I bought 28 sheep and lambs from my friend on Monday February 19th, 2024. These are a mix of Dorper and Barbados (Barbie). The goal is to breed my St. Croix rams with them and then over time build my own genetics in my flock.
I had originally thought to move them into the area where I had the bulls and dogs previously. I thought that the sheep would acclimate to the dogs and the dogs to the sheep so that there would be less stress when I brought them together. Or maybe I could introduce one dog at a time rather than swarming them with the puppies.
My friend suggested just dropping them off in the pasture, and that went poorly. The poor sheep and lambs were swarmed by puppies trying to get their scent and love on them with hugs and licks. One of the lambs ran through the perimeter fence. We were able to find him and get him pretty quickly, but his face was cut up and there was a bit of blood. I held that sheep and brought him back to the pasture. I lay the sheep down and let the dogs sniff him. Hindungi, the alpha male, licked the wounds clean. When the dogs backed off, I let the lamb up and he sauntered off to the flock.
Another sheep who was mildly lame was exhausted and simply lay down due to the excitement and running. The dogs swarmed that sheep but they weren’t attacking. Instead they surrounded the sheep, making a circle of protection. When I came back to the field a few hours later, she was up and moving with the flock.
The next day was moving day, so I went in the morning to setup the fence. Just like had happened when they first came in, a sheep or lamb had probably run through the fence and tangled up the wires. It took a while to fix it all — time that I wanted to spend setting up new wires.
I came back that evening with my son and we quickly got the fence setup. It took about an hour to get everything setup and tight. I made a few changes. First, I put up 3 posts for the corner. That seemed to work really well. Also, I put up the corner and and posts and then ran the wire back and forth. Later on I put up the posts.
The move went well. The only stragglers were the St. Croix sheep and her lamb, and one of the puppies. Unfortunately we built the fence around Snowball, so we had to get him out as well.
The sheep and lamb were hard to get a hold of, but once I grabbed the sheep I could get her to cross the wire, and the lamb followed. I could tell the lamb was hesitant to go near the wire, so they are both fearful of the wire, which is what we want.
The puppy whined and eventually allowed us to pet him. Then we carried him across the wire. One thing I regret is not training the puppies to let us touch them. While I don’t want them to bond with humans, they do need to be comfortable around us and they should approach us and let us doctor them at least.
The sheep are rapidly acclimating to the environment. When I go to the field, I see them spreading out more and more each time. Only when I go to the pen and the dogs get excited do they bunch up. They are probably more scared of me than the dogs by now.
Going forward, if I buy sheep, which should be rare, I should take some time to let them acclimate before putting them with all the other sheep and dogs. Maybe setup a pen within a pen and let them stay in the inner pen while surrounded by the other sheep and the dogs. That may help them learn to respect the wire if they are not hotwire broke too. Speaking of which, that will take some effort to train them regardless!