We now have two sheep

Mare Owner · Sun Jul 22, 2007 5:42 am

Well, large lambs anyway. Step daughter raised them on bottles for her girls to have some fun, now they are big and not fun anymore so we picked them up.

Put them in one of the horse pens and found when they see Hay on the outside of their pen, the small one just slips thru the pipe rails and goes to eating. The hay is always greener on the other side I guess! So they are now inside a stall in the barn for the night!

Thurston Garden · Sun Jul 22, 2007 12:41 pm

Excellent

I have always been tempted with sheep, and have the grass but not the fencing. I was mildly put off by on old shepherd who once grumped: "Sheep only have one aim in life and that's to die before you want them to." I don't think he had been having a good time with his!

ina · Post: # 66044Post **ina** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 5:15 pm

Thurston Garden wrote:"Sheep only have one aim in life and that's to die before you want them to." I don't think he had been having a good time with his!

He was right, though. It's very satisfying to foil their attempts to commit suicide, though!

red · Post: # 66068Post **red** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:33 pm

yay!

yeh a neighbour said to me "no other creature on earth spends it entire day trying to think of a new and inventive way to die"

but I was surprised to find how much I enjoy having them.

possum · Post: # 66093Post **possum** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 9:37 am

sheep are a pain in the neck. My advice is get them to a decent size and kill em, they are a lot less work once they are in the freezer

red · Post: # 66102Post **red** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:02 am

they are alot of work. you have to do their feet, dag them, drench them, use a pour on to avoid flies... deal with flystrike (ewww) and get them shorn.

on the other hand.. they dont escape as easily as goats.. nor eat as much variety... they are good to run with other animals such as horses as are not such fussy eaters and will keep the field in good shape, you get lamb for the freezer yum yum, and wool. you can raise them on grass alone, as we are doing. haven't tried lambing yet tho.....

Willow · Post: # 66178Post **Willow** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:22 pm

I love my sheep. I better rephrase that as an ex Kiwi... I like my sheep. No trouble at all. Just put in a paddock and forget. With mine the wool just falls off. I think the dry conditions help avoid foot and fly type problems. Hoping to see a few lambs in the comming weeks.

ohareward · Tue Jul 24, 2007 10:26 pm

Good on ya mate

I love my sheep.

Mare Owner · Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:22 am

I am trying to put a pic of the lambs here, but can't seem to get it to work. Hmmm...

possum · Post: # 66342Post **possum** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:24 am

Mare Owner wrote:

Mare Owner · Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:27 am

Thanks Possum! Three tries and I finally got it.

We also raise cattle and horses so don't think sheep can be too much more work than them. The biggest problem right now is we don't have the right fencing for them, they are so small compared to the foals and calves.

We had decided to fatten them a bit and butcher them, though if we had more fencing for them I'd prefer to breed them this fall for more lambs in spring. We have a couple friends and neighbors who raise meat lambs so have help, advice, and support. We just need fences!

possum · Post: # 66344Post **possum** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 4:30 am

Are they about 3 months old? Another 6 and they will be a nice size for the table.

thinking nice thoughts of haggis now....

possum · Post: # 66401Post **possum** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 1:31 pm

Mare Owner wrote: The biggest problem right now is we don't have the right fencing for them, they are so small compared to the foals and calves.

Speaking as someone who ended up with 6 sheep an no decent fencing
If the don't have much wool the electric fencing is easy to put up, if they have a lot of wool then they just go straight through it.
Sheep netting I would say is your only choice. You could just buy a couple of rolls and tack it to your existing fencing.
We got too stressed out keeping sheep, I was constantly worried about fly strike and also I didn't want to having to drench them every month which everyone told us we should do.
We may get sheep again to fatten up in the future, but not until we have sorted out a lot of fencing ( the previous field they were in no longer has adequate fencing as it is being put to different use.

Mare Owner · Mon Jul 30, 2007 4:45 am

Well the little one (escaping daily) has eaten the flowers off my pumpkin plant! And some of the pea plants. And also got into something greasy in the machine shed. So we decided they are going to the sale barn...

It is not a good time right now for me to get some appropriate fencing, so best to let them go and get set up right and maybe next summer we'll get a couple.

If that little one was just a couple weeks older it would be too big to fit thru... A friend of my husbands might be taking a cow to sell tuesday, and if he does he'll take the sheep. If he doesn't we'll have to wait for the next time, and maybe by then that darn little one will have grown and they can stay.

Anyway to get them to grow fast? I am kinda sad to see them go (although if I get ZERO pumpkins for lack of flowers, I might not be so sad they've gone!). :)