Anyone learning about Soay sheep for the first time and who embarks on a literature search commonly will encounter numerous references to the Soay ewes’ legendary ability to lamb easily. In fact, if you find an article about Soay sheep that does not remark about how easy lambing is, I would be surprised. The good news: it’s not just easy at […]
Several readers brought me up short by chastising me for unfairly omitting the yearling ewes (gimmers) from my report on the late-winter spurt of ram horn growth. I was tempted to ignore their criticisms, so certain was I that only rams could possibly exhibit dramatic horn growth. But then good manners and a little nagging voice in my head prevailed, and it was back to […]
Absent a big win in the gender lottery, we end lambing season with more ram lambs than we need or can sell. When the lambs are about 8-14 weeks old, we convert some rams to wethers, i.e., we castrate them. Why castrate at all, rather than leave things be? I can think of at […]