[ewesaidit]

Similar to a recent post I know ...... but this time it's about putting two entire tup lambs (16wks ish) weaned for about a week in with my shearling tup.  Shearling has been in a field on his own but in sight of 4 ewe hoggs and has been quite settled.

As the lambs are not likely to be considered a threat (?) and if they've any sense will keep out of the way together can they just be put together in a new paddock?     

Other option I thought about was keep them in for a few days in adjacent pens and when they go out they should be keen to get back to eating grass?

[Fleecewife]

As I said on the other thread, I would just put them all in together straight off.  OK so they're entire, but they are too young to challenge a shearling tup.  He may well chase them round a bit, demonstrate his dominance by humping them, but initially there will be no fighting.  If these two are keepers, then at some point in the future they will have to fight to establish dominance, but usually the older tup keeps the top job until he's old.

It's very different when introducing older tups together, when however you do the intro you are likely to get jostling for position (in primitives anyway) for quite a while.  Also putting several tups back together after tupping time when they'll all be a bit full of themselves.  In both those situations we would pen them up very tightly together for several hours, then let them out to eat a little hard feed, plus get at the grass.  To date, all ours have been ok on that regime, but there are no promises as all sheep are different.  Sometimes they have fought a bit, but not usually for long.  If you can bear it, leave them to sort it out.  If you try to stop them fighting then they'll just wait til you've gone away then have their fight anyway.  The Romans loved tup fighting, in fact it seems they imported multihorned Heb-type tups to Rome for the Games.

[Kimbo]

Apologies as this is a bit off topic. Yesterday I went to help with shearing at the flock our lambs are coming from ( Aside: OMG! Now THAT is what can genuinely be called hard bloody work! I take my hat off to all of you)
 That lady has  5 adult tups  ( A Ryeland, 2 Dartmoors and 2 Hebs) aged between 2 and 5ish, along with 3 hoggets ( Ryeland and RyelandXdartmoor) all living peacefully together. But once they were shorn they started fighting. Lady shepherd said it was because they didn't recognie each other post-shearing! Is that true or was she winding me up? 

[ewesaidit]

Thanks fleecewife, much appreciated

Kimbo - my ewes square up to each other immediately after shearing until they suss out that they do actually already know each other!

[Hellybee]

When we shear our lambs look a little bit puzzled for a while cos theyre mums look and small a bit different so yeah it's true hehe

[SallyintNorth]

once they were shorn they started fighting. Lady shepherd said it was because they didn't recognie each other post-shearing! Is that true or was she winding me up? 

No wind-up.  Usually the ewes are too busy finding their lambs (the lambs don't recognise their mums either!) to fight much with each other, but the hoggs have a few fisticuffs until the social order is rediscovered.

[Marches Farmer]

Yup, a study a few years ago showed sheep can recognise all their flock mates and their shepherds.  If everyone you knew suddenly turned up with a shaved head you'd do a few double-takes too!

[Katrina]

After shearing I had a sheep yell its head off for an hour looking for its best friend, whilst head butting away her best friend - took her ages to realise it was the same sheep!!  Having said that, I had to spray initials on the back of her so I could tell the difference from a distance - not sure who was more daft

[Kimbo]

  Im so surprised! I really thought she was winding the rookie up......much as she did in the jobs she gave me! 

Thanks for that little gem of info

[Fleecewife]

Yes, all true.

When we hand shear, mostly the lambs stand by and watch, so they do recognise their mums.  The problem comes when they've not been paying attention.  That's what all the yelling's about at shearing time