The Bison are here! The Bison are here!

Well, really they have been here for almost 3 weeks...

I have been hoping to get better photos of them, but this is what I have and it seems better than waiting!

Bison herd in our holding pen!

 We have 7 total in our little herd: 

1 yearling bull, 2 yearling heifers and 4 heifer calves (sooooooo cute with their little horns!). 

All in all it has been pretty uneventful, which is good, and way more fun than I even imagined it would be.

We were very concerned that they would be frightened and storm around and run through the fences with smoke coming out of their nostrils and fire in their eyes.  Um... not so much. 

We kept them in our round pen (covered with landscape fabric so they couldn't see out and be terrified of trees, dogs?, squirrels? ... I don't even know what, but we protected them from it!  so the photo above was taken by me, laying on the freezing cold snow, and holding my camera under the bottom rung of our pen- yes anything for a photo!

We were told that we should flag all the fencing so that they could see the boundaries and not feel like they were home, home on the range.  So we did.  I am not sure if that is what is keeping them in, but it sure looks festive!!!

They really have fit right into our little ranch, the horses were actually more upset than they were once everyone was out and about in their respective pastures.  And of course, sheep and goats don't give a crap about much of anything, as long as there is hay to eat.

Against better judgment, I named everyone, but I can't really tell one from the other, so it is kind of a non-issue.

some bison reality:

1. No, you don't getta pet 'em.
2. No, I will not be brushing them to collect fiber to spin and selling high dollar bison yarn
3. Boys and girls have horns
4. They may be wild animals, but that doesn't mean they don't like to sleep on nice thick bedding (in this case hay they haven't eaten)
5. They really don't care if you call them bison or buffalo, as long as you are feeding them while you are doing it.

 Well that's their story for now.  Hopefully I will motivate myself to take some more pictures this weekend and post them next week!

One more photo, from the pen at the ranch where we got them.  Can you see the fire in her eye?