With 3 new lambs, I was talking to my neighbor about his sheep and he said he was getting out of the sheep business. A commentator recommended I buy his sheep since he is close to me, and I thought that was a fantastic idea. So I approached my neighbor but he was hesitant to sell me the sheep. He was concerned because these were not good sheep. He had a buyer come through and pick out all the good ones and these were the leftovers.
I knew what I was getting in to, and I knew I wanted to learn about sheep problems and how to solve them, so what better way than to start with problem sheep? Once I felt like I could manage them, I could probably manage hundreds of healthy sheep no problem.
So in late February I bought the remnants of his sheep for a very good price. He tried to haggle me down in price, but I remained firm and kept the price somewhat near what he’d get at the sale barn.
Bringing the sheep to the field was a problem. The dogs were not well trained and the sheep were frightened. One sheep ran through the barbed wire. It took a while for everyone to calm down. In the future I am going to introduce the sheep gradually to the dogs. I’ll probably put the sheep in a pen for a day, and then bring the dog in and let them get comfortable before moving them to pasture.
The sheep had some problems at first, but to be honest, I was more concerned about my dogs. The St. Croix sheep refused to be near the sheep I bought so I had them hanging out in the pasture by themselves. It wasn’t until almost March 2024 before I could get most of the sheep together.
I kept the sheep and dogs behind 4 strands of wire, moving them twice a week. Eventually I tried 2 strands, and that worked, except the dogs were getting out. I had to tie Nutmeg and Hindungi to a tire to keep them in the row, otherwise they would show up at home, with puppies in tow. Snowball had nowhere to go but my land so he would leave the sheep pen but stay on the property.
Early in March, I was finally able to get all of the sheep together. The St. Croix and new sheep didn’t like each other much. It would be months before they started to mix together. But mission accomplished. Now all my sheep were together with all of the dogs.
One of the biggest problems were dogs chasing lambs. Having the dog tied up helped, to be sure, but the puppies decided they liked chasing lambs, and some of the dogs were biting them. The puppies had to go. If I had one or two, maybe they would learn not to chase the sheep and bite them. But having seven was just too many.
I built a cheap sheep chute out of wood but it was a complete bust.
Nutmeg went into heat in early March and the two male dogs, Snowball and Hindungi, started going after each other. I had to separate them because they were going to kill each other. Snowball ended up outside the pen. I was hoping Hindungi would breed with Nutmeg but that was not happening, so I took Nutmeg out so Snowball could breed. Nutmeg allowed him to, but eventually he was bit badly. Thankfully, the wound healed quickly.
I added 4″ roll fencing to the cattle pen so I could pen up the sheep.
Once that was done, I brought the sheep in and worked on them.
It was exhausting work, but I was able to get the sheep hooves trimmed. I saw a lot of problems on the problem sheep, but I didn’t think much of it.
Later on, I studied lameness in sheep and discovered that I had hoof rot and hoof scald in my herd. I ordered supplies and went to work trying to treat it. It took a while but I think I am seeing a lot of improvement today.
Gami was born on April 5th. We had a hard time identifying the mama. It was the sheep with the swollen mammary glands. She died a few days later. I found the head of a lamb near the pen, so I assume there were two lambs born but one of them died at birth or shortly after. This was the second death of a sheep on my property.
On Thursday April 11th, we had some more lambs, but one of the sheep was attacked and had severe wounds. She died a few days later. I think Snowball caused the wounds. I’ve seen him get aggressive with sheep when he goes up to sniff the lambs and the mamas headbutt him to protect them.
April 16th brought some good news! We had twin lambs born and everything is OK. This was the first time on my property that I’ve had twin lambs born with no problems.
We had two more lambs born to a white sheep on April 19th. One of the lambs had a brown head. She’s a female so she’s definitely a keeper.
April 21st brought another pair of lambs.
I found a straggler hiding in the trees after a move that gave birth to twin ewes.
And that’s pretty much it, as of May.
Right now, in May 2024, I am focused on treating foot rot and scald and keeping the sheep moving. I’m going to be tagging the lambs as they are born now so that I can keep track of them and also so that I know when new lambs are born.