They're here! Our Babydolls arrived at Tyler Farm on 28 June 2023.
Look at that adorable face! Don't let that smile fool you. Here's a few things we've learned in our first two weeks as new babydoll sheep owners to our ram, Platinum Dark Woods, and the girls Lainey and her half-sister Layla.
They're fascinated by chickens and turkeys.
I don't know how often I've looked out the window to find the sheep just staring into the chicken or turkey cages before they've been turned loose for the day. They'll just watch them or lay down next to their cages. We have a Blue Jersey Giant rooster, whom we call Blue for lack of a name, that's in solitary confinement (due to his size he's a bit rough on the hens but he gets time out in the yard). The sheep like to graze behind his coop, and when they start staring at Blue he starts fussing.
They can be stubborn as donkeys.
The sheep would rather sleep in an old shed or in the yard rather than in the nice house we bought them. When we put the chickens and turkeys to bed each night, an attempt at herding them into their house is usually met with failure unless we bribe them with a treat; we don't mind them sleeping outside, but our dogs haven't been trained around them yet, so we put them inside for a bit so the dogs can have a run. They're also incredibly stubborn about having a halter put on them. Once the halter's on, they won't budge if they don't want to, so it's a challenge to get them moving.
Anything can be used as a scratching post.
Case in point: a chicken coop. Dark loves to go into one of the smaller chicken coops and use it to scratch his back. They'll use anything they can find to scratch any itches they might have. I never gave it much thought about sheep needing to scratch their backs, but then why wouldn't they need a good back scratching, too?
Finally, a last, but certainly not least, thing we've learned about these cute little woolly critters...
THEY'RE ADORABLE!! (This was Farmer Hubby's contribution to my list ;) )
Comments