[Pundyburn Lynn]

Hello folks,
 
I'm absolutely distraught - my lovely Soay ewe and lamb have done a bunk.  We suspect that someone left the gate open, as all the fences are in tact.  They were last seen by the neighbouring farm legging it across a field, and they've not been seen since 6pm yesterday.
 
Needless to say I've been shouting, shaking feed buckets and hiking all over the adjacent land, but nothing.  I have all the local farmers on the lookout and I've been out since 4am.  Can sheep find their way home???
 
Lynn

[kelly58]

Little  imps ! You must be beside yourself , I have Boreray so l know how fast they can move.
Hope someone spots them soon Lynn 

[in the hills]

I read a story about a couple of escaped Soay.  Gone for a couple of days and then waiting by the gate to be let back in so  .  What a worry for you.  I suppose they will at least 'stand out' in someone elses field.

Can you put up signs in local agri. stores/ livestock market/ vets and so on?  ...... Hopefully someone will contact you.

Can you leave the gate open to their field in case they come home when you are not around?

[Womble]

Oh no Lynn - that's awful! As in the hills says though, at least they'll not go un-noticed if they end up with somebody else's flock, so hopefully you'll get them back soon.
 

They were last seen by the neighbouring farm legging it across a field

Does this not imply that they somehow managed to get out of your field AND into somebody else's?  That means they surely must have jumped at least one fence in the process?

[Pundyburn Lynn]

Sadly it was a tattie field - no gate to theirs, just a massive gap.  Beyond that it's woodland and although there's a deer fence, the gate has gaps and they could easily have gone through... 
 

[Womble]

Oh dear!  Is it possible that they're missing the taste of seaweed, so have made a beeline for the coast? 

[Bramblecot]

  you find them soon.  I know how worrying it is to lose animals

[hafod]

  for you - I can imagine how worried you are.

[Fleecewife]

Oh dear!  Is it possible that they're missing the taste of seaweed, so have made a beeline for the coast? 

....except it's not Soay that eat seaweed (there's no shore on the island)  You're thinking of North Ronaldsay which have been shut out onto the shore for 11 months of the year, so have no choice but to live on seaweed.   Sorry, I know I'm a pedant 


I'm not sure I can say much to help, Lynn.  If they have gone into wooded ground then people may assume they are deer. The only upside is that they are such fiercely independent creatures that they will probably have a whale of a time if they end up living wild.  I think though that there's a good chance they will come home.

We have a Shetland which we rescued because she kept running off from her owners land, with her crossbred lamb.  She would walk into the nearest village which was 5 miles away, then turn round and walk home again  .
Interestingly she's never made the least attempt to leave here, but has been happy and content for 13 years.

  your little sheep come home 

[Backinwellies]

Take comfort from the nursery rhyme ....


Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep,
 And can't tell where to find them;
 Leave them alone, and they'll come home,
 And bring their tails behind them

 

[Young Ed]

i was wondering why i had some extra smaller sheep in that field! 
sorry, i'm really not helping am i?
Cheers Ed

[SallyintNorth]

I have a Charollais cross ewe called Charlie2 The Adventurer.  Because she goes on walkabouts, like a tom cat!  ::)Often way for days, once for months so I had her Missing Presumed Deceased.  Turned out she'd spent the winter with a neighbour who gave her a nice warm stable to sleep in.  So, just like a cat

Here she is with us at Wool on the Wall

[smallflockshearing]

My first 2 sheep escaped after my son left the gate open.  I found them 2 days later up on the moor, in the geographical direction of where I had bought them.

I also heard a story about a Soay owner on a Scottish Island; they escaped shortly after him acquiring them... they were eventually spotted some 30-40 miles away, near the ferry port where they had disembarked after he bought them on the mainland.

The moral of my yarn is that you should get a map out, trace a line from you to where they came from, and then check out open spaces en route.  They will go uphill and onto open ground where they can.

If they were born on your holding...  I'll shut up!

[mowhaugh]

Really sorry to hear that, fingers crossed you find them soon.

[langfauld easycare]

  i could write a book on catching escaped soays . i had 120 on a hill some escaped into a large unfenced forestry ,nightmare .they used to butt the chicken wire fence till it burst and legg it  .it was the main reason i got rid . dont no where you are but i have a dog whos favorite job is catching soays (i am in fife)