[Greenfield]

Hello everyone,

Any advice on this would be hugely appreciated :-)

We have a really small flock, just 3 ewes and a ram.  Our eldest ewe gave birth to two lovely lambs last weekend, they're all doing really well.  We brought her and the lambs into an inner paddock with pen/shelter, closer to us, good fencing etc, and they're doing great in there.

Once or twice we've brought our other two ewes to the gate so they can see her, and have rubbed noses etc through the gate.  We don't think these two are pregnant, it is possible that they are, but not showing any of the signs yet.

After 5 days (yesterday) we decided to try socialising the two ewes with the eldest and her lambs, so we can make sure they're all ok together before letting her to back out into the fields during the daytime. However, one of our ewes was very (unexpectedly) aggressive towards her. Chasing after her, head butting - And not the usual butting & bickering we get sometimes, there was quite a lot of power behind the head butts. The new mum was trying to get herself and her lambs away from it, so we had to step in and separate them.

Our third ewe just enjoyed the opportunity to eat all of the feed that was out for them when this was going on :-)

I'm now worried about how to move forward in getting them back into the tightknit flock they've always been. (Of course there are plans to keep the ram separate from them, he's only been with them 6 months and has been kept separately through all of these interactions).

Perhaps we're being too sentimental and they need to resolve it between them? Or I'm wondering whether they should spend more in adjacent areas so they are separated but can become familiar with each-other again? Its only 5 days they were apart, so to be honest I was expecting them to just all fall back into normal relationship....

This is our first time lambing so it's all a bit new to us..... but we've had these three gals together for 2 years.

Thanks so much - love the forum
Jo




 

[Richmond]

Not sure why no-one else has replied but for what it's worth we have a small flock too and our ewes will bicker and challenge each other for dominance on occasion. Maybe it would be best to keep mum and babies separate for a bit longer until they've had more time to socialise through the fence and have all got used to each other again?

We only bred from 3 ewes this year and separated them from the other 4 nearer to lambing time and they won't go back in with the others until we wean the lambs at the end of the summer, so we currently have ewes and lambs in one paddock, unbred ewes in another paddock, and ram/wethers in another. When the ewes are put back together there will definitely be a lot of horn clashing and general thumping but they do settle down after a while.

[Fleecewife]

[member=215665]Greenfield[/member] I think your idea of putting the two ewes in an adjoining pen to the lambed ewe is your best bet.  She will be smelling differently now and also has those interesting little lambs with her.
Although it's only 5 days there will have been a shift of power during the separation so they need to sort it out, but as the lambs are still so young a short reprieve in neighbouring areas will be good.
Ah, I see you sent you post 6 days ago so you probably have this sorted already?

[Greenfield]

Hello both,

Thank you so much for your replies - Still very much a concern! I think I was unlucky in submitting my first ever post just before the easter break, so it took a bit of time to get approved.

Really appreciate both your advice - I've not changed anything yet since original post, but think I'm came to a similar conclusion to you so it's great to hear you say it too. I was getting concerned that the longer we left it the harder it would be, but it seems like its going to be a bit of a tussle either way, so may as well leave the lambs get a bit bigger and stronger, and let mum relax and focus on them for a while longer. The three of them seem really happy, well and content - so I've left them separate.

I've now put the other sheep back into the adjoining field, so they can see and hear each other over a very short distance, hopefully this will at least build some familiarity.

I certainly don't feel super confident in placing the lambs out in the field yet, mainly because this particular Mum is the most stand-offish of them all, and I don't think she'll want to come back in when she gets out! Also although our fencing is good, there is a ditch/hedge on one side that has gaps that the lambs are small enough to get into right now.

Do you think I can leave them like this for another week or two (or three!) until the lambs are bigger? And then I guess we stand back and let them sort it out between themselves, hopefully quickly.... 

Thanks again 

[twizzel]

I would fix the fence… because as lambs get older they will find every gap and be out    and then I’d just put them all out together. Ewes will have a hierarchy that needs sorting and the lambs will get out of the way. When we put our cows back into the main group after calving there are some serious fights… you’d not want to get inbetween them! But within a few hours everything is sorted.

[mab]

Our third ewe just enjoyed the opportunity to eat all of the feed that was out for them when this was going on :-)

This particular paragraph stood out for me; if there's feed about then that's something to fight over/cause to assert dominance. I'd try and let them come together without anything to get posessive about.  Might be a red herring as the 3rd ewe wasn't bothered - but, then again, maybe 3rd ewe is dominant and the others wouldn't argue with her?