Dwight Hardy

R Ranson wrote:If she was older, it could be she's ready to pop out a lamb, but only 10 months?  It's a puzzle.  
It's beyond my skills and knowledge so I sent out a call in the Daily-ish email.  With over 30 thousand readers, there's bound to be someone out there who can help.

Thank you sir.

Also she is not up and around as much as the rest but she is still eating and drinking.
I suspect that she was bred when I got her but not sure.
I also quoted her age wrong. She is right at a year old. Sorry for the misinformation.

I bought this ewe about two months ago and the previous owner was unsure if she was bred or not.

im from east Texas.

thanks
Dwight

I have a 10 month old Katahdin ewe that I have been unsure if she was bred or not. My other 4 ewes have all come in and bred in the last month but she has shown no signs of coming in.

She has been sort of staying away from the others lately and yesterday she started acting like she was in labor. She started pawing ant the ground and would then lay down and stick here nose in the air as high as she could. She would lay there for maybe a half minute or so and then get up and either start pawing again or stand real still holding her head erect sometimes taking little steps backwards. Then go back to pawing the ground in little circles then laying down again. After about five hours she started acting most normal and started grazing some.

This morning she is back to her normal self grazing and drinking.

She has not bagged up so its got me scratching my head.

Any ideals?

Thanks

Where in SE Ok are you located?

Burra Maluca wrote:Sheep have good memories when it comes to electric fences.  They will eventually figure out that it's not live though, and when that happens they learn to test it each time.  Which means that your fence will never work unless it's switched on.  I find it best to keep it switched on as much as possible and then if anything does go wrong I have a few days until they start to figure it out.  

I agree completely. Once they learn it you should never give them a chance to test it without results.

I just thought it interesting that they would not try and cross it because it was laying on the ground.

They tested the five wire intact fence a couple tomes and best I can tell have not since but no way to be sure.

I guess that to try and train them to the fence when they are heavy in wool might present some problems. Once sheared or shed off would be the best time for training I would think.

Hardy

I have had my Hair Sheep about two months now and really enjoy messing with them. I am still working on some fencing but have about 2 1/2 acre under perm.fence. I started dividing that in three equal lots with electric fence. I first sectioned off one section and put the sheep in there figuring that I would leave them in there for approx. 14 days.

Any way I had strung one string of 1/2 tape between the other two lots and did not connect it or put up any post. It just laying on the ground. A couple days ago I went to move them to a small coral for working. Using the old feed bucket I drove my side by side over to the coral with sheep in tow. When I got there the sheep were standing halfway across the lot just standing there looking at me.

All the calling and bucket shaking did no good, they weren't moving. Not knowing what going on I drove back over to them and there on the ground was the tape I had forgotten about. No amount of enticing would budge them. Finally had to lead them to the end and make a space for them to walk around.

Just to see how they would handle the situation after several days I decided to leave them on the big lot divided by only a 1/2 tape laying on the ground. 8 days later they still have not crossed to the other side.

Also the tape is laying way below the top of the grass as I mowed it to 2" before putting it down.

I was really amazed they would not step over it.

This morning I stopped on the far side of the lots and shook the bucket and they come running and I thought to myself that try are going to run across the tape this time. Wrong. One almost turned a flip getting stopped. Sort of funny to watch.

Just thought I would share.

Thanks
Hardy

Thanks for the replies.

A lot of good info that will help this newbie.

Interesting info on feeding verse birth times. I had heard that before and will try it out. I mostly pasture feed but do feed a little grain mostly to keep them coming to me and moving when needed.

Will be looking for a couple of young wethers to keep my ram company along with ewes when separated from flock.

Once again thanks

Hardy

Hello all. I'm new here but have went through a lot of post in the last three days and have already learned a lot. I'm retired and have decided to raise a few sheep, mostly for my own use.

I have bought a reg. St Croix ram and 4 Katahdin/ Dropper ewes. All are young and healthy. The ram is 16months and the ewes are 8 months and I believe them to be bred but not sure.

I'm leaning toward keeping the ram away from the ewes so to regulate their lambing in early spring.

At this point I don't really want to deal with two rams so my question is can I put a young weather with him without the ram abusing him?

Also they are well trained to my electric five wire fence and would that keep him in when the ewes are in?

Also in trying to prep for the lambs arrival,i have no ideal on due date but thinking Sept, how far ahead of them lambing will the ewes bag up and what are indications that they are getting close to dropping the lambs.

I appericate any advice that I can get.

Thanks
Hardy