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Moving the Sheep In

Now that winter's hit, it's time to bring the sheep in. We leave them out until the first serious snow. We live in an area that gets quite a bit of snow, even though it's fairly moderate in temperatures. It's the large lake nearby that causes what they call "lake effect" snow.


Some sheep farmers that live 30 miles or more east of us leave their sheep out all winter, though they do provide shelter. They don't get as must snow as we do.


Yesterday we waited until morning feeding time, and then called the sheep in.


We're learning to move slowly, and let them investigate. The older ones sort of know what's happening, anyway.


And they all stick together. Herd instinct, y'know.


Maybe they can smell the hay that is waiting for them in the barn.


Almost there! As soon as the last one is in, we block the door with a gate. They'll stay in the barn all winter, until the weather is nice again in the spring. We give the pasture a head-start, waiting until it is green and lush to avoid sheep mud-running.

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  1. AnonymousDecember 4, 2010 at 8:53 AM

    I love the photos. How many sheep do you have?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AlwenDecember 4, 2010 at 4:15 PM

    I love that second photo. It's beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LonaDecember 4, 2010 at 6:44 PM

    We have 160 ewes and rams. Two different breeds--Suffolk and Polypay. The photos above are of the Polypay sheep.

    ReplyDelete
  4. JenPBDecember 4, 2010 at 11:21 PM

    Wow...that's a lot of sheep! Thanks for sharing more of your life with us all.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cary ~ My Wool Mitten at Serenity FarmsDecember 5, 2010 at 3:01 PM

    Great photos, Lona! And those skies look full of snow ;) Here we are an hour and a half east of you and we don't have a bit of snow!!!

    ReplyDelete

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