[SavageU]

Tipped him in at the beginning of September.

Chaos with kids and work. Blinked and not managed to raddle mark him/them properly…does it matter with a small herd of 13 ewes? Should I bother now?

When should I separate him from the ewes? I’m asking as for two wethers I’d need to put him with afterwards.

[twizzel]

Depends if the ewes were cycling when you put the ram in (which early September is quite early and would not think they were) and how long you want to be lambing for.


The likelihood is the first 2 weeks of the ram being in, he will have acted like a teaser and got the ewes cycling. So they should have all been tupped around 3rd week or sept or before then. So if you left him till mid Oct, that would catch any returns.



Personally mine get 2 weeks with a teaser ram to bring them into season, and 2 cycles (34 days roughly) with the real boys. Anything empty after that is up the road. Lambing is long enough without waiting for the odd one to lamb or even worse one that you don’t know when it might be due.

[Fleecewife]

We would put the tups in at the traditional time for round here - Bonfire night. Used to leave them for 6 weeks to make absolutely sure.  Now we leave them for 4 weeks.  The first day they should/could lamb is April Fools day, easy to remember and they should be finished by May 3rd but mostly they've lambed in a bunch in the middle of April, so timing is much as twizzel says.
We have never used raddle (black sheep).  We used to watch the tupping then make a note of when each ewe was served so we would know about when she would lamb. We have done our last lambing now this year so no more need to think about it 

[SallyintNorth]

We run the tup near to and in sight and smell of the ewes for three weeks, then put him in for 3 weeks.

Last year was the first time we had any empties (two gimmers; all 3 experienced ewes took and held), and then we realised we hadn't done the "proximity teasing" last year.

Seasonality / when the ewes will cycle is affected by genetics, geography, climate, weather, previous lambings if any, as well as pheromones.  I have noticed many times that a given ewe will often lamb on the same day year after year, and her daughters often fall into the same pattern.  But if you put a maiden adult ewe with a tup, she'll cycle and lamb unseasonally, and ditto if a ewe has had a year off (for whatever reason).

I prefer to put the tup out late November so they lamb mid-April onwards.  We've pretty much always got some good grass and decent(ish) weather by then, any earlier and we're often short of grass and/or lambing into sleet, hail etc.  We're only producing for ourselves and mostly give all lambs two summers, plus later borns often catch up earlier ones anyway, as their mums were in better shape and had more milk from the get-go, and the earlier little ones spent the first week or two coping with the cold and not really growing. 

[shep53]

If you put raddle on him now and left him in for 18 days then you would know if all were tupped in the first 2 cycles  or not

[Richmond]

We've only had sheep a few years so nowhere near experienced as the others who have answered (and we're only dealing with a few sheep) but we watch the ewes we plan to breed from quite carefully and note the behaviour - one in particular starts showing interest when she smells the ram and if cycling will back up to the fence nearest him and stand there - it's quite funny actually just watching her go back and forth as if to say look I'm here I am so desirable! When we see that happening we put her and her sisters in with the ram (for us its easier to move ewes than ram) and so far they all seem to get in lamb pretty much straightaway.

We put them together in November for an April lambing but tend to leave the ram in anyway till mid/end December and then separate.

[Backinwellies]

For next year  with only a small flock .....   Mark each sheep with its number on the side in large digits.  Raddle ram before you put him with sheep with a yellow or orange crayon.   Dont put in till Oct when sheep should be cycling .

as you check daily note down each sheep that is tupped.  Change raddle crayon to darker colour at day 15/16. 

You will then have a record of when each sheep was tupped and a much better idea of who will lamb when ....  90% + of mine lamb within 48 hours of expected date. 

[SavageU]

Thank you. Need to be more on it next year.

[SavageU]

Just realised i've posted twice on same topic. Phone has been playing up. Apologies.