The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: SteveHants on August 08, 2012, 12:34:22 am
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I was gathering some ewes with lambs at foot today and as I was putting up the pen, I noticed the (presumably orphanned) lambs of the new folk who had moved in next door to one of the farms I graze. They were three fields away and my presence caused them to push under two gates, cross a paddock with a horse in and stand right in next to the other side of the fence looking at me. They did return to their field after 10 mins or so and I gathered my ewes (who usually like to put some distance between me and them except when I have a bucket).
Caused me to think though. I've heard a lot about sheep nicking going on this year and wouldn't they be prime candidates? I think I'd be worried if my sheep were that tame - even my bottle fed orphans don't like me as much as these sheep seemed to.
Do you worry if your sheep are too tame?
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Dont have any sheep but our 5 Lambs are stupidly tame
they come running as soon as they see us and I have to drag them out of the feed barn every time I go in there.
They have no fear of dogs and TBH they think the dogs are just part of the flock , The wolfhound puppy cant quite work out what these white curly coated things are that crowd around her wanting to sniff her every time she goes into the field
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Better too tame than 2 wild, you can always keep them the other side of the fence if they are 2 friendly.
I have about 5 ewes in the flock that will feed from hand, they draw the rest into pens / changes of field etc. I don't have a dog and have lost some of my "Olympic Ability :excited: "over the years so friendly sheep make everything so much more manageable.
The only negative side i could see would be in terms of theft of livestock, that said my stock are wary of others even if i am present.
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Mine are silly tame, we only have 5 and of them 3 would happily live in the house and sleep on the bed if they could ::) other 2 are manageable. However...if a stranger comes to the field you'd think all hell had broken loose with the bleating and running about they do, even if its someone I'm standing with. I feel *fairly* confident that they'd not be a theft risk from the point of view of being too tame but who knows? its a scary thought. On the other hand they are massive, even the lambs are big boys now. Any thieves would have to get to get through 2 fields (inaccessible with vehicles) past 2 gypsy cobs and through our gate before even reaching the sheep. Our own vehicular access passes by our office and bedroom window so we are :fc: fairly safe :-\
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I was wondering about this one :thinking: but If someone wanted to turn up with a trailer then it would probably be as easy to herd in a bunch of fearful sheep using a dog or a couple of helpers as it would to entice in a bunch of confident sheep with a bucket.
I am hoping that the fact that mine are now bright green from rubbing themselves on the LPG tank would put people off ;D
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Some of my sheep are tame (brought up on the bottle). This is great when I'm trying to get them to eat feeding but as soon as I need to catch them or put them in a handling system they become as wild as feral goats! Most annoying, thankfully the collies are stil fit to hold them or the job would be much much harder!
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Our 6 lambs are very tame... they come to me more than anyone else on the farm which is helpful. However they can be a pain so they are now out on 10 acres of grass/corn hash with 6 young heifers just to distance them a bit. They still come when called though and share the heifers corn every morning.
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I was wondering about this one :thinking: but If someone wanted to turn up with a trailer then it would probably be as easy to herd in a bunch of fearful sheep using a dog or a couple of helpers as it would to entice in a bunch of confident sheep with a bucket.
I am hoping that the fact that mine are now bright green from rubbing themselves on the LPG tank would put people off ;D
The shepherd who came to gather our sheep which includes soays and castlemilk moorits was flummoxed as was his dog - it took 4 adults, 5 children and his dog to get them in for shearing. My OH knows someone who had to shoot their soays, they could never catch them from the hill. Should have bought a bigger feed bucket I think :D
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Most of my ewes that I've had from young (and one or two older ones) are very tame. Yes they would follow anyone for a bucket but I'd rather that then they were a pain to catch (I have some very flighty ones who are always a nightmare when it's time for maintenance!). All I have to do is rattle a bucket, shout 'SHEEP!!!' and they all come bombing over ;D
However, as has been said - if they suspect you are up to something it's a totally different story ::)
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My Soay range in tameness. Some jump up, while others, though they follow the bucket, keep a distance away. The very confident ones will eat out of strangers hands so possibly could be stolen. Any fast movements or unfamiliar situations tend to freak even these ones though. Think a collie in the field would just cause chaos.
Most people seem to think that my sheep are goats or deer. ::) ;D
Is there much incidence of theft of primitive sheep?
Do sheep thieves tend to turn up with a dog and trailer? How is it done?
5 tups were stolen recently from a field near here. :o
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4 of my 5 (the lambs) are very friendly. The GFD ewe less so - she is 10 years old and nobody's fool - very suspicious that attention from us means Things Being Done to her! One of the lambs is a tiny, timid Shetland ewe who until recently wouldn't come to the feeding trough or near us at all. She's suddenly gained confidence and when I was sitting in the field looking them over the other day, she came up and lay down right next to me with her chin on my knee wanting a head scratch!
The 2 GFD lambs are stupid friendly and ditto the Hebridean cross - just as well he is easy to entice and treat as he has developed a nasty infection around one of his ear tags - masses of pus and blood - just as well I'm not squeamish. Cleaning with salt water and spraying with purple so hoping it heals up soon :fc: Whose stupid idea was it to tag sheep? The Shetland lost hers almost immediately and tore her ear right across (Sorry - off topic rant!)
