[landhallow]

...and here are my girls! Hope the link works!

[landhallow]

Try again! 

[Bionic]

They look lovely 
Sally

[HappyHippy]

Beautiful !
I love their lambs, so looking forward to more photo's once they arrive 

[colliewoman]

 

[Brucklay]

Lovely girls 

[SallyintNorth]

Beautiful     

And looking very relaxed in their new home now 

[daveh]

No pics of mine yet but I do have an excuse. Yesterday I went to my pals farm to continue bucket training but there were only three sheep in the field. It was chucking it down so returned home and made a lunchtime visit with the OH to try and see where there had been an escape into the adjoining field. On arrival found that now there was only one sheep in the field who was bleating for her mates the other side of the fence. Again chucking it down but did detect a suspect place in a gateway about two feet wide where a rail was missing. I arranged with my pal to go and fix the rail today and retrieve the sheep. Needless to say it was bucketing down again. Fixed the suspect place, only a small gap and had kept commercial sheep in for years. Also blocked another place, a gap above a trough set between two fields.


Then the fun started. My pal doesn't use a dog but herds them with his mule and his sheep respond to this without any problem. The idea was to merge the CMs with the rest of the sheep in the field, about 100, and then herd them all together back to the CMs field, then separate his sheep and drive them back to their own field. The CMs took one look at approaching mule and set off like racehorses to the far end of the field some 600 yards away. And I mean racehorses. Man, they were fast. To cut a long story short, we eventually completed our plan but my pal, an extremely mild mannered man, was heard to be shouting something to the CMs which I don't think was entirely complimentary.


I had taken my training bucket with me with a few ounces of pellets. My pal remarked that he didn't think the sheep would be interested after getting so wound up. I chucked the pellets in anyway. Immediately the CMs looked interested and not appearing to be at all out of breath after their half marathon, waited until I was at a safe distance and tucked in.


I have a lot to learn about sheep.


Regards, David

[goosepimple]

            Happy Christmas daveh!

[SallyintNorth]

I love that story, daveh 

One of the many things I love about CMs is that they aren't like commercial sheep and you can't manage them the same way.  But you can manage them - you just have to do it in a way that suits them.  It drives conventional farmers mad and makes me smile to myself.    

Yours sound just right - intelligent, agile, very very fit and very sensible    They're going to get right under your skin 

[daveh]

More adventures today. The CMs are being kept in a field with two exmoor ponies. I went up to the farm this morning for todays bucket training. The ponies are being kept away from one corner of the field by an electric tape and this also runs for quite a distance alongside a post and sheep netting fence about  three feet away from it. This is useful for me in that the sheep can tuck into their grub without the ponies muscling in on the action.


One of the ponies had managed to get the wrong side of the electric fence and then had kept going into the gap between the fences. Having got as far as it could there was no way it could turn round or even move much without getting a belt from the fence. God knows how long it had been there, it looked very bedraggled. I took down the electric fence but the pony was petrified and wouldn't step over it. So I spent twenty minutes or so trying to persuade the pony to walk backwards to where the gap was wide enough to turn round. Even a very small pony is on the heavy side and it felt like I was having to bodily lift the pony to shift it. Eventually I got the pony turned round and it shot off straight into the narrow gap on the other side of the corner. Fortunately there is a thorn hedge on this side so I managed to get the pony turned round again without too much trouble. Eventually the penny seemed to drop and the pony stepped across the tape. It then rushed off down the field kicking its heels in the air, obviously delighted to be released from the trap. It then stopped and had an enormous pee, saving it up until it was freed.


The CMs had been watching all these capers with ill concealed impatience as they waited for their Christmas treats and they didn't seem too impressed with galloping ponies and general kerfuffle. When I finally managed to tip their grub into to the trough they didn't approach it until I had retreated a good distance so I hope todays goings on hasn't put back their training too much.


Regards, David

[Brucklay]

My morning feed is so boring compared to yours, open gate ram into his pen with his feed walk up field a bit followed by girls to their trough where they jostle for position as I scoop feed into trough - job done. I then watch and inspect from a few feet till they're finished, flip the trough to keep dry and walk back via shetands same technique - everyone knows the score, it only doesn't work when you really really want it to!!