The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: juliem on September 13, 2018, 07:36:22 pm
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The sheep and lambs in the field next to me are making a terrible racket during the night.They can be noisy during the day but only to attract my attention to give them an occasional apple.
They are not mine....I just rent the field. out.They can't be hungry..plenty of grass...could it be some sort of prey around which is making them nervous. It's a 4 acre field with ewes and lambs..45 of them .Only been there for a day..they get moved around 11 acres fairly regularly. Or is it just ewes and lambs communicating with each other when they are lost in a big field?
Perhaps one only notices the noise sheep make when one is trying to get to sleep!
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I often hear my neighbours sheep but during the day and they are over the valley from me. Can't say they make much noise at night though and I check my ponies quite late. Maybe more so when lambs are young. Maybe a fox or something going about at night to upset them
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As they have only just moved to the field, all the noise will be ewes and lambs trying to find each other in the dark, in an unfamiliar place. Our own sheep are silent at night, which is much more sensible if predators are around, as long as they all know where ewes and lambs are. Hopefully your next door sheep will settle in a couple of days.
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Agree with what the others have said, they should be silent at night, but if they are new to the field they may still be trying to find each other. If you listen carefully the calls should get responses - like a conversation - eg. "Lamb: where are you Mum? Mum: I'm over here!" and this can repeat until the lamb has made it's way back to Mum. If it's not like that and the bleats are more panicked and there is a lot at the same time then it could be caused by a predator.
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I think Fleecewife is probably right, but I did also wonder whether some of the sheep have been speaned. Does it look like all the lambs have a mummy? Are they mostly pairs of lambs? Otherwise, it could be a batch of speaned lambs with a few ewes to nanny them, and they’re crying for their mammies. Or a batch where the male lambs have been removed, and the mums and sisters are calling for the missing family member.
In all cases, the racket should stop after a day or two.
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I think Fleecewife is probably right, but I did also wonder whether some of the sheep have been speaned. Does it look like all the lambs have a mummy? Are they mostly pairs of lambs? Otherwise, it could be a batch of speaned lambs with a few ewes to nanny them, and they’re crying for their mammies. Or a batch where the male lambs have been removed, and the mums and sisters are calling for the missing family member.
In all cases, the racket should stop after a day or two.
speaned? do you mean weaned ?
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I think Fleecewife is probably right, but I did also wonder whether some of the sheep have been speaned. Does it look like all the lambs have a mummy? Are they mostly pairs of lambs? Otherwise, it could be a batch of speaned lambs with a few ewes to nanny them, and they’re crying for their mammies. Or a batch where the male lambs have been removed, and the mums and sisters are calling for the missing family member.
In all cases, the racket should stop after a day or two.
speaned? do you mean weaned ?
Lol, no Linda, I mean speaned. It’s an old word, still used in the north of England, meaning ‘separated and weaned’. Subtle difference ;)
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Speaned/speaning still in common use in the Highlands as well.