Lover's Meeting

Sheep breeding season began today, which meant that Ken and I spent part of the morning rearranging all the sheep into their separate breeding paddocks, where they'll stay until the end of December.

For all of you who voted in The Dating Game for Sheep, to decide which ram our ewe Moriah would be paired with this year: The votes are in!

Our senior ram Nicholai would like to thank you for your support, which allowed him to win the lovely Moriah by a landslide of 62% of the votes. He received far more votes than the other four rams on the ballot put together!

But their story isn't over yet! Click here for a funny video of what happened when the happy couple finally got to meet.

Taj and Tut, the runner-up rams, were not too dismayed, however, because---like Nicholai---they each got a small group of ewes for their very own today.

Nicholai's son, Titan, will be used as our "clean-up" ram this year, which means he'll be turned loose with all the ewes at the end of breeding season, just in case one of the other rams for some reason was unable to do the job.

Because our ewe Peri, who was bitten by a rattlesnake this summer (see Peri's Reprieve, Not For the Faint of Heart, Getting Used to the Maggots, Peri's Progress, and A Peg Leg for Peri? for more of her story), still has limited mobility due to her injured leg, we decided not to put her back with the rest of the flock for breeding season. She will be allowed to roam free in the yard, getting spoiled by her people, and when she comes into heat, we will allow her to breed with Titan.

For all of the commotion of moving everyone to their breeding pens, none of the ewes were in heat today, so no actual breeding took place. Most of them will probably start coming into heat in the next couple of weeks.

Lambs should start arriving in late March or early April.