[Chris H]

Has any one used a polytunnel as a sheep shelter? we have just got some sheep and i would like them to have a shelter for the winter (yeah I know some of you do not see the need, but my girls are going to have the choice) I need a polytunnel for the spring, I wonder if i got one sooner would it serve as a shelter, i do not intend lambing, so it would be just a shelter and some where they can eat in the dry, any thoughts? it would only be a small tunnel but I only have a few sheep.

[Moleskins]

Sheep need lots of ventilation so a polytunnel for them would have a different set up to one for say tomato plants. A sheep one would have a mesh piece around the bottom up to about a meter high.


Here's an example http://www.polybuild.com/images/FullSize/Livestock_Sheep1.jpg

[Fleecewife]

I agree that ventilation would be a problem in a small tunnel.  In a larger one you can open the doors at each end to get a through draft, and it's unlikely anyway that the sheep would go in in clement weather, just when it was raing or snowing.
 
Do your sheep have horns?  I have told this tale before - we had a 4 horned Jacob wether who decided that the plants inside our tunnel looked more tasty than those outside, so he used his top horns to cut a neat triangle in the polythene cover.  He and his half a dozen chums all stepped prettily through the hole, demolished all my crops, then stepped prettily back out       I'm sure they could do it from the inside too.
 
We have used our veggie tunnel as an emergency shelter for the occasional newly lambed ewe if the weather is atrocious.  We build a hurdle pen inside (well away from the walls  ) and just keep them in for a day or two.  The patch where the pen has stood is extra fertile for the veggies later 
 
I wouldn't put up a polytunnel specifically for a sheep shelter, unless it was a green mesh-covered one, as it's very simple to make a purpose-built shelter from four corner posts, some sarking and tin for the roof.  You could even make one from old pallets - our first ones were like that, with the gaps helping with ventilation.

[feldar]

Hi Chris H
We use a poytunnel for lambing in. We put up a 72 x 24 foot tunnel, but then we lamb a lot of sheep.
This is a tunnel specifically built for the job and i don't expect you for a Minuit to go out and buy one this big!
But here are some thoughts from some one who has used one.
Make sure it's in the ground properly, we had some fierce winds last year and ours nearly took off even though its in concrete.
Make it big enough i know this sounds silly but sheep do not "like" or do well inside and we had some pneumonia cases even though ours is large, ventilation is very important.
Do protect it from the sheep!! we had to patch ours when the the sheep had a little nibble at the covering.
Watch the struts and try to stop sheep going behind them, we had a lamb hang itself when it got stuck behind a strut. Sheep will always find a way to get stuck even though you can't possibly see how!!
Rats; they love tunnels like this your sheep will not be the only thing sheltering.
Good luck, i am NOT trying to put you off, i am only highlighting our problems so you can avoid them.

[Small Farmer]

Feldar what was the material and is weight please.  This seems to be a minefield  - we've been looking for a while and are a bit confused.  We don't need light transmission particularly.

[princesspiggy]

Feldar what was the material and is weight please.  This seems to be a minefield  - we've been looking for a while and are a bit confused.  We don't need light transmission particularly.

and who supplies the agricultural style ones? ta

[feldar]

We got ours from Premier Polytunnels, They specialise in agricultural housing. I don't know about weight but ours is robust and built for the job and apart from a few minor problems that i mentioned it has been great. Do make sure you stretch the skin really tight across the struts because pleats are what the sheep will nibble at.
Ours is green so not much light goes through, but it is less visible from a distance.
One downside was the price it cost us over £3.000 but we think this was worth it because last winter we would have lost a lot of lambs, so in a way it has paid for itself.

[Pebbles]

Hi Chris


when you say "only a few sheep", exactly how many as there are other temporary options open to you?


Pebbles

[SteveHants]

As has been said before, a veg tunnel is a different creature to one for sheep. How many sheep are we talking?


You could always bang in some posts and attach a piece of corrgated tin to the top. That way you get plenty of through air, but its sheltered from above.

[Pebbles]

Thats exactly what I was thinking...or just leave a horse box or livestock trailer open for them to use.

[Dougal]

To be honest your sheep only really need shelter when they are very young or you have prolonged cold weather (-15'C and below for three weeks), that said wool producing breeds like merinos need protecting from constant wet to stop wool rot. I'd look to get a veggie poly tunnel, it will be a fair bit cheaper than one set up for sheep. If the sheep need shelter chap a post in the ground and slide a pallet over the top to act as a wind break. That is all the shelter that sheep should need.
 

[Fleecewife]

Thats exactly what I was thinking...or just leave a horse box or livestock trailer open for them to use.

Or not .....      We parked our old horse box for the tups to shelter behind when the rain lashes through here - now it's sideless and all the lights have long since been smashed and the wiring chewed through.

[Anke]

Some pallets, fence posts and wire should be cheaper and probably longer lasting than a polytunnel, if you also want to use it for growing veg, and you don't plan to lamb inside.
My sheep do NOT have any shelter (other than the side of the hedge), and did very well even in -20 a couple of winters ago... they just go through tons of haylage/hay instead....

[SteveHants]

Just to add: 


My sheep have no shelter either other than along hedges etc and I actively discourage it (one of my fields has a horse field shelter in, and another an old pig ark). I will block both of these up with hurdles or they will all try and cram into the field shelter (this could be 40 ewes plus lambs) and that, to me spells disease.


So, in preference to what I suggested earlier in the thread, I would say don't give them any shelter.

[Chris H]

Ok we are not talking 'big numbers' here, I have 3 ewes they share the croft with two goats, the goats at the moment go in a trailer over night, they all love the trailer and the sheep would go in it to at night, but I feed a block to the goats at night away from the sheep. I was only thinking that a 'tunnel for the sheep would be an ideal answer for the oncoming winter..............you see numbers not a problem   I know sheep can be out in all weathers, but so can I, and I would rather shelter inside when it is windy/cold/wet I appreciate the problems with overcrowing with lambs etc, but not in my case.