Health

all adult health stuff, including ram issues

“Ram lookin’ over a four-leaf clover…”

“Ram lookin’ over a four-leaf clover…”

Yesterday was a stunningly beautiful early autumn day in the foothills of the Siskiyou Mountains, a perfect day to photograph the rams leaving our farm for eight (so far) new homes in the next few weeks. Now I’m back inside with a couple of hundred photos and struck by how many of them show an […]

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Never underestimate your Soay runts

Never underestimate your Soay runts

Every few years we end up with an unexplained runt in our flock, not the one who is slowed down by a touch of coccidia or the littler twin who has trouble competing for its mother’s milk supply, but an unusually small animal who for some unknown reason simply falls behind. We had one of […]

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Lamb Camp Day 1: Campers arrive and so do their first lambs

Lamb Camp Day 1: Campers arrive and so do their first lambs

Our friend Ida had so much fun visiting us during lambing in 2013 that she applied to return this year. In my last post, I tried to set the stage for Lamb Camp 2015 by sharing the backstory of Ida’s first visit. By the time Ida and daughter Whitney and niece Audrey arrived on April […]

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The taming of the ewe, and of the ram

The taming of the ewe, and of the ram

Where to put Soay rams and Soay ewes on the tame-to-wild spectrum seems to be this summer’s favorite question. Some folks are looking for docile sheep, some for sheep that will mimic life in the wild. Some breeders want to spend a lot of time with their animals, others want to simply watch the sheep […]

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A substantial Soay ram horn break with no ill effects

A substantial Soay ram horn break with no ill effects

Nothing beats luck when it comes to using photos to make a point about raising Soay sheep, or anything else for that matter. Let me explain. A few weeks ago when I was putting together the update about annual ram horn growth, I stumbled across pictures of our ram Hesket taken in 2013, about a […]

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Vaccinations and other “shots” for Soay sheep: when, why, and how

Vaccinations and other “shots” for Soay sheep: when, why, and how

Soay sheep are legendary for their hardiness, including their resistance to disease. They don’t need much in the way of vaccinations — just one per year in our experience — but that one annual immunization is important to their good health. As for other shots, a pair of vitamin and mineral injections for newborns will […]

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