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I bought a sheep


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I'm officially a shepherdess. It's only one sheep but its a start. She's an open ewe, Dorset cross about 3 years old. She's black with a white nose, very wooly, almost a chocolate colour. I decided on an open ewe (her singleton lamb died) to avoid having lambs around just yet.

My horses are terrified of her. They're still at the far end of the pasture, all aquiver.

I have her penned in the goats corral. Hopefully she can't climb the trees like they do. I brought Bounce out. His head and tail went down when he picked up her scent. He noticed her through the fence and She charged him. He went at her and barked and she ran. My Gsd ran around the corral and barked and then went off to look for eggs in the hen house. I brought Tex out on a leash. He picked up the scent but I figured the ewe had had enough so Tex just got to eat wool tags. The ewe is pretty spooky but not the challenge that the goats have been.

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Don't fail to get her a few friends ASAP or you will have one unhappy sheep! My first sheep were a halfblood Dorper ram and some 3/4 Dorper ewe lambs (it was a buy whatever, get the ram free deal). Well, about a month later a pack of dogs slaughtered all the pricey ewe lambs and the free ram escaped without a scratch.

 

So poor Shem was all alone until we were able to replace the ewes. It took about a month because the owners of the dogs dragged their feet about coughing up the damages. Meanwhile poor Shem paced and cried for a good bit of the time, and lost condition seriously.

 

He was SO happy when we brought in the Golden Girls - about half a dozen old ewes we got from a friend.

 

My three bottle lambs this year, by the way, are out of the last two of those original Golden Girls. One is a purebred Dorset, great sheep.

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I had planned to get a few sheep today but everything this farmer had was ready to pop any minute or had teeny, tiny lambs. I'm just not set up for that and our weather is still fierce. Soon tho, I will get some yearlings or a ram for her.

I've been checking on her every hour. She refuses to use the little goat barn but she's so shaggy (18mos since she was sheared) if she stays under the trees I'm sure she'll be warm enough.

I just did last feed and brought Tex along. My husband held his leash and Tex savaged the fence trying to get this poor sheep. I asked him to come along and go up to the house and he pulled his collar off over his head and went at the fence again. I grabbed him by his scruff and made him go home. Bounce was pretty intense too. This is going to be interesting.

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Hey Bounce, take it easy with your poor girl!

 

What she needs right now is NO dogs until she learns to trust you. Even after you add a few more sheep, let them settle in for a while before even bringing the dogs close. Several weeks maybe.

 

Get your sheep hooked on grain (but just a little at a time). At first just rattle the bucket and throw a handfull on the ground. Just be sure to work them up slowly on grain - only a handful or two a sheep. Talk to them in a quiet voice. They will soon come come to you for treats. Even my most flighty ones come for corn!

 

Give your sheep a chance to learn to trust you!

 

Hope I have not sound to preachy. Please realize that this is coming from someone who has made more than her share of mistakes. :rolleyes:

 

Enjoy your new crtters!

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She'll settle down quite a bit once she has a friend. Then don't work her until she has more friends, for which you can wait until spring if you need to. You want a minimum of three sheep to introduce to your dogs when that happens. Be sure to read up on it and get one of the great videos that are available! Most of all, try to get help from a pro - sounds like it's not a bad area for learning to work those dogs.

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Not preachy at all. Unlike some people who come on these boards, I can handle it when someone points out that I am acting like I'm a few slices short of a loaf and not doing the best I could for my animals.

The Kathadin farmer was not available this morning.Overnight my goats joined the ewe in the pen. I wanted to quarantine her for a bit. She seems content and accepted a teeny slice of apple from me. I am feeding her good grass hay, a couple of soaked alfalfa cubes and just straight oats which is what she is used to. I will grain the goats in a different location.

My dogs will find her anyways, so I wanted some control over their response. The german shep has already lost interest and the bc are unhappily tied up today.

I remember now what I liked about the dorsets. I think I will continue with this breed. I will start looking for a quality ram. I think dorsets can breed year round, is that correct?

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Yup, my thirteen year old Dorset ewe that has no milk (that I pulled the bottle lambs off) just started cycling again. Not sure how I feel about that - our fences are in such a state that I have nowhere to isolate the rams at present. Too late now! I might have a couple more bottle lambs in the summer.

