No more Setanta

Setanta went to his new home with  in September.
He was biddable enough by then and behaved well - moving where we wanted him to go but not behaving so familiarly with us that he posed a threat (overly familiar rams can sometimes take liberties as they treat us like other rams - and that can involve head-butts !).

January 13 th - Friday!

Well nothing untoward has happened so far today :). However, formal ram training is at a standstill. Informal training i.e. the daily contack that has an effect, intended or otherwise, continues as I give my little flock a supplement of sheep kibble every day. This is easier for me with this small number than mixing grains or saving haylege as it contains stuff that I have no information about when it comes to the grass in the fields ... selenium etc. The whole flock, including ram, is addicted to it - probably due to a suger rush - so ram arrives along with the others (yeah, he's still in with them - that's another story) and gets his share. So he's definitely trained to see me as a food source and has lost a lot of his timidity around me - well when surrounded by the ladies anyway.
I'm interested to see how much of this remains when he's split off from the others again and I resume "formal" training in the spring.

January 6 2012

So what next? Well the little devil got in with the rest of the flock - probably worked his way through the hedge. I was away for a couple of days, broke my routine with him and so he set his mind full time to getting in with the ewes - and figured it out. The wether was left on his own bleeting pathetically. That makes training him a little bit difficult - not that I'd have been able to much in this foul weather anyway. I suppose he may get a little less anxious around me when amidst his harum - the older ewes are very pushy and try to know me of the supplement bucket to the ground all the time - but they move in straight lines so I hust have to weave a bit while walking to shake them off or failing this, get Huddie to keep them off me.
Tow young ewes from the neighboring field got in with mide which is a pain as I wasnt a closed flock as I don't use wormers unless I see scouting - a thing I haven't see since I changed to Easycare sheep - and I'll be real p'd off if I get a present of some frug resistant worms from elsewhere. Despite phoning and going to houses etc, I've had no help to remove them. Really annoying as it would take 2 people about 10 minutes to put them back where they belong.