The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Hillview Farm on April 07, 2013, 11:38:23 am
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Two of my ewes have lambed now, one with twins who are now 3 days old and one with a single born yesterday. I have the girls and their lambs in mothering up pens next to each other and I let them into a larger area with there lambs this morning and the ewes were horrible to each others lambs by butting them and so on...
My Question is how long does this horrible mother behaviour last? And is there something else I should be doing?
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It's just nature. I panicked last year as it was our first year lambing ( and the ewes were first time mums) and they butted quite a bit at first - and they have horns! They still do to if a lamb gets mixed up and tries to feed from another ewe, but that's only in the first few days normally.
They should be fine.
I have to say, my ewes have been much better this year, so I thought it might be a first time mum thing but not sure
J xxxx
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I am probably one of the most inexperienced sheepkeepers on here so don't take my word for anything.
Necessity meant I turned a ewe with a lamb out with one ewe who had lost hers and one who never went to the ram. The two other ewes butted the lamb at first but I stood and watched that it didn't get too out of hand. Now, a week later they are all getting on fine, just when I am about to move them round again ;D
Today I am going to put the ewe and lamb with a ewe who has now had twins. There are 3 weeks difference in age. Again I will watch them closely for a bit and see what happens but hopefully they won't take long to settle down. :fc:
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Interesting JMB because all of mine are first timers this year. Good luck Bionic with putting them out!!!
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If you turn out at staggered intervals so each ewe finds her bearings and knows where her lambs are they should be fine. I made mistake a couple of years ago putting 2 or 3 ewes out at same time and it was chaos and lots of butting until they found their own lambs.
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I think it could be to do with the amount of space they have, Hillview. If they are outside, as opposed to in a communal shed, then they can take their lambs well out of butting range of other dams while they settle down. This is probably one of the reasons that ewes about to lamb take themselves away from the main flock, to try to ensure that their lambs imprint on them and not on another ewe. When they are together in limited space each lamb will at some point intrude into the personal space of the other ewe, and be taught manners by that ewe.
When our first lamb arrived a couple of days ago to a first time mum, I was worried that the other ewes, especially the Soays which can be horrid, would bully them. It turned out to be my two Shetlands which were really curious and kept going to see the lamb. The new mum (Heb) gave the Shetlands a really good duffing until they scuttled off slightly offended to another part of the field, and she protected her lamb from them really well (not that they were going to do anything beyond sniffing him). Now he wanders around amongst them and they just accept him. The ancient unbred ewes though really want to get into the lambing paddocks to meet and greet the new arrival.
There's a whole lot of social interactions with sheep, being a flock animal, so there will be dominance already established between the two ewes you have together, and as with chimpanzees for example, the offspring initially inherit the dam's social status. Great fun to observe sheep behaviour.
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I put my ewes and lambs into what we call the nursery shed and when I've half a dozen I turn them out during the day. I take the next batch to the shed and bring the others in in the evening to mix them together. There's a bit of confusion but the new ones in the shed have already learned to go to their dam. I'm adding a few at a time and letting them get used to a bigger space and finding their dam each time. Seems to work, although the mountain ewes tend to be more aggressive towards opportunistic sucklers than the Down breed is.
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I would second what Fleecewife says, if space is a bit limited the ewes will be much more reactive to 'alien' lambs. I had six ewes lambing in a communal stable and on one night three of them lambed and it was bedlam! Newborn lambs were being butted all over the place and I didn't know who belonged to who till I separated one of the ewes. Out in the field they don't seem to have this problem.