[twizzel]

We had an awful storm yesterday which carried on into the night albeit not as hard. Our lambs were out in a paddock with natural shelter on one side and sheep netting (electrified) on the other 3. I checked them all at 6.30pm and again just after 9pm and they were all fine so we left them out. The netting blew down overnight, the lambs escaped and 3 ended up caught up in the netting... and one died.
So I've lost 2 perfectly good lambs to sheer bad luck in 5 days (I lost one last week to bloat at over 3mths old). I wouldn't feel quite so gutted if they were very young and just didn't make it. These were weaned, over 3mth old lambs. Feeling a bit pants about it all now... surely my run of bad luck has got to end soon- 2 dead lambs, dented my car and an expensive repair bill for a camera lens (I am a photographer) in no more than 2 weeks.
What is it they say, it doesn't rain it pours 

[kaz]

So sorry to hear your bad luck. We don't use the sheep netting with lambs because as you have found they can get tangled in it.
We use two strands of electric fencing which seems to do the job really well.
I hope things start to look up for you

[in the hills]

Sorry 


We don't use netting but didn't realize how easy it was for sheep to get themselves tangled until Christmas morning just gone. Went out early to check the wethers and wondered why one was standing so still under the hay rack (one of those that hangs on the fence). OH had used some galvanized metal attached with baler twine to make a cover for the rack as it had been so wet. He had left a short, and I do mean short, length of twine hanging down. It had become wrapped around the wethers neck and tightened. It was so short that the wether was in a standing position and held tightly upright. Had to shout OH to help cut it off as it had become so tight against the wethers skin. His head was swollen and we wondered if he would make it. Luck would have it that he recovered but it was just luck. Felt awful about it. Meant to post the tale as a warning to other novice sheep keepers but forgot until now so will post here. May help someone.


Better luck from now on.  .

[HelenVF]

awww, how sad

Helen

[Alicenz]

Im so sorry to hear about your lamb.  That was really bad luck.  I agree with Kaz, they do get tangled with the mesh, and wires can also be hard to train them to when they are really young (they can tangle in that too). Although a friend has found the mesh very good for keeping lambs off baleage.  But i guess if any type of electric fence shorts out they can get into trouble. Thinking of you as you obviously will be devastated, and had thought they would be ok having checked them. Hope your week gets better.

[twizzel]

Thanks everyone. I think they only got caught in it because it blew down, had it stayed up it would have been ok, there is a good fencer and battery on it and they learnt very quick not to touch the fence. Still doesn't bring my poor lamb back, just a horrible accident so very close to losing my other lamb last week. And it's all happened on the day I'm going up to Devon county show, I don't really feel in the mood for going now but I am working up there. Might have a wonder round the sheep tent later to make myself feel better

[kanisha]

If the lambs have learnt not to touch it then switch it off particularly overnight when there is no supervision. I am very sorry to hear of yet another death through an electric fence

[Marches Farmer]

Sheep can get themselves hung on pretty well anything if they try.  If I use baler twine on anything within sheep reach (and most of the farm seems to be held together with the stuff) then I tie a small bow then a half knot and cut off the ends really short.  That way it stays easy to release if necessary but the loops aren't big enough to snare a lamb and there's no trailing end to catch one.

[twizzel]

If the lambs have learnt not to touch it then switch it off particularly overnight when there is no supervision. I am very sorry to hear of yet another death through an electric fence

That's fair enough but when sheep aren't in your back garden how are they supervised 24/7? We are on a working farm they are out in fields and paddocks around the farm, they are not under constant watch. 1 week they might be in a smaller paddock, the next week they may be moved to a field further away. That said they are checked throughout the day and evening but I don't understand how switching it off will help, even if they know not to touch it the minute it is switched off or the battery is flat they know and will push through the fence for more grass. This didn't happen because the fence was off or the battery went flat- we had 70mph winds last night and the fence blew over. We had checked all the fencing that day and moved it to give them more grass and shelter. I checked them at 9pm after the worst of the winds had passed and all was fine. Just one of those things, horrible accident thanks to the freak weather we had last night.

[OhLaLa]

Sorry to read of another death due to electric netting.
Said it before and I'll say it again. Electric netting should only be used on a temporary basis and only under supervision.
 

[lachlanandmarcus]

I have to say I gave up using it after a couple of near misses, and only use it for when moving the sheep to make a chute etc, so under supervision. It Ought to be ok, but seems to result in quite a few accidents, which commercial shepherds might just accept but I can't. Most smallholders seem to stop using it because of that factor.



Op Im really sorry about the lamb, it's not your fault and really bad luck. but it is something that will happen again most likely if using the netting as core fencing (NB I also hated finding dead hedgehogs in it :-(((

[Roxy]

So sorry about the loss of another lamb.  Hopefully you enjoyed the show today, and can move on.  We all find with livestock, these things do happen.  Its easy to say don't use this sort of fencing, but lots of people do - and do not seem to suffer any losses by it.

[bizzielizzie66]

Really sorry about the lamb - such bad luck and what a storm last night!

I do use electric fencing -a 4 strand Smartfence - but as well as the plastic push-in posts and guy ropes I whack in some little tree stakes (4ft 1x1" ish) every so often and tie the plastic posts to them - makes the fence a bit sturdier. I expect this would work with netting too. They cost about a £1 each. Whatever you do - even if you try n second-guess any possible stupid thing the lambs and sheep might do, some will find a way - and that wind last night was exceptional. I obsess about stuff but still you can't blame yourself for every thing that happens. Please don't Twizzel 

[kanisha]

I do use electric strand ( not netting)  on ocasion . In the one paddock the sheep are brought in at night . The other is for half of a paddock ( a cars drive to get to the paddock ) although the sheep are monitored through the day at night that section of the paddock isn't available to them; 

most of the time the electric isnt even on, periodically i remember to switch it back on

[Pedwardine]

We've been there too with electric on resulting in a very tangled dead ewe lamb who was otherwise at the peak of health. Such an unneccessary loss that I felt guilt over for a long time.  We changed over to a cut out energiser but young sheep are always curious and still got tangled to near death. Now we have a three reel system which works so much better. The lambs can nip through if they really want to but won't stray far from mum. Wish we'd gone with it right from the outset but sometimes bad things are the only things you learn by. So sorry to hear your news