Bad Rams

Nothing like a little bloodshed to liven up the day! 

With a mighty crash of horns, the three rams who are supposed to be mowing the grass in the back yard broke through the fence and liberated the fourth ram who was in a separate pen for the EXPRESS PURPOSE of preventing this sort of rowdiness!

Except during breeding season, my rams all live together peacefully and are great buddies.  Once they get to know each other, and have established who's boss, that is.  But the "discussions" to establish who's boss can get quite violent.

My senior ram, Nicholai, has been King of the Flock ever since he came to my farm.  But now he's getting old and stiff, and is permanently lame from a couple of previous injuries (one fight with another ram, and one episode of getting badly tangled in the fence). 

So when big, burly Scimitar, in the prime of his life, came to the farm last fall, I deliberately kept him away from Nicholai because, frankly, I'd like to keep Nicholai alive and undamaged for as long as possible.  I knew Scimitar could kill him it he tried hard enough.

Unfortunately, Nicholai still thinks of himself as King of the Flock.  So, after a couple of days peacefully mowing the back yard, Nicholai and his two young ram companions thought it was about time to have some words with Scimitar in his pen.  Scimitar wouldn't take that challenge lying down, so between the four of them, they knocked down the fence.

Poor Nicholai was in for a rude shock, however, when he had to face Scimitar with no protective barrier between them.  I heard the crashing and looked out the window to see all four rams fighting.  By the time I got outside, Nicholai was running for his life!  I'd feel sorry for the poor old guy, but he did start it!

With a bucket of grain, I lured everybody back to where they belonged, and Ken repaired the fence.  We'll have to wait and see if Nicholai learned his lesson, or if there will be more fence breaking later.

He does look a bit (pardon the phrase) sheepish now, doesn't he?