ram Hercule

Hercule

Hercule was born 2003, he was named after Hercule Poirot, a literary character from Agatha Christie‘s books.

His mother gestated 3 lambs, and that makes always problems. 2 lambs were born, Hercule and his brother. We thought that was all. Hercule’s mother didn’t accept Hercule, we thought that’s because he was too weak to walk. His brother was accepted. The mother must have been busy with getting labour pains, but we didn’t see that. We took the weak Hercule in the cottage.

Hercule's mother 2005

We had some Ovibion from the guardians that worked here before us, that’s powdered milk for lambs.
On the next morning I found Hercule’s mother lying on the meadows. His brother was lying near her and was undercooled. We called the vet and she pulled the third lamb out. Then we brought Hercule’s mother in the stable. She was ill for 3 weeks, because of the toxic agents. Due to daily feeding, physiotherapy and finally carrying her in and out of the stable, she got well again.

I took Hercule’s brother in the cottage and tried to warm him. He drank a bit, he was much bigger than Hercule but he didn’t survive the night.

Hercule was a happy lamb. After the death of his brother he slept in my bed, wearing a diaper. First he baaed (? correct past ?) for his baby bottle every 2 hours. Then the spans between the baby bottles became longer. Soon he was able to sleep on a mattress next to my bed. And he could run and jump very good. His only weak point was being a sheep. Sadly I don’t have photos of Hercule as lamb. At least I made an animated .gif of 2 photos I made when he was sitting on the sofa.

Hercule and Hercule on the sofa.

On the evenings he was usually lying on the sofa and watching tv with me. There he was ruminating and fell asleep.

He wasn’t house-trained but at least he peed outside and it’s easy to remove sheepdroppings.
He was able to open doors by stepping on the handle.

When female boss was here in summer 2003 she made some photos which I scanned today.

Markus, Hercule and me in summer 2003.

Hercule and Phex in the cottage

Phex cleaned Hercule, just like he did with Daffne later, he is a good father.

Hercule on the stairway in the castle.

Hercule looks so clean here… well, he was an indoors sheep.
When he became too big to carry him up the stairs to our bedroom, I moved downstairs and he slept on a doggy bed.

But he still refused to be a normal sheep. I started to act as if I would eat gras. In September I was a bit desperate and feared I would have to sleep on the meadows. But then he made it and that was due to Kumpel.

Kumpel was a son of Schwarzköpfchen. He and Rehlein, his sister, understood fast, that they would be able to grab some ancy foods at the cottage, carrots and granulé. They were inseperable, Kumpel and Hercule were inseperable forever. That’s why I sold them together, which was really sad.

Rehlein and Schwarzköpfchen 2003.

Kumpel 2004 after the first shearing.

Kumpel the model.

Kumpel and Phex.

Kumpel gives Phex here a petulant gaze, but he was the nicest of all rams. He liked to get scratched behind the ears, unlike Hercule, who, after he finally moved outside, went rebellious.

Hercule 2004 after the first shearing.

I had tried to castrate them with a rubber ring, but it didn’t work out. Hercule got finally castrated by a vet.
We just kept Kumpel against the volition of female boss and he made lots of lambs in the following years.

They didn’t stay long so streamlined. Kumpel had always bad wool, but Hercule had awesome woolen fur.

Hercule in front of the cottage 2005.

This year (2008) they were fat. I had to sell Kumpel, because inbred isn’t good for the flock. He had some problems with his head, due to an injury he got 2 years ago by a young ram. In summer he seemed to have migraine for 2 weeks, was hiding in a small stable and didn’t wanted to see other sheep, except Hercule. Hercule was so fat, that he got problems with his hind feet. But it was sad for me to sell them and I waited till after the shearing. They (and some male lambs) payed the vaccinations for the dogs and cats this year. Including the vaccination of Bach.