Saturday, August 9, 2014

A little better every day

Bumblebee continues to improve. She still can't stand up without help, but her tottering, once up, looks a little less like Tim Conway and a little more like a real lamb.

Bumblebee being joined by her lamb friends. Ladybug, Beetle, Cricket, Caterpillar, and Firefly.
Someone asked how Bumblebee got her name. The 13-year-old gave it to her. The rest of them also got insect names. That's a tricky theme - could go very wrong. The ewe lambs are Bumblebee, Butterfly, Caterpillar, and Ladybug. The wethers are Beetle, Cricket, Mantis (Manny), and Grasshopper (Hopper.) The ram is Firefly. Though they are all purebred Bluefaced Leicesters, Firefly is the only registered one. Since producing registered BFLs is not my goal, that's fine. Sadly, of the males, Cricket is the one with the nicest fleece. Sigh. The breeder did not consider him breeding stock quality.

Manny and Hopper are about a month older than the rest and actually came home a month earlier. When the second crew finally arrived, I backed the car up to the barn and opened the hatch, but nobody wanted to get out. Then Manny saw them and called out. He is such a cheerleader. One by one the littler ones hopped out to find their brother.

Mantis and Hopper are much bigger than everyone else. They are twins. Caterpillar and Beetle are also twins. (As are Cal and Woody, two of the little goats. Cal's the designated hitter, Woody is a wether.) Bumblebee continues to be the smallest ewe, though Ladybug is pretty small too. Cricket is the littlest lamb wether.

Everyone is still cooped up in their pens in the pony barn. A space in the sheep barn is ready for them, but I'm waiting for Bumblebee to be strong enough to go with them, before we make the move. In the meantime, I let them run up and down in the aisle while I clean their pens.

Today I let the little goats join them.

Oops.

You just can't trust goats to stay out of trouble. Eamon (or Turtle, though our new names didn't stick for the goats) got his tail pulled, but good, by Shadowfax.

You can't trust some ponies either.


Bumblebee and the Three Little Goats


1 comment:

  1. Goats... So glad Bumblebee is still improving :-). Those BFLs are beautiful!

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