On Monday, Hershey the Ram had been locked up for 16 days. I decided to let him go; it should have been long enough with him locked up such that I can differentiate his lambs from the other ram’s by their birth dates.
As a precaution, I tied him up inside his little pen so he couldn’t cause any trouble. Then I had Maggie help me put the ewes inside his pen too, so I could trim their hooves. She had a little trouble getting around them, she is SO sticky right now; when she makes contact with the sheep, she just locks up and stares. But she finally got them lined up nicely to the pen opening, then I had her lay down and hold her side, while I nudged them in. Nice! I never quit appreciating how helpful the dogs are.
I cleaned up all their feet, and set the whole lot free. Hershey ran to meet his ladies with glee. I let Maggie pick them up one more time, and bring them to me in a good-sized outrun. She got stuck at 9:00 like she always does, but with some encouragement, she got around them and brought them to their grain pans. The ram moved for her–I wasn’t sure if he would judging by his aggressiveness in the pen. But it turns out he works fine in the open.
So, let the rendesvous begin-time to make lambs!