cow---loved that stall and considered it hers and hers alone. She practically dances when she gets to go in it. Perception is everything when you are a cow and as far as she was concerned I "ruined" it when I took the ram into it--made it all stinky or something. She stared at us the whole time but I never gave it a thought. I just figured she was interested in what was happening. When I let the ram out though, she immediately started harassing him. Since he was coming into rut he felt inclined to defend himself against this supposed encroacher of his territory and so, of course, at that point war was declared by all involved. Butting, chasing and bashing ensued--with us running around trying to stop it--yelling the whole time. Up and down the hills of the back pasture, never quite able to get close to one or the other to catch them. They were so evenly matched that no one true winner could be declared. Finally the cow decided she was tired and wanted to give up, but the ram---well he is a ram and victory could not be declared until there was a true winner and the looser was no longer around. It was quite funny now that I think of it---My husband standing with the cow hiding behind him with his arms out, Rose keeping my husband between her and "guy" --peering (literally) out around my husband to watch were the ram was so she could keep my husband between them, Guy circling them both like a shark and me running in circles after him and just never quite able to catch hold of the brat. It took about 45 minutes all told but seemed like hours.
Since that time---we have always had to keep those two separate. They (or at least he) will fight every time. He picks at no other cow but her. She is his arch nemesis. Raminski vs Dexter Rose.
During the summer it seemed to have settled down and we didn't have too much of a problem--though we made sure to always keep them separate. But now that rut has started again, Guy sees his competition on the other side of the gate and is sure that Rose (the female cow) is going to steal his "harem" from him and purportedly breed them :-O. I am about 100% sure she is not interested--but he is not so confident no matter what I tell him. He spends quite a bit of time along the fence line protecting all from Rose. Pacing, making threatening "nickering" noises and guarding the fence line.
We have been told by friends "oh you should get a picture of that" when the two get together and fight. But to this day---we are so surprised and thrown out of whack by this dilemma when it infrequently happens, that we forget to get a picture. Next post I will try and get a picture of each one individually so that they can flaunt their mug shots here for all to see.