[goosepimple]

Soays are all popping now - tried to catch twins the other day for doing the snip and they can run as fast as mum quite easily - ended up running around with long crook in hand looking like a lunatic - we've tried sneaking up, preoccupying mum with food, but they have a built in radar and they're off - up the banking laughing at us from the top, pulling tongues and making rude signs - ah well, we all know who will have the last laugh, heh heh

[doganjo]

Good sheep dog required methinks 

[Fleecewife]

  - sheepdogs require psychiatric care after trying to round up Soays  They tend to scatter and jump.   The only way we have found to catch the wild ones is to set up a sheep handling system made of hurdles and gradually train them to go in.  We can discuss it tomorrow GP.  Another way is to use a dog which doesn't mind being followed, then the Soays might follow it in - we had one like that and it worked a treat.  Yet another possibility is to have another sheep or two of a very docile breed which they will follow.  For catching new lambs, after the first hour or so they can run so fast you won't chase them down, but you might get them in a corner with a rugby tackle if there are 2 or 3 of you - try not to land on the lamb    It is often impossible to ring soay tup lambs within the 7 days allowed.
Soays are wonderful - I love them 

[morri2]

You need a nice placid breed like Dorsets.  More likely to come to you for a nuzzle than run away  .  Still, its good to know someone is keeping these native breeds going.  Perhaps the sheep dog suggestion is a good one or you could get the ewes to follow the feed bucket/bag into a pen!!!

[SallyintNorth]

Well I have no experience of Soays but Swaleys have some similarities judging by the stories here!  

I have two dogs which can catch lambs but then mum & sibling have scattered and it can be a problem to reunite the family.

So I use the two dogs to hold the ewe 'at bay' by staring at her from a few yards away while I sneak up and neck-crook a lamb from behind.

Another tactic which sometimes works is to feint the ewe into changing direction near a fence, she will often trip over a lamb which gives you a chance to grab that one while it's off its feet.

But my success rate is not high...

[goosepimple]

Unfortunately our female border collie is only 6 months old and she's totally crackers at the moment so we're not letting her near them until she's calmed down a bit. 
Have been dealing with more lambing today - so far we have twin boys, twin girls and today and boy and girl combo - unfortunately the girl was very small and was finding it hard to keep up with the result that mum and the boy walked off several times - have given her colostrum feed and she pepped up after that and has managed to hang on with mum and brother - not sure if she'll last the night though but she's with mum, not a lot else we can do.  See how she is tomorrow. 
Then we had a far away neighbours spaniel rocketing berzerk around the entire place - managed to catch her - no collar or ID tag of course but we found the owner.  Typical busy day.
Will catch those little soay tups yet but it's unlikely to be within the 7 days for the catration but the week old ones are beginning to stray away from mum quite a bit now so more chance (I think?). 
Thanks for all your contributions.

[princesspiggy]

we sold our soays for that reason, but their new owners had them coming to the bucket, so perservere and get a routine with them. cud u not herd them into a smaller paddock? tho mine used to jump the fences so good luck!!

[SallyintNorth]

... but their new owners had them coming to the bucket ...

When I was moving north to take on (with a more experienced friend) a 1000-acre sheep farm with 450 Swaledale ewes and 80 North Country Mules, we realised we would need a sheepdog.  It was all a bit (!) daunting and while I was trying to find a trained dog which would be able to help novice sheepdog handlers 'gather the fell' (about 500 acres of very rough moorland - 'moss' they call it up here, peat bog most of us would call it), one of my friends asked would we not be able to train the sheep to come to a bucket.

I never have (yet) video-ed the scene when the quad bike and 'snacker' go up the fell road to dispense 1/5 ton of cake for the 450 ravening pregnant Swaleys - but suffice it to say that the dogs jump up on the quad and will not get off when the hoard comes thundering over the ridge...  Come to a bucket, indeed!  You'd be flattened!   

[goosepimple]

Actually I have a river which separates the living/arable part of our land from the sheep field, so I have to cross a bridge (its high and bouncy) and make my way down a tree, bucket in hand to feed them.  They stand and baa every morning as soon as they see me leave the house and then when I make it to the field they form a scrum around me.  Luckily the sensible mums with lambs stay on the high ground out of the way but the ones with slightly older lambs all join in - so getting them to me is no problem its just trying to catch them - they have the reactions of a fly!  But I'll get them....really I will......(must get that dog trained up for next year). Thank goodness the last 3 lots have all been wee lassies!

[Fleecewife]

We took some Hebs and Soays over to Tarbert castle a few years ago to help eat down the rampant vegetation there.  The terrain is impossible to drive over so they had to have a way to catch them.  They set up a pen open on one side and put the food inside - gradually the sheep got used to eating inside the pen.  Then they got them used to people being present when they were eating inside the pen.  Then they slammed the gate shut    After a week or two they forget the betrayal and you can catch them again.  If your Soays are coming up to you goosepimple to be fed, just set up a pen of four 6' hurdles and reverse into it when you are feeding them.  It will take a couple of weeks, but eventually you will get so that you or someone else outside can shut the gate on them.  Some of the adults might jump out initially, but you will have the lambs (you might have to block off the bottom of the hurdles so the lambs don't get under - we use stobs)  Also tie all the hurdles together with rope or twine as the weight of a lot of sheep can push a hurdle pen over.  It's all a case of outwitting the sheep, using their own psychology against them so you understand why they react as they do.

[goosepimple]

Ahhh, where there's a will ....... thanks fleecewife, I am on the case and the dirty deed will be done this weekend, thankfully the girls are outnumbering the boys 5-4, finding it quite amazing how much smaller and more pathetic the little girls are but all doing well all the same.  let you know how we get on.