Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I'm glad your other two are so sweet, and that you've let the aggressive one go. I think there are plenty of nice rams to go around, so we don't need to keep the not-so-good ones. ;)

Hehe I'm glad you enjoyed the name of our ram ;) It's definitely part of the fun!

Thank you! I figure it's safer to do it this way, and they won't ever be tempted to bring their friends to see the sheep for fun without us around.

Would you thought that if the child was seriously injured?

Yes, thank you for sharing your experience with animals and especially male animals on a farm or homestead. I totally agree that we tend to project our thoughts/feelings onto animals... especially because we're not mind readers, so we're probably not getting it right! ;)

Yes, they really are so fluffy! And they have great personalities - when they warm up to you ;)

Yes!

Thank you! We only clean the milking machine after we're done milking all of our sheep for the session/day. We do clean the udder/teat of each sheep before we milk them though. :)

This is from Gallagher fencing - I think the Premier 1 fences are good too, but Gallagher is what we have access to here in Canada. :)

Oh man - having multiple rams together can cause quite the stir. I hope you've got help handling them all! :)

I don't have any experience keeping goats and sheep together, but I would recommend this channel for more info on the two: kzfaq.info

We keep the young ram lambs until they grow up to a decent size and then we eat them, usually before winter sets in. This year we had 3 ram lambs and our freezer is full and we've been eating plenty of lamb chops. :)

I was seriously considering getting yaks, but it was harder to come by in our region. I have another video with the best milking sheep breeds here that helps with that: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hb1dipx119DGeKs.html&ab_channel=WaykeeperFarmandNerdery

@@waykeeperfarmandnerdery but yaks lactation length is 5- 6 months. No ?

You absolutely can! We only have one castrated male so he stays with the ram when the ram is not with the ewes, but otherwise they would be all together - or if we have any young females not ready to breed yet, he would stay with them.

Thanks for the advice. :) Our ram is quite freindly but I dont know how he will do with the young casterated boys if they are all grouped together.

That's a great question! We've found ours to be the friendliest of all of our sheep and the most "stable" in terms of temperament. Our ewes tend to be more skittish and run away, but he will come up to get petted and we've never had him ram or even try to ram anyone or any other sheep, either.

@@waykeeperfarmandnerdery Is there some time limit when you should weather them or anytime is fine? If, for example, a ram was already a bit aggressive will he become docile after wethering? Thank you.

@@naturewatcher7596 Sorry I don't have any experience with what would happen later in life... from the Canadian sheep code website it says (www.nfacc.ca/sheep-code#section5): "There are advantages to castrating lambs at a young age. Practice shows that young lambs heal faster and demonstrate less disruption in growth. Castration of rams beyond 10 weeks of age must be done by a veterinarian using anesthesia and perioperative analgesia."

Great question! There are a few reasons: 1. If they want to keep the ram for wool production and not breeding, castrating makes it easier to keep all the sheep together - and it also usually produces more wool. 2. If they plan to have the ram be for meat, some people prefer to castrate because the taste is less "strong" or full of testosterone... personally we don't bother castrating if we plan to eat the rams. It's possible we're just not as picky about the taste? 3. As a companion whether - this is the reason we have one castrated male... so we have a friend for our non-castrated male, and they won't fight. We also are able to use him with our younger females who aren't ready to be bred, as a companion as well. Sheep need to be with others, they can't be left alone - especially not a ram. If you have several same-aged rams together then fighting might not be as much of an issue. We're just a small farm so we only keep one intact ram. So those are a few reasons :)

​@@waykeeperfarmandnerdery the companion reason seems a bit like having a new baby to provide your older sick child with transplantation materials most likely to be a match. Lol it's a bit morbid but that's what popped into my head

Each breed has different characteristics, our rams don't happen to have any horns. We shear once per year, and yes both rams and ewes need to be sheared. Here's a video on how to milk: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nJilmtqgl5rQZ2Q.html

@@waykeeperfarmandnerdery Thank you Your videos are very good and thorough Blessings to you & yours

@@waykeeperfarmandnerdery I thought you might like this other lady that raises sheep , i watch her channel also If you didn't see the total eclipse, this video is great. So amazing all of the roosters & dogs went silent. (Slide the minute marker to 20 minutes to get to the actual Total Eclipse) THE SHEPHERDESS kzfaq.infoEpievv21s8Y?feature=shared When Our Messiah died, there was an earthquake & 3 hours of darkness.

I've visited larger farms that have several rams. They were kept together away from the females until it was mating season, and then I imagine they were split into smaller groups with one ram per sub-group.

Yes, that's a definite downside to watch out for!

Good question ;) I think it depends on the ram, most likely!

Yes our ram has head butted us - we always keep an eye on them, so we saw it coming and can intervene in time.

If you say a good fence for a ram is it the same as goats, because goats need a good fence. Or is there a big diferrence in fencing?

If you say a good fence for a ram is it the same as goats, because goats need a good fence. Or is there a big diferrence in fencing?