The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Sharondp on May 03, 2010, 09:41:58 am
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We have 6 badger faced welsh mountain sheep and 4 commercial lambs.
On checking them yesterday we found that the lambs have been marked on the back of the neck with a blue spray. It wasn't us! :o
We're going to ask the neighbours if they saw anything but no-one is really close enough.
Why would anyone do this?????
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Even I haven't heard of that before why mark them there there isn't a blue painted hole in the fencing and they have put their heads through is there.Very puzzling ??? :farmer:
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nothing blue anywhere - and the marks are all in the same place, same size ???
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Are you sure they haven't all strangely rubbed on something blue? - Just trying to think of something not sinister!
Have you heard of the horse plaiting that goes on? People come into other people's yards and fields and put a plait in the horses mane. The initial theory was that they were doing it to mark horses to steal and also as a way to check their temperament. Then the police decided to put about a story about it being a pagan ritual connected with knot magic (load of rubbish). However I know loads of people who have had their horses plaited but none have been stolen - so far!
Could just be someone having a laugh.....
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This is very strange. I would be notifying animal health first thing in the morning if they were mine. Are your gates padlocked? If not I would put one on there pretty quick.
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We've only been here since december, and we're on friendly terms with the neighbours, but not quite enough 'to have a laugh'.
Been keeping an eye on them very closely today! We have a public bridleway that runs around the back of our land - the lambs are still at a weight where they can be picked up - and they're really friendly as we raised them from 3 weeks.
Hope I'm not sounding too paranoid but this is weird!
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I would bring them inside at least overnight, and during the day maybe put them close to the house in some hurdles for a few days. Maybe put eartags on if they haven't got them. Also the blue marker spray stays on for a long time (if thats what it is), my hoggs still have their number from last spring on their side...
If it is that, it can only be a farmer (or someone who keeps/has kept) sheep before, most other people don't know about marker spray.
Up here there have been reports of sheep rustling, but I hope hat my shetland crosses are too wee to be of value to anyone...
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Up here there have been reports of sheep rustling, but I hope hat my shetland crosses are too wee to be of value to anyone...
Who would be fast enough to catch them? ;D
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Unfortunately Rosemary any good sheepdog.My pal Warwick acquired some I swear they could stand along side (not facing) along side and spring into the air and land the otherside the netting bluddi things.I don't think there was a good dinner on them if you had one each like a pheasant ;D ;D He didn't keep them long.A chap said he would like some of those where did you get them? He got some very Quick next day as I recall.Ben could sort them though a sharp nip on the back end soon learnt them who was master he could jump the wire while running forward.They soon learnt :D :farmer:
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Is there a possibility that they got mixed up with someone else's flock and they were marked so they could be shed easily? a case of mark the few not the many?
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I'm thinking maybe the lady down the road (with the HUGE farm!) has some seasonal workers in marking her sheep and they've done my lambs too but I haven't seen her yet to ask! Our paddock isn't really near anyone else's though! The lambs have ear tags and they are still 'in situ' so the mystery continues - if I find out what's happened I'll let you know!
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We have 5 hoggets in a friend's field. He also rents some of his land to a farmer and we turned up one day to find about 105 sheep in the field! We were dagging ours so when we eventually managed to seperate them, we made sure we marked them well with a big red stripe across their bums. All was fine until we went to see them a few days later to find the field empty - the farmer had moved all of them to another field!!!