[Shropshirelass]

Ok so I've got my starter flock of Badger face sheep but their a little bit skittish as I think on their previous farm they've been able to free range out on the hills a bit more, so ideally just to be able to handle them a bit more especially with the tup & his horns we we're hoping to get them to come to the bucket a bit. They don't really need anything else than grass at the moment - even our other ewes & lambs are just on grass at the moment, but is there  any veg or sheep mix I can put them on that their not going to get too fat on or anything for the breeding season? I'm not thinking much just a handful or 2 each day.

[Richmond]

We feed ours carrots for treats. Our sheep will take them from the hand - we hold a whole carrot firmly and they nibble bits off. All bar a couple of our sheep were very nervous when they first came (bought in as newly weaned young lambs) but we've spent a lot of time just sitting quietly with them and now almost all of them are silly tame. Be patient and take your time with them and  they will soon become calmer and tamer. We used to use food as a bribe to move them between paddocks but now just call them through, not even a bucket required.

[Fleecewife]

Coarse mix such as Carr's Champion Tup, just a little, is a good taming mix. It rattles well in the bucket and is relatively low in protein.  More fattening but useful if you ever have a sick sheep is a Digestive biscuit, offer 1\8th of a biscuit at a time. At first you might have to push them in the side of the mouth between the front and the back teeth, but once they discover the crunch they'll run to the rustle of the packet across the field.

[Rosemary]

Oatcakes, as a healthy substiute for Digestives. Ours loved them.

[SallyintNorth]

Another option is grass pellets. Dengie do one and your local agri store may have its own brand.  Contains nothing but grass (and a bit of oil to bind), so doesn't disrupt the rumen at all. 

[Shropshirelass]

Ta we’re probably going to put some flystrike preventative on them & our other breeding tups at the weekend. So it’s just easier to do them all at once, if we do it on Sunday they’ll also be out of the quarantine period. But we have no plans to mix the ewes & try & keep it as a closed flock when I’ve managed to get a few more ewes. 

But he’s going to have to after Sunday go in with either the other tups or in with some wether lambs when we wean them at the end of the month, apparently he’s been fine with his previous owners polled breeds of tups but any tips for introducing himself to the other boys?

[SallyintNorth]

Did you mean to put this on "treats for taming"?  Cos it seems not to follow on for me - and teaching tups to expect hand-fed treats is very much *not* recommended!

 Mixing tups...

1.  Do not mix horned and polled.  Full stop, period.  Just don't do it.  (Somebody will tell you how to do it I expect but I was told this, then our Swale jumped a wall to get with the BFLs, and one of our best BFLs lay dead within minutes.  So now I pass on the advice and the cautionary tale to go with it.)

2.  Pen the tups tightly together so they've very little room to move, can't get a run up so can't really damage each other.  *Let them get used to each others smell for half an hour to an hour, then give them a little bit more space (and keep watch to be sure nothing is kicking off.)  Repeat from * until confident they can go out together.

[SavageU]

Regarding tups, would you do this with a new tup meeting a herd? We’ve just own wether to keep him company (thus far) when we need to separate them, but now pondering introductions.

[SallyintNorth]

Don't usually have problems with a single tup meeting wethers.  The tup will be boss of the wethers, it won't take him long to show them that, and they won't argue with him. 

[PipKelpy]

Did you mean to put this on "treats for taming"?  Cos it seems not to follow on for me - and teaching tups to expect hand-fed treats is very much *not* recommended!

 Mixing tups...

1.  Do not mix horned and polled.  Full stop, period.  Just don't do it.  (Somebody will tell you how to do it I expect but I was told this, then our Swale jumped a wall to get with the BFLs, and one of our best BFLs lay dead within minutes.  So now I pass on the advice and the cautionary tale to go with it.)

2.  Pen the tups tightly together so they've very little room to move, can't get a run up so can't really damage each other.  *Let them get used to each others smell for half an hour to an hour, then give them a little bit more space (and keep watch to be sure nothing is kicking off.)  Repeat from * until confident they can go out together.

Yikes, re your tup!

My 2, Triplet (Dorset Down) and Cyril (Bleu Du Maine) lived quite happily with BiL's Thomas (Lleyn). All come to bucket, never fought, even jumped a wall at my dad's to get to his lawn, (well, Cyril & Tom did, Triplet was too fat and too short so dad opened the gate to let him mix with the others, only to yell at him when Triplet charged for his reflection in the French Window!)

BiL sheared them there, one after the other. STILL to this day I can hear my dad telling me to get between them as without their fleeces they looked different to each other and were charging one another! Told him he was bloody stupid, think BiL said something a bit more polite!

They calmed down but it really made me think. (During 2001 actually had to use a cattle prodder on a Texel tup as I couldn't get away from him, I phoned for mum who came to my assistance, I was in middle of field and holding him away from me as much as I could. A few sharp shocks and he backed off. Contacted vet and he made a few phone calls as it was in middle of foot & mouth saga! New owners turned up and took him immediately as we asked vet to come out and shoot!)

My 2 tups were friendly, I reared Triplet and consider myself lucky with his temperament but am aware some .........yikes! Even the ones I've borrowed over the years, the temperaments have been excellent though BiL didn't bother like me "I can handle anything etc etc" He replaced his Tups every few years Thomas was the nicest! One tup he had, BiL "I can handle anything" found himself bowled over as the tup had decided he didn't like him in the same field and had charged him. Get rid? No, as that would mean getting another tup in (spending more money) so he told his kids DON'T go in the fields!