LDKM1422
Tue, 26 Jul 2005 08:30:14 -0700
In a message dated 7/25/05 4:40:29 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: << I guess you are saying he is not going to come out of it and will always try to ram us? >> That's the nature of a ram. Normal ram behavior. Some are more rammy than others. If the human fear factor is gone the behavior generally gets worse. Never turn your back on a ram that's started showing signs of wanting to butt you. Keep a watchful eye and something to protect yourself. Ram-Ram's behavior, our first ram, only got worse. It started around 6-7 months old. When the ewes were in cycle the behavior got much worse....hormones and instinct to prove he's top honcho. Then, it was almost a game and challenge to get water and hay to the sheep whilst Ram-Ram looked for every opportunity to butt us. He wasn't bottled fed or petted. He saw us hand feed the ewes weeds and wanted his share. Dh would let him come and get it out of his hands. Perhaps, his fear subsided because the ewes were all around us and not fearful. Don't know. We got tired of his shenanigans and constantly having to dodge him. Billy our replacement ram has been the biggest chicken and kept plenty of distance from us. Not even Grain enticed him to be near us. :-) We didn't encourage otherwise. He's over a year old and still keeps his distance. Studies us. I've learned from this forum not to look him straight in the eyes and I never turn my back on him either. Always keeps a respectful distance. If the gals are in heat we are aware he may be more likely to try a ram and again we keep a very watchful eye and stay out of the pastures except to bring fresh water. We always carry a big stick just in case. We have a ram lamb offspring from our first ram. He was born this Spring. He has no fear whatsoever of us. DH made the mistake a few times thinking he was one of the ewe lambs and petted him. The ewe lambs don't come around for petting. Now, we'll have to see how Alex(ram lamb) will turn out. He's a beauty like his ram father, polled and we want to keep him as a breeder, but if we have to spend all our days avoiding being rammed everytime we get near he'll be in the freezer locker, too. Maybe, we need to instill some fear in him. ie.Grab and flip and I'll check his hoofs or something. We don't have enough pasture land to separate the rams and ewes. So, they all live together. I am still physically limited from car accident injuries, so man-handling the ram(s) is out of the picture. DH isn't as spry as before, either. Also, left with lingering effects from his car accident. Diana _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info mailing list Visit the list's homepage at Blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info@lists.blackbellysheep.info http://lists.blackbellysheep.info/listinfo.cgi/blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info