Well, you can see from the photo above that the weather was absolutely perfect for today’s nuptuals! Above you can see Romeo pursuing one of his harem. She looks totally unimpressed! Everything went fairly well. We did have one “runaway bride”, but I think she’s learned now to stand by her man and hopefully won’t stray again!
In the video below you’ll see us bringing the rams over to the “meet up” venue first. It’s only right that they be waiting for their ladies, and not the other way around.
We set up temporary fencing to help guide them across the driveway, then pushed them right up into the handling yards.
After getting them into the race, we marked them each with a homemade version of a raddle marker. This will serve to mark the ewe when she is served by the ram. That helps us when we can’t keep eyes on them all the time so that we can try to establish breeding dates. In the past I’ve made this by mixing powdered tempra paint with vegetable shortening, but this time the store didn’t have the paint, so I went with the next best thing – Koolaid! Just a note, though — Koolaid powder does not readily dissolve in Crisco, so I had to wet it first! At least this smells more interesting – cherry and raspberry!
We then put each ram in their own pen using the sorting gates as they come out of the chute. They really didn’t like being separated, but they soon won’t mind one bit!
Here come the brides!
And, keeping it friendly for all audiences, here’s Romeo with his girls in their new pasture. There is so much lovely stockpiled pasture there for them to eat that he’s torn between chowing down and making himself better known to his brides!
And now we will watch and wait. Hopefully the girls will take a shine to the boys and all will be over quickly and without a hitch!
Morning Star Meadows Farm 
I just had Phil read your email and he said “I didn’t see them doing anything!”
My silly questions are: Do the rams stay with the ewes now or just for breeding? Does the act take the first time or is it repeated? Is it always a good match?
On Mon, Nov 25, 2019 at 8:45 PM Morning Star Meadows Farm wrote:
> morningstarmeadows posted: ” Well, you can see from the photo above that > the weather was absolutely perfect for today’s nuptuals! Above you can see > Romeo pursuing one of his harem. She looks totally unimpressed! Everything > went fairly well. We did have one “runaway bride”, ” >
Great questions! In some breeding operations the ewes are synchronized by various methods so that they are all in heat at close to the same time. For us, it will be as it comes naturally. Today Cyrano wouldn’t leave Hope’s side, and this evening when we got home, she was standing for him. That’s what we call “standing heat,” and it means that I will start looking for her to lamb around April 20. If we see him again near her side in about 2 weeks or so, we’ll know she wasn’t bred and has come back into heat. In a day or 2, one of the other ewes will probably be his “girl.” So we will leave each ram in with his harem, and hopefully by the end of the year or early next year, all ewes will have come into heat and be bred.
Who’s the carpenter? Can’t be Roy! Just saying!