[bloomer]

I have no advice...


I just want to see the contraption for shutting the gate at 50 yards...


Good luck...

[in the hills]

Sorry, but think you would be best to forget about treating for a while and go back to feeding in the penning area daily. Hopefully they will get keener and bolder as they get a bit hungry when the grass stops growing.

If something spooks our Soay we forget about any treatments for a few days to give them time to settle back down(unless an emergency of course).

Are they used to moving between two gated fields? We did have to set a temporary pen up between two fields that they were used to moving between on one occasion when we had some awkward lambs. They just assumed they were swapping fields ....  haha ... outwitted. 

Oh, and we never carry equipment down to the penning area until they are all caught up because if they so much as see a bottle, crook or bucket being carried they know what is going on.

Are all sheep so smart? 

[Womble]

Result!     After a weekend feeding them in the pen, and constructing more and more complicated chicane type entrances to it (thanks for the hint in the hills!), I finally managed to catch them all this morning  . Basically I waited until they were busy eating, then closed the gate. They did try to bolt for it when they saw me, but I made sure I could reach the door faster than them this time, thanks to the chicanes  .

So that's the remaining two drenched, the bandage off the third, and the tup in. He's covered about twenty miles already, chasing them round and round. It seems he went to the "if you stop for breath I'll have you" school of romance, but at least it will get them all fit  .

Hopefully now I'm not actually trying to catch them any more, I'll have more luck with the Digestive Biscuit Diplomacy!

[SallyintNorth]

Well done Womble 

[Rosemary]

Congratulations! 

[in the hills]

  It's just a matter of outwitting the little devils.

See it as a challenge. 

[bloomer]

Go Calvin Go!!!

[Womble]

Oh he's going alright Bloomer.

He hasn't actually caught any of them yet, but full marks for effort from the wee fella! 

[Womble]

Time to update this thread methinks:

A mixed report really. Over the winter the Manxs gradually tamed up to the point where I could reliably feed them in the pen and shut the door on them without them bolting.

All four of them lambed twins in April, and despite the consensus in the poll above, this tamed them up considerably since the ewes were hungry due to their increased energy needs. This got to the stage where they could all reliably be penned, and two would happily eat out of my hand.

HOWEVER, it's now July, they've all but weaned their lambs and the grass is lovely and lush. Will any of them come to a bucket?  Er, no!  As wild as the wind, the lot of them, along with their mad little carbon copies! 

What I will say is that since none of them ever seem to need my attention, it's not really an issue. It still leaves me with a dilemma in the long term though.

My gut feel at the moment is to keep the tamest two and run them with our Zwartbles tup this year to produce butcher's lambs, whilst sending the other two for mutton this autumn. All of this year's lambs will be going for meat next Spring I think.

Any comments on that folks? 

[SallyintNorth]

They clearly don't suit you, Womble, and you shouldn't feel bad about that.  I wish I could take some off your hands, but my two Manxes are enough for me; my wee fleece flock overall is getting to be not so wee!  Any that I bring in mean I have to select someone to leave... and I want all my girls, so that's that, I'm afraid.

It will be interesting to see how the Zwartbles x Manx lambs do - and if they end up staying long enough to get clipped, I know plenty of us would be interested in their fleeces, because that's a really unusual cross!

[Sbom]

Zwanx labs? Ace 

[Rosemary]

Zwanx labs? Ace 

Manbles 

[Womble]

Zanx Loaghwarts I think you'll find (Dr Seuss would have been proud!  )

[princesslayer]

My Jacobs wouldn't come near me until near lambing, when we were feeding them, then even better after lambing. They lambed outdoors in a small paddock then I picked up the lambs and penned them overnight. Once I'd been in and out a few times checking udders and spraying navels, and spending time with them in the small paddock they tamed up loads. And lambs are quite tame too.

Good luck x

[Womble]

How old are your lambs now Princesslayer?  We were doing fine until a few weeks ago, but evidently the grass is now good enough, and the lambs now weaned enough that the ewes don't want hard feed.

Suddenly my only 'carrot' is ineffective, and I have neither stick nor dog to help the situation!!