Thank goodness I picked up the Babydoll sheep last weekend rather than this weekend! We're having a cold snap here. It's been about -20F the past two nights and the high yesterday was below zero. Not to mention windchills in the -30 to -40's.
This is one time when I appreciate the layer of wasted hay in the shelters. The sheep dig nests and hunker down in the bedding at night. During the day they don't even seem to notice the cold temps.
You can see the Babydolls are well insulated in the photo of our wether above. The BFL's don't have such a dense coat, but they are doing fine too. I never thought about their big ears getting frozen, but I guess it's something to watch out for.
I started giving the flock some whole corn the other day. Our hay isn't the best, so I wanted them to have more groceries. However, now they want corn whenever they see me! And some of the hungrier ones (Granite and Derra) have no problem clearing the hog panel in the pole building in hopes of being the first to be fed. Fortunately, they are easy to put back in. I always keep Bungie cords on the corn bin, just in case they jump out when I'm not there.
I read on the Spinlist that Babydoll fleece is great for spinning and dyeing, so I'm taking another wether when it warms up again.
I thought I would keep the Babydoll ram with my BFL ram and keep the two wethers in with my Shetland ram. Then I can put all my ewes back together again.
I hope everyone is keeping warm and keeping their sheep well fed.
OK. I give in. Even I have to admit that he's pretty darned cute!
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Stay Warm...