[Happyhens]

Hi to everyone

                     We have started to Lamb our Miniature Quessant, they should be ready to leave (weaned) in around 5-6 weeks time, we also have three very nice Black Rams for sale and one Tup Lamb that is White (quite rare), they are not related. If you would like more details then please get in touch.

Regards

S.

[kanisha]

sorry but they will not be weaned in about five to siw weeks but four months

[Happyhens]

 
Hi Kanisha
              The one's born ealier will be ready to leave in five to six weeks time, I think you miss read my posting?

S.

[kanisha]

Hi Happy hens
 just for clarification, it will be four months old?
K

[jakers]

We have a few of these characterful sheep and now have 2 young lambs with 3 more expected.

Does anyone dock the tails using the rubber rings and do you castrated the males using the same method.

 

Then I read the other postings which have given me the information I was looking for, still nice to make a first posting.

[kanisha]

Hi Jakers glad to here you have some ouessants they are a northern european short tailed breed do NOT dock their tails they are naturally short and don't need doing.
I do castrate my boys by banding them but you will find if you try to do them at less than a week old you are going to have real fun!!! I'm not sure where you are but i understand this is a legal requirement to do it in the UK before a week old I have not yet managed it at less than ten days even then its fiddly til you get the hang of it but do able; If you are still not sure or need any advice please feel free to ask. I have one lamb from this year with another ten expected all ouessants  Love to hear more about your what colour? origin etc?

[jakers]

Kanisha

Thanks for the reply and the advice, I did look at castrating our first ram lamb but could not find anything to put the ring around

Since then we have formed a very loose partnership with two other breeders and have arraged our grazzing to seperate out the boys in a few months time from the girls. 

That way the boys get to stay complete and gain weight quicker and keep our resident ram company for a few months.

We are on the third day of antibiotics on one of our expectant ewes, she picked up a foot infection, despite regular foot cleaning and the odd trim, she is moving around much better now so it looks as if the antibiotics have done their thing.

[kanisha]

Hu jakers, I am surprised at the weight gain being more for rams , I have kept two of last years wethers as an experiment to  kill out at 18 months as hoggetts. I saw an article somewhere ( can't remember now where) stating that wethers grew larger and this to be honest I have found to be the case. I expect his finished weight and size to be bigger than the average i have here and considering he is one of a twin that is pretty good going. He was done at ten days. I wanted to explore the advantages of wethers in terms of fleece, saleability ( for pets) and meat;  do i take i you will be doing them at a later stage or selling them on entire? I am keeping at the moment two  groups of entire breeding rams which is working out quite well time will tell if this continues plus currently two wethers one who will be a permanent fixture and I run him with the girls as he was done later and has horns and a good protective instinct and is nice with the ladies and the lambs. Mine live out all year round so the added prescence of a wether makes me feel more comfortable not sure how much protection they actully need but he does a good job; 

good news about the ewe. 

[pigsatlesrues]

I am not sure if this is the forum to ask this question but reading about castration puts me mind of something the vet said to us recently.

We had twin goats born 1 boy 1 girl. Incidentally I use the rubber bands to castrate ours males and like Kanisha find it impossible to do it before 10 days old.

Anyway the vet said that a twin of both sexes would give a barron female who would never get pregnant because it will have gained too much testosterone from her brother or because of her brother. Can't remember the exact wording now.

Is this the case with sheep?

Kate

[woollyval]

This only applies to cattle and never to goats and sheep!!

Twins in cattle are not common but are normal in sheep and goats. In cattle twin heifer calves are normal and so are twin bulls however in a mixed sex twin in cattle about 60% of heifer calves are 'freemartins' looking and growing like heifers but never coming bulling as they often don't have overies. Most farmers will not keep a heifer who had a bull twin 'just in case'!

[pigsatlesrues]

Thank you for that response. When I rehome this years young which at the moment does include a female of this type, it was a little worrying to me baring in mind that others might like to breed her.

Kate

[kanisha]

It is very unusual for ouessants to have twin lambs.  there are some who say if they have twins they they can't be ouessants. this is because, of the three breeds of sheep common to the area ouessants were known for single births the race a deux or mouton de belle isle was know for its prolificacy having twins or multiple births;

Interestingly there is some work done in dogs to suggest that those bitches sided by a male pup are likely to be more dominant as a result of the washed testosterone.  and that you should note birth order of puppies to get an idea of early dominance traits. having had two pairs of ouessant twins last year both  male + female sets I can honestly say I have noticed no difference. the one ewe lamb I have not put in lamb this year as ideally the first year is too soon for such tiny sheep the second i have she is as well grown as a single lamb the particular  ewe always does her lambs really well. I'm not sure if she is in lamb as if she is it will be later time will tell.

Twins Bella and Beau

[jakers]

Twins fantastic, I'm just realy pleased my girls are producing one healthy lamb each!!!!

Great photo.

What age would you consider worming the lambs ??

We use Synanthic at aprox 10ml per adult sheep at intervals of 13 weeks unless the girls are in lamb.

[kanisha]

Believe me when the first ewe had twins I was like a headless chicken when the second ewe ( mum to the first) then produced a nice sized ram lamb I thought that was it until she heaved and out popped a twin!!!! The ewe in the pic is huge again whether its twins or not I have no idea shes always huge.  as for worming.

I wormed all mine about four weeks ago. using Immena ( which covers for liver fluke ) I will worm again with Ivomec because I have  had a problem with Nose bot. only my cotentin ewe seems to have a problem but I avoided treating everyone last year  with ivomec and because of that I needed to give my contentin a second treatment. lambs get wormed at about  four to six weeks;as lambing is likely to be spread out it varies a little  I tend to rotate my wormers.

[carole]

Oh Kanisha, dont I wish mine would have twins. The first lamb was born last week, a  black male and is so cute and healthy albeit a pain when trying to feed pigs in particular, he has begun to come straight over to me, do a crawl on all fours and go under electric fence to see if their offerings are better than the rest of the flock of sheep. Anyway 5 more to go, looking forward to Blossom my white ouessant giving birth. All the others are black but the ram is white too. First year with this ram, so we will see what colours we end up with.

Carole