Finnsheep Companions

Hoop House Shelter

One of the things I love about Finnsheep is that they are remarkably easy to handle.

For the most part, if I need to move them to another area, I just open the gate and call them whereupon the follow me, often sans grain.

That is the beauty of the flock mentality. If I can get the first one or two, the others are a given. Rarely are there any stragglers.

Last fall I kept a small flock of 10 ram lambs. It has been my experience that the rams are more adventuresome, bold, curious and all around personable than the ewes, and the ram lambs more so due to their inexperience and desire to investigate.

We live in a very secluded area and I love walking the property in search of treasures that range from wildlife sightings to farm artifacts to fossils or medicinal wild herbs. This particular day I invited the 10 rams to join me in my hike over hills, down slopes and across streams. Basically for them, unknown territory and potentially frightening enough that they might end the walk prematurely.

But I opted to set out and see what happened.

Over a period of about a half hour we traversed alot of ground and to my delight they merrily followed along as interested in the surrounding as I was. Every now and again someone or another stopped to take advantage of some browse, but they came along in fine fashion without any need for me to persuade, cajole or bribe. All in all it was a lovely walk and a memory I will always enjoy as I recall my days of shepherding.

Regards,
Kathryn

                              The Border Collie is underemployed on a farm that has Finnsheep!

                                                            Good thing we have ducks!