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Friendly is perhaps not the right word for my sheep but they do come when I whistle and 3 will feed out of my hand including the tup which is useful when you need to catch them. However, this does not apply if anyone else is around as I am ok, hubby and self is tolerable but 3 or more is a posse and they scarper to the other end of the field ::)
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Theft is exactly why mine are trained to a bucket but almost impossible to grab hold of....except one or two one of which is a wether who is old and not worth a lot. I graze some public land and several other fields with foot paths in them and the gates are ALL padlocked with hefty chains. Silly tame sheep are very stealable and there are lots going awol.... :-\
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Well one of my shetlands is very tame; as for friendly? well she once pinned the parcel force delivery bloke to the gate whilst she checked out the parcel for edibility - he saw the funny side of it - but it served him right for going through the gate.
More seriously, I'm lucky in my new place that the only way to get a vehicle in is through the yard & past the house.
marcus
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Most of mine are stupidly friendly and will follow anyone with a bucket :-[
BUT good gods they are noisy whilst doing so! Where we graze there are people that would be instantly on the alert if my guys kicked off with the noise as they all know they sheep only shout like that is someone is there.
But yes I do worry, I have OCD I ALWAYS worry :D
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2 of the kids who's parents own the gypsy cobs grazing next to our field, nipped through our field to come ask me if I wanted to buy some hay. I knew something was up from 100 metres away as the sheep went berzerk - they were running, bleating, jumping and made me come running out to see what was up. And that was about a 5 and 8 yr old - hopefully thye'd be even more vocal about adults :-\
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I work from home and have recently moved my office to a bedroom looking over my fields. I unfortunately have a footpath running across one field and have howled watching my tup give the impression of being a fericious beast when anyone dares to walk across his field.
What with him and the cockeril screeching at the sight of anything strange it is a wonder I get any work done
I keep all my gates chained and locked as I have styles for the footpath but it is amazing how many people climb over the gate or try desperately to open it - weird
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I am working at getting mine friendly. They come for food when I shout and one or two will eat from my hand. But they are smart - they can sense when I'm even thinking of doing something to them or if I'm looking at one in particular even from behind ::) As for a dog - they run over to see what it is :D
Got to gather them for shearing (at last!) this afternoon so I'll see how I get one - will start early :P
Personally I'd rather they were more tame and easy to deal with - no-one is going to steal my funny little sheep when there are so many juicy, fat ones in everyone else's fields.
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Most of mine are stupidly friendly and will follow anyone with a bucket :-[
BUT good gods they are noisy whilst doing so! Where we graze there are people that would be instantly on the alert if my guys kicked off with the noise as they all know they sheep only shout like that is someone is there.
But yes I do worry, I have OCD I ALWAYS worry :D
That is nearly identical to what I was gonna write. Mine are ridiculously tame.... it's getting them OUT of the trailer that I have the problem with - they WANT to go for 'rides' tho' in all fairness my Shetlands are the least friendly and strangers would never catch them. My orphans and commercials are really tame...the ewes will get in the back of the car if I leave the back door open and wait for a nice trip somewhere and my lambs will go to anyone (as they are furious about their weaning and are convinced that SOMEONE SOMEWHERE has a bottle for them) but like Colliewoman says, are so vocal when people go up to them they would wake the whole of Somerset.
I would, literally, curl up and die if they got stolen tho'.
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Our bottle fed lamb still comes to us as soon as we go in the field and our old Mules will come to the bucket (one will come just to have her back scratched!). However, our Wilt Horns are nowhere near as friendly. The ram will come to the bucket, but the others are not so keen.
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My Gotlands are a mob of hooligans when fuss or food is about, but try and do anything faintly suspicious or out of the ordinary and the distance between you and them increases very swiftly. You've got to be very nonchalant re treatment. We've worked out that if they think you've got your eye on someone else nearby then you can quickly veer off and grab the one you really intended to.
It won't last for long, they're like The Borg, they adapt to our wiley ways.
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Yup, mine too are fairly friendly...I love it when they think I have turned the lekky off the fence- but havn't!!HA HA but they will try it again tommorow!
I do worry about the morning (and evening) greeting as it sometimes seems SO loud. Well the holidaymakers in the hayhotel on the end HAVE come to the countryside. The other two houses on our fiel borders are empty...(One for sale only 20,000 euro if you want it!)
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I would, literally, curl up and die if they got stolen tho'.
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I know exactly what you mean, hubby says they are only sheep but I know he loves it when they run over to greet him :sheep:
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I would, literally, curl up and die if they got stolen tho'.
I know exactly what you mean, hubby says they are only sheep but I know he loves it when they run over to greet him :sheep:
I wish mine did - I think he's absolutely terrified of the "woolly monsters" in our orchard!! so far this year, I do believe he's picked a grand total of 10 plums as opposed to the kids and I who are on about 10 baskets of plums ;)
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Have you said that you think he's scared of them, ickle woolly lambs? A lot of men I know, that would have them out there picking plums like mad, just to show you he isn't (the idea) ;)
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Have you said that you think he's scared of them, ickle woolly lambs? A lot of men I know, that would have them out there picking plums like mad, just to show you he isn't (the idea) ;)
Good Plan Jaykay!! And if I mention that he's scared of dogs, we might get one of them too ;)