Our Little Flock

Yay! We have pictures!

This is my modest (but attractive) tunis flock.

From left to right; Rose, Coral, Honey (way in back), Vanilla, Ewenice, and Carmine. Carmine, by the way is the name of a color, red actually :)

I went out Tuesday and took this picture, they though I was there to feed them so they were very attentive.
Rose is out of the Kleman Family flock of Ohio, Vanilla is out of the Freeman flock, Honey is from Cunnington Farms, Ewenice is out of the Mayes flock and Carmine was conceived at the Darling Tunis Farm in Ohio, his sire is Lyle, a three time grand champ.

I know I am probably a bit prejudiced, but I think Carmine is the hottest thing in sheepdom since wool :)

I hear horror stories about people who get too familiar with a ram. I have let my self in for it, as Carmine and I are fast friends right now. I haven't figured out yet how to separate training from friendship, so I may have problems as he gets older. But then again, he is a tunis, and tunis are known for their even temperament. In fact, I can't stress enough how different they are from other breeds I have experience with. As I have mentioned, we have suffolks, a dorset, a corriedale, and crosses; none of them have any more reason to fear us than the tunis do, but the tunis' personalities are consistently better than the others.

As an example, these little ewes went to the NV State Fair with me and Carmine this past August, one of them was an exception to the rule; she was what I would call a pin-ball sheep (thank you Laura!). The only one I have seen in the tunis breed so far. The other was not handled any more than the first, but after the first day of people coming by to look and admire their pretty little red heads, she just started stretching out her neck so everyone could feel how soft and sweet she was. It was amazing! I was totally flattened by her behavior! In my experience, you have to imprint when they are born to get that kind of attitude towards people. To this day she always comes to the fence to get her scratch.

So by now, I guess you know that I want every sheep person in the world to experience a tunis. IMHO they should be the breed. But then I wouldn't think I was so special if every one had them ;-)