Gestation Period…of a Flock?

We put Calvin in with six ewes a week ago Saturday morning – experienced Moms Martha and Dolly, and yearlings Hillary, Eleanor, Jackie and Louise. He was pretty rambunctious for about two days – following them around, sniffing, sticking his tongue out, trying to lick the girls.  But now he has calmed down and the seven of them just go their way eating through the remains of much of the west field. In about five months, we should be lambing again.

That’s the gestation period of a sheep – five months.  Gestation period of a flock?  For us, it looks like it is about 10 days.

A week ago we talked with our friends up in Island Pond, Jack and Mary Ellen.  We visited them on Labor Day – see Making Connections. Turns out Jack has a wonderful job opportunity, but they will need to relocate from their longtime home/farm.  Reluctantly, they have decided to give up their flock of nine Cormo and Cormo cross sheep.  Seven ewes and two wethers.  The wethers are the same age as Levi and Schuyler, who we purchased from J and ME in August 2012 to keep Calvin company (when he’s not in with the girls).

Like so many other decisions we’ve made in the last two years, we’re jumping off the cliff and increasing our flock size by 64%, from 14 to 23, in one fell swoop.  We’ve ordered a “shed-in-a-box” to provide a little more shelter for the winter, but we’ll get through fine. When we visited Willowbend Farm, we were struck by how similar their flock looks to ours – pretty much the same size and all colored fleeces (YES!). Peg called Bernie the Livestock Hauler and he’s heading up early Saturday morning. We’ll drive up in Moby – J and ME are tossing in 40 bales of second cut hay they have at the farm – we’ll take some back in Moby and we hope Bernie can take the rest.  Mary Ellen arranged for their vet to deworm and tag the flock yesterday.  I went out into the east field at the end of the day today to set up a barrier fence between the lower part and the upper part.

The new nine will be “quarantined” in the lower part for at least two weeks, and then we’ll figure out how to introduce them to the rest of the flock. So, beginning this weekend, Savage Hart Farm will be housing 23 sheep in four different places on the hill – six ewes and a ram on the west field, four lambs in the barnyard, a ram lamb and two wethers in the top part of the east field, and seven ewes and two wethers in the lower part.  It just CAN’T get more exciting!

Here are some shots from the Willowbend website:

Todd