[raygezer]

hi all i have recentlygot a couple of ouessant ewes to help tacle my weed problem they are great, i have them seperrated from the other ewes when would it be possible to let them run together ive had them for a week now with no problems ,and would it be a good time to worm them ?? Many thanx

[Collie26]

I too would like to know about worming i i have half a dozen shetland wethers on order and to pick up aas soon as the fencing is sercure

[kanisha]

No problem from a size point of view   I tend to worm anything that comes on to my property before it gets near a field so I would say de parasite them before they start mixing.

[shearling]

is it me but tail seems very short

[shearling]

sorry pressed button too soon meant to start off by saying beautiful sheep 

[kanisha]

she was a cotentin ewe with an extreme dock:-((

[SallyintNorth]

The severely docked girl could really suffer in very cold weather - you may need to bring her in.  We have a couple of ewes who were docked too short (but not as short as your girl) and they got frostbite on the labia this winter.  Ouch.

[kanisha]

she was put to sleep due to a very nasty growth on her vulva I do wonder due to her extreme lack of pigmentation and short dock if this contributed to the production of some kind of growth on her bits:-(

[andywalt]

We found one of our ewes that we brought in had a very very short tail, so what we did was not to trim the wool on the tail and let it grow as long as a tail should be to cover her bits

[kanisha]

I used to put suncream on her ears and her bits. just as with white cats you could see she was very vunerable to sunburn. its only as I looked at others of the breed that I see how the lack any pigmentation although they are not albino most sheep have some melanin somewhere but she was bleach white and entirely pink skinned.

[raygezer]

HI I dont want to sound like a complete fool but is it ok to have two tupps of differant breeds  I am probably worrying a bit to much but its nearly that time of year again and i dont want to be left without a couple of tupps many thanx

[ellisr]

you can keep rams together regardless of breed. I do suggest that you try and get an equal size and strength just for when they play fight saves bad injury but saying that we have one wether that is much bigger (not a ryeland) he is a companion to the rams and he is much bigger/stronger and lives quite happily with the flock and no injuries are caused may be his laid back attitude

[SallyintNorth]

you can keep rams together regardless of breed.

They are probably all okay together out of the breeding season, but you do need to be a bit more careful as tupping time approaches, particularly if there are any ladies nearby.

Do not put horned tups with unhorned - or even in the field next door.  A Swaledale will jump a wall or fence to kill a Blue-faced Leicester when the hormones and pheromones start flowing.

Do not put aggressive tups with passive ones of a different breed.  An aggressive Blue-faced Leicester will probably accept a passive Blue-faced Leicester, but could easily kill a laid-back Texel.

Take care introducing new tups to each other, no matter what the breeds, once the breeding season is starting.  If you must mix them, pen them tightly (no room to back up and ram the pen sides) next to each other for an hour or two, then very tightly (no room to move at all) together for an hour or two, then give them a little room to move around each other but not enough to back up for a powerful ram, watch and if all seems okay, a bit more room, and so on until they are ok together with plenty of space.  Then put them in a field where they can get well away from each other - but watch very carefully for a while, as if they can get away from each other they also have room to back up for a killing ram!

raygezer, were you meaning you wanted to work two tups in the same field together?  How many ewes and what breeds of ewes and tups? 

[raygezer]

No i have two differant breeds of sheep i think the originals are a texal cross quite big girls and the others are ousant a very small breed fro Brittany ,I don't want to be in a position where i have to put single tupps in there own field  its a juggling act now my two horses don't like the sheep ,so do i get one tupp for the texels and a companion and leave the others /// confused to say the least  oh 6 texel cross 2 ousant, texels are for the freezer ,i got into keeping sheep by accident now its like a drug i love it . Many thanx to all for advise

[kanisha]

depending on how big your ouessant ram is and your texel girls he won't be able to mate with the large crosses. my cotentin ewe ran with the ouessant ram all the time and never got pregnant.  she was fertile as she had two suffolk cross lambs at foot when I got her. ram always performed well on the ouessants. the problem may be the danger to the ouessant ram  from another much larger ram and there I would think you may have a problem. I keep about six rams altogether with the usual squabbles but noone is outsized to any degree by another.
a ouessant ewe pregnant to a much large ram is a recipe for disaster!