Next Choice..

Since the chains did not work, we started to think of other options. The reason the chains failed is that I was not willing to put tighter ones on than what you see in the picture of the ewes. The chains are not adjustable. For that reason, we started discussing the use of a thick Nylon Dog Collar. It seemed strong enough. Easy enough to grab when we needed to catch and hold a sheep. The bonus was that it was easily adjustable in size - so as they grow or even as their wool grows, we could always adjust the size. SOLD! I went straight out to the largest feed and farm store that was within a 25 mile radius from us.

I knew exactly what I wanted ... 3 solid black collars for the boys, like this:


















...and 5 solid pink collars for the girls, like this:
















.. the black collars were easy to find.. the pink ones were no where to be found... at least not solid pink. This was the closest thing I could find for our ladies.
















Oh the shame.. I knew they did not like them. It was as though they were saying "Baaaad Taste... Baaaad Taste"!!!

So - Last Year..

.. we decided to use collars and tags instead of the ear tags. Our first choice was to decide on what type of collar to use. Our sheep are very friendly - but OH SO SMART! You see, they know if you are coming out to feed them, pet them or clip them! As you can guess, we needed something to grab that was strong and we bought each of them a chain collar. Yeah - look at the picture.. one still has hers and the other does not. Several of the sheep figured out how to remove their chain collars!

Why Bother Using ID Tag's At All?

... because every once in a while, you need to make sure who is WHO!

Ear Tags..

When we purchased our first 4 Miniature Cheviot sheep , 2 of them were ear tagged, like this:(not our sheep)












Essentially, it is a plastic ear piercing (usually) with a numbered tag like this:
















Although I hate the idea of putting such a large hole in my sheep's ears and placing a tag that in most cases hangs out beyond the ear and would easily be ripped out if the animal had its head stuck through a small space - be it fencing or just shrubbery, I thought it was probably the most effective way to identify our sheep. I was wrong. These plastic tags crack and break off. I suppose that after a few years, the plastic becomes brittle and therefor, cracks and breaks to pieces. This is what has happened to some of our tagged sheep.

Case in point ~ Our ewe on the left still has her ear tag. Ewe on the right does not!

Merry Christmas!

Okay - So Maybe it is Not This Bad...

..but oh my gosh.. it has been so dry and so windy at our farm, I am wondering just how much top soil has blown away! Our sheep are fed pellets at night and some alfalfa in the morning. We rotate them between 2 pens, but the rye grass we planted in only growing where the sprinkler can reach it.

Wether..

Our one and only wether (neutered ram) is the star of the show. May I introduce Roman to you. He was hand raised by Don and I (mostly Don) and became the family pet! He is the lamb on the header picture of this blog as well as on our business cards! Here he is again all dressed up for Easter!

The Lady Ewe's

This is Anastacia and Edwina. These ladies were purchased the first year we started our flock.















This is Anastacia with her lamb Esme, born in 2010. We are retaining this ewe to help increase our flock.















This is Isabella with her 2009 lamb Lordes. Isabella was purchased with Ramses from Washington. Lordes is an exceptional ewe lamb that we are retaining for our flock.















..and this is a better picture of Isabella with her 2010 lamb Hermes. He is exceptionally small and would make a wonderful miniature breeding ram. Without even marketing him, we have 2 people interested in him for thier own flocks!

Ramses - Herd Ram

I know - stop laughing! This is our breeding ram, Ramses. He is just the sweetest guy. He was making a funny face so I snapped this shot of him. I promise to get a better "whole body shot" soon!