 

Anybody in North Carolina care to sell me some ewe colostrum? Goat colostrum? Heck, I'll go to SC, TN, or VA. I can't get any off all these yearling ewes that lambed this year and my two Golden Girls were either dry or problematic.

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Rebecca,

I want to again recommend using Spectam (sp?) Scourhalt along with what ever colostrum you can get from the mother. If you look in the Merck manual, giving a dose of antibiotics in the first two hours of life has been found to be effective against watery mouth (and economical). I read in Pipestone a number of years ago that most/all of the antibiotic stays in the gut and is not absorbed by the lamb - another positive. And no risk of introducing diseases into your flock. I have found this to be highly effective and a time saver, which is critical for me because I have a more than full-time other job along with the ewes, horses, 5 dogs . . . I also haven't had a case of joint-ill since I started doing this (which I read you were having problems with) - probably coincidental but maybe they're less stressed and therefore less susceptible.

 

Kim

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Bounce, I love your sense of humor.

 

As I wrote my previous post I was thinking of our very first sheep experience.

 

We had just unloaded our new young ewe and her 2, 6 month old ewe lambs, when our GSD mix came around the corner. Of course they were startled and ran - right through the fence. Frisky was only to happy to chase them. After 100 feet or so the dog came back. The sheep however did not (I can't imagine why :rolleyes: ). We spent our day trying to find them. Late that afternoon we caught the ewe (took three men, a pail of corn, and the shepherd she was used to). We penned her where near where we thought the lambs would be. One came to where we had her penned, and the other one was caught 2 days later.

 

Needless to say we learned alot the hard way that weekend! I'm just grateful that we had excellent mentors to help us work through our mistakes.

 

I've never had experiece with dorsets, but had read good things about them. Yes, they can be bred year round. But that can be a mixed blessing in northeren climates (I've had several "learning experiences" due to cold weather lambing).

 

Hmm, dorsets also have decent quality wool. You can now learn the fun handspinning and knitting as well!

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Yes, Spectam (1cc/10 lbs). I had bottle lambs dropping right and left a few years ago, despite giving colostrum and keeping a pretty clean environment(Most of the lambs were brought right into my kitchen. I was raising bottle lambs both from my own flock and from a friend's flock who has very prolific sheep). Once I started giving the spectam preventively to the weak and bottle lambs (a small percentage of my flock), I haven't lost a lamb to watery mouth. I had done this based on something I read in the Pipestone catalog several years ago. I noticed the other day that the Merck manual cites studies where this practice has been effective, supporting my anecdotal experience. I also just found an article by Joe Rook discussing the use of Spectam in the TREATMENT of watery mouth called "Sloppy Spring Weather Produces Its Own Unique Set of Health Problems" at http://cvm.msu.edu/extension/Rook/ROOKpdf/Msbecoli.PDF

 

Kim

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No offense taken . I definatley understand where you are coming from.

I guess the reason I use the grain method is that the results are highly predictable, and right now my dog is not. I usually just use it with single sheep or a small group (4-5). Even so it can be rather a pain, but at least I know the sheep will go where I want them to.

 

Hopefully after herding lessons this summer I can use my dog more.

 

When I feed ear corn to the whole flock (about 30) I do it from the other side of the fence.

 

For colostrum, I have used Premeir's kid and lamb kolostral powder with good results. I usually have an once or two of the real stuff to mix with it. I have also read about (but never tried) using cow colostrum.

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Maralyn, your story is what I was dreading most. I put a rope halter on the ewe and she trotted along to the pen. My horses are still tearing around after 24 hours. They are normally very mellow. I put their hay in the regular spot near the ewe's pen so they can learn to live with the "alien" or starve. There were a few moments yesterday where they were thinking of taking out the fence because of the "lambie-monster"

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Alas, no. At the last minute, my husband decided to come along. He was a big help with the groceries and good company. He was surprised at "how big" sheep were. I'm not sure what he was expecting.

Husbands always have their own agenda and we didn't make it during their Sunday hours. I hope for Tuckers sake he's out, but I plan to try again next weekend.

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