Pets and the Farm 3 -The Chickens and the Sheep

The farm was large by any standard, 300 acres, plus or minus. Just outside Boston, it was in Millis, a small “townies” type of town.  It was the poor cousin for every town around it.  The owners were a Boston family that had appreciated land, history and fresh food.  They were great.   The local families, it seemed, all went back a 100 plus years, the land all had names, boy-scout ridge, Jimmies field, Deangles farm, Proes corner, Clark field, Christmas Tree Knoll, the houses had names, the Arnold House, the Hurricane house, Guest Barn….

The farm, primarily woods, but it had 50 acres of field and pasture land. 15 acres of Orchard.   When we arrived, all that remained were chickens. Nice, but not that inspiring, they turn into a motley crew, quickly.  All the picking and pecking.  However the eggs were second to none.  Golden eggs, one might say.

The chickens lived quite well, as did the sheep.  The chickens had their own building, a huge fenced yard, a personal caretaker, named Charlie Dukelow.  He was in his late 70’s when I met him.  He tended the birds before his “Tee” time @ 7 am every day.  The birds had  fresh water, all the feed they could eat, it was a great 12- 15 months of life.   I figure these eggs were worth $5 per dozen.  Golden Eggs.  They were so good, some were sent to Boston, others to Duxbury, Some were fedex’d to FL.  We did sell some to craggy neighbors for $1.20 per dozen and they complained when I raised the price.  They were cut off from the eggs entirely at that point.   (we had apples too, also made of gold.)

Sheep were in, we had little kids, the land was there…  There were 4 or 5 acres fenced, right next to the farmhouse.  There had been cattle there.  It was quite easy to throw up electric fencing, buy a few sheep, let them mow the place and entertain us.   Well, as with all farm projects, theory is trumped by reality.

Electric fence theory is very simple, complete the circuit, get shocked, learn to stay away from the fence.  Kids, especially teens, loved the fence.   It was easy to put up, some wire, some plastic insulator’s, a power source and you are good to go.  Until you put that fence up near old cattle fencing, which is on the same posts and trees that the original barbed wire was on.  (The way electric fence works is raw electricity runs through the wire and when the animal or person touches it, the “grounding” connection lets the electricity fly through wire, through the animal or person right into the ground and you get shocked!  That is a half a dozen short stories all by itself. )

back to the sheep …  Sheep are good eaters, they do their job, pasture mowers and entertainment.  Here is the flurry of the next 5 years.  They have lambs once a year.

Year 1 there are 5, …  one ram, 4 sheep.

Year 2 there are 5 sheep, 1 ram, 3 pet lambs, 8 legs of lamb, some lamb chops.

Year 3 there are now 8 sheep, a new Ram, then 5 new pet lambs, everyone seems to have a name, then we have 8 legs of lamb, a whole bunch of lamb chops and I wakeup at all hours during lambing season ..  no one likes to dock tails, (cut them off), or take them to the slaughter house, (Blood Farm, funny but true).

Lets talk about the wool.  sheep’s wool has grades based on breed, cleanliness and market conditions.  Back then, the 80’s, wool was worth maybe $5 per pound. To shear a sheep costs $4 – not including your time.  The market place for wool was almost non-existent.

In year 4 the naming of sheep began to get too hard, It was determined that we now need to sell some sheep and some lamb.  It was easy to find unsuspecting  land owners who wanted sheep, they are cute and docile, but you couldn’t give lamb away.  It turns out most people do not like lamb more than 2x per year tops ..  Doing the math on 8 sheep and our luck of twins, we now needed more pasture.  Once we reached year 5, we dispatched the Rams.  We had about 15 sheep, that was enough.  That went on for 2 more years or so.  It was cute, 2 goats ran with the sheep, there were horses of all sizes.  Then there were the coyotes.

By then we had converted very large cattle pastures into smaller pastures where you could rotate animals and not ruin the land.  Coyotes did not care about electric fence or 4′ fencing, they went through it, over it or under it.  The sheep are not the brightest, they flock together, hence flock of sheep, they rarely fight back, once they fall to their back, they begin to give up.  Coyotes are bright, sleek, fast, a animal to be admired.  They were coming back as were a lot of other parts of the ecosystem.  This was going to be a problem, we did not make our money from animals, they are pets, grass cutters and a little food.  Nature returning in the form of a Coyote was awesome to see.

First 1 sheep was gone, then 2more gone, then we were sleeping in the barn and on the turkey porches that overlooked the field. It was a war, internally and externally.  We lost that war, the coyotes struck, teaching their young to hunt.   We had to shoot the remaining sheep that were injured as most had been maimed.  The coyotes weren’t going to stop coming.

So, about 5 years in, 3 miles of electric fence, 100’s of hours of effort … all wiped out in a week, the flock was gone. The golden legs of lamb were consumed, the chops were great, but nature wins another round.   llama’s anyone?