Well, tomorrow we will re-attempt to put the ewe-lambs back out with the ewes.  We tried to do a three-week weaning earlier in the spring, but that just did not work out.  They fed on creep really well during the “first weaning”, but when we turned them back in with the ewes after the “first weaning”, they went straight back to their mammas and the udders came right back!

They’ve been apart again for the last five weeks, and have been creep feeding and grazing really well.  The ewes’ udders look like they are almost all gone (even though they did before, too).  I’m REALLY crossing my fingers this time, as I do not have another pasture to put the ewe-lambs on and it is time for them to be separated from the ram-lamb.  Fennel, the ram-lamb pictured above, is growing like a weed and seems like he has already reached the age where he could breed (at four months old).  Time for the girls to exit!

Fennel will stay in the paddock, but we will put our best wether, Fox, into the paddock to keep Fennel company.  Fennel has great horns, and we want to make sure that he has sufficient time to grow big and strong before he joins the other rams and bangs horns with Tzatziki – we don’t want Fennel’s horns to break.  So, Fennel will finish his growing with Fox in the paddock until around the holidays.

We thought our other ram, Coon, had great horns when he was a lamb, but it turns out he just has great scurs – very thick, atypical (wide) scurs.  It seems like each set of scurs/horns in this closed flock are a little different.  However, due to Fennel, now we REALLY know what great horns look like and how they grow in a lamb – he was born with great horns and they grow super fast!  (That’s how Fennel got his name – he grows as fast as a local weed called dog fennel.) Fennel will be bigger than Tzatziki for sure.  Coon is Fennel’s brother, and he already out-weighs Tzatziki.

Weaning: take II!  (Wish us luck!)