Marking Harness

lmaclay · #1 08/22/12, 12:03 PM

Well I just got a marking harness for my ewes this Fall. To day I put him in with the ewes. He did the Flehmen response and marked one of the two ewes. Only she only stood for about 5-10 seconds. This is an unproven ram. How do I know about the accuracy of the marks?

LibertyWool · #2 08/22/12, 02:19 PM

You change the colour of the marker every 17 days. If she gets re-marked in a different colour, then she didn't take. Trust me, 5-10 seconds is more than enough time....

lmaclay · #3 08/22/12, 05:00 PM

My concern was that she wasn't cycling, and that he just mounted her, but I just checked and she was the only one marked .

LibertyWool · #4 08/22/12, 07:14 PM

They know better than you do. One year I had just finished separating the ewes into the breeding groups. I had to take the one ram though the other rams group and he got away from me, ran 30-50 feet away and mounted this ewe, twice, before I could get over there. Needless to say, she lambed out exactly 5 months later to the day with a nice set of twins.

lmaclay · #5 08/23/12, 10:10 AM

I hope so, I hope the ram didn't just get excited. I wasn't even sure if they would breed this early, they are registered Romneys. Thanks for your help.

LibertyWool · #6 08/23/12, 01:31 PM

I remove my ram lambs by August 15th to ensure I don't get any surprises. Check out this link, there is a good table that show the up-tick in ovulation and estrus that starts in August.

Reproduction - MT Sheep Production Handbook

thequeensblessing · #7 08/23/12, 02:50 PM

Most ewes won't even pretend to stand for a ram if they aren't in estrus. If the ram even looks interested in on of our ewes who isn't in estrus, she just runs from him. If they show interest, sniffing the ram, flirting with the ram, flagging her tail or peeing for the ram, and if they stand to be mounted, you can be pretty sure she is in heat.

lmaclay · #8 08/23/12, 04:09 PM

Okay, she definitely played along. She let him lick her and he was sniffing her pee beforehand.

notasnowballs · #9 10/06/12, 04:33 PM

I wondered. I have a borrowed ram and he's eager and ready to do the job, but whenever I'm watching, my virgin ewe just runs away from him. But she pees first,he does the flehman response, and he nudges her side and nickers and she sits still for that. It's just when he tries to mount her that she takes off like a shot. He might be so big that it bothers her? The ram's owner shows sheep, and said she would be fine, and she's over a year old. I rubbed powdered chalk on his chest (the ram's owner said the marking harness grease crayons will just have gunk all over my ewe for months- didn't want that) mixed with water, since the ram's owner said they used sidewalk chalk for kids and that worked great. I see no chalk on my ewe's rump. Sigh... Maybe I should have just left it in powdered form. Am gonna go get some blue sidewalk chalk and rub it on him and see what happens. I used white powdered chalk. The ram is white, but the ewe is dark brown, so I figured it would work. I have never done this before. I'm thinking positively and thinking they are boinking at night when I'm not looking.

bknthesdle · #10 10/06/12, 07:04 PM

I just bought my rams harnesses yesterday. I didn't buy the crayons because all they had were the mild (60*-80* ones). I am not breeding until the end of October/beginning of November and I as cold as it's gotten, I don't think the 60-80* ones will work for me by the end of Oct.

Are crayons generic? Do they fit most ram's harnesses and where do you get your crayons?