Sheep Love

Just Bella

Bella and Bill

A couple of days ago, I got home from work to discover Bill missing from his pen. Initially, I got nervous and jumped to some silly conclusions; when I saw that he had somehow made his way into the big pasture with the ewes, I laughed out loud. It was a mystery to me how he could have escaped from his pen. The hog panels that I used to create his outside space are sturdy and too high for him to jump over, and when I inspected his area there were no holes or gaps that he could have wiggled through. I went to bed perplexed.
The following morning, I saw something that I had not seen with the Babydolls before. With the Jacobs, a much larger breed, it was not uncommon to have sheep jump a fence. But, with legs shorter than 24", I never considered that Bill would be able to jump over the barrier that I had built in the barn. But, he did.
As I was opening the doors for the ewes, I heard a clunk and turned to see him standing up on back legs, peering over the wall and into the ewes' pen.  Laughed out loud again.
Then, I walked outside with all girls behind me so I could toss Bill his bundle of hay. Suddenly, a loud thunk and then Bill. He jumped over and joined us, happy as a pig in shit.
Quickly, which is not easy at 6 AM, I tempted him with some grain, lured him back into the barn then into his pen and then found another old barn board and some screws. I ran up to the house for my drill, rigged up another 12" barrier and hoped for the best. Bill was not pleased.
So, I am hoping to only have two ewes lamb out in March. But, after the jumping ram's visit with the other 7 ewes, only time will tell.