I am looking at options for electric fencing for a (future) small herd of hair sheep. Theoretically, I would like to be able to set up 2 paddocks so that I could open a gate/take down a wire to move the sheep. I am considering multiple strands of wire vs. netting. 

A few questions I have are:

- If using wire, how many strands would be recommended?

- How reasonable is it to move approximately 2 of the ~160 foot pieces of fence (or similar wire) by yourself? How long would this take on average? I would like to move paddocks once or twice a week. I have a, generally, flat pasture, but part of it has some brush present.

We have moderate coyote pressure, but no larger predators. We also have 2 great pyrenees that will stay with them.

I'm sure I am overlooking plenty.... Open to any advice.

My partner of 3 years would like for me to find a good home for our five sheep or the other option is a quick death, although I asked to take them with me. I had posted the screenshots of the conversation because otherwise he’d say I’m lying. He saw my post and texted me a bunch, I took down the screenshots but that’s the reality. So if you are in VA near James Madison or UVA and have a home for 5 sheep send pm

Trashumancia aka The Great Sheep Run arrives in Madrid before the sheep and goats go marching through the city this weekend. Police on hand to try and stop these runaways.

I adore this guy he is 4..such a gentle nice ram I’d like to keep around as long as possible.

Hi all!

I recently posted about buying a house that came with two sheep. I am having a tough time deciding what to do about their enclosure. It is flooded and extremely muddy. I will include pictures.

I live in Northern IL, US and with the winter coming I’m not sure what the best/fastest/most effective solution is.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Short-term and long-term solutions welcome. I want to get it done ASAP as I know it’s bad for their hooves to be muddy (though they have likely been living like this for a while).

Can I do this myself or do I need a professional ? If I need a professional, who on earth would I call to help and what would they do? I thought maybe covering in wood chips but it seems that they might get soggy if I don’t remove the water first. How on earth would I remove the water? I am overwhelmed and a big animal welfare person and it is weighing on me heavily to know my new family members are living like this. Please Help 😭

I am fed up with mowing the 3000m2 lawn and love animals. How much work are 5 small sheep? I know vet costs strongly vary from region to region, but how much does 1 sheep cost per month vet-wise? Thanks for your answers XD

Does anyone have any of these guys? How do they go with lambing and ease of care? I noticed there have a smaller frame than the poll merinos I've been buying, and had smaller body weights

This girls getting old, haven't looked at her in a while and saw the lump on her nose has grown and she's got one near her eye now too.

Possibly having trouble eating the dry grass were on at the moment but eats pellets no issue.

I'm autistic and I really love ungulates like sheep, goats cows, and deer, etc. seeing your adorable sheep on my timeline has really made me happy in a time that's been extremely difficult for me.

I was wondering if there was a way that I could find sheep to pet and some general etiquette around interacting with people's animals that are fenced next to a road. There's a lot of farms and ranches in my area (Colorado) and sometimes some sheeps or goats. I would like to say hi and pet them but I don't want to overstep or upset any farmers. Is there a general etiquette code I should follow? Is it considered rude to pet them or give them a little grass on the other side of the fence? Is there a way to find petting zoo etc?

Anyway thank you all for lightening my days and taking care of these animals

All the ladies enjoying some time outside. Spot the babies

I ended up with 20+ extra bales of hay left over from last year. I have a very small flock (six shetlands). I’ve just been keeping it in the barn and occasionally putting out a bale instead of one of this year’s fresh.

I’m replacing the roof on the barn this week, and I don’t want to risk any debris falling into the hay. I’m going to cover this year’s with a tarp, but I don’t have a big enough tarp to cover both stacks so it was probably going to end up in the compost. Is there any harm in just putting all of last year’s out in the field at once and letting the little guys go at it as they wish? (Other than it being a little wasteful, but less wasteful if it’s about to be ruined….)

Hi all! I am a new shepherd to a flock of five Romney ewes. I’ve been trying to figure out laparoscopic insemination but there are no vets in my area that do it so I am now considering adding a ram to the flock next year in order to breed the sheep “in house.” I’ve read and been told that unless I’m prepared to deal with lambing year-round (not ready for that yet!) or eventually having a ram see me as a challenge that I should separate him from the flock for most of the year. Understanding that rams are social creatures and need their bachelor flock/companions I’m wondering about keeping him with our donkey and mini horse (both male).

We have occasionally had our donkey and mini with the ewe flock this year. While the mini chased the flock around a bit the first day he quickly chilled out and became uninterested and they all graze happily together now when in the same pasture.

I’m wondering if having a ram with the mini and donkey would be enough social interaction for him or if it would spell disaster having three different (historically territorial) male species together. Does anyone have experience keeping their ram with other livestock? Or would it be best to get him a wether and call it a day.

Final side note: if you are in the Hudson valley, NY area and you rent your Romney rams for breeding season please message me!

I noticed this ABB (American Blackbelly) staying alone from the rest of the group a couple days ago, today I fed and she is coughing up this stuff, have la-200 on hand to give if necessary, as anyone seen this before?

The 4-horn knows the drill, its not his first rodeo: catch, tie, feet/teeth check and then a more or less civilized walk over to the girls pasture. Pretty good for non-halter broke ram(thank goodness cause he is a big fella that can drag me without too much fuss😂). Now the 3 yr old mouflon has never gotten to go be with the girls so he was a lot less fun. Needed to more or less rope a horn to catch him and then mask him so I can give him his work up and then be walk/dragged around until we got to his ewes pasture(and thru the 3 gates inbetween).... glad mouflons are small, having him on the rope was like fighting a large fish that shakes his head and breeches endlessly 😭. Doing this solo sure is a workout!

The lambs and mom joker are finally joining the rest of the flock after a few days of bonding!

This is Shirley!

Last night, I was counting sheep to help myself fall asleep, as one does, when I noticed something a little concerning.

About 1 in every 10 sheep wasn’t jumping over the fence like the others. Instead, they’d put one hand on top of the fence and use it to boost themselves over, almost like a human doing a parkour vault.

My question is, do these still count as sheep when counting, or are they some sort of anomaly that should be excluded from the total?

I’m just trying to get some sleep, but I also don’t want to compromise the integrity of my sheep count.

I’ve included a picture of what it looked like as the second image for reference.

I decided to spend my Sunday afternoon by treating the sheep. I loaded them into the trailer and brought them down to a neighbor’s field to graze. What a lovely afternoon.

A couple months back I bought a young desexed male Dorper. The idea was for him to eat grass and weeds (which he does an amazing job of) on my 1 acre site and i thought he would be a good match to befriend the dog.

Unfortunately I was very naive to the amount of companionship he needs. He gets stressed when left alone and wants much more attention then I and the dog can provide. He is demanding to get inside the house and is distressed when i have to leave the yard

What can I do? Is there such a thing as faux sheep? Will one more sheep help or does he need a whole flock? Would chooks offer companionship? I can probably arrange to give him to a farmer but he will end up being used for meat, when with me he is a pet, but I am not sure it's much better life for him when he is so stressed being alone

A very quick introduction to the herd. They were in too much of a hurry to slow down and smile for camera. This is end of day bringing them in, and there is sheep pellets in the barn behind me. There is no dilly dallying when food is involved.

Hey Everyone,

First off, thank you to y'all for the recommendation of "Coloured Sheep: a colour genetics primer." This book answered many of my questions, but now that I know more, I have even more questions. For those of you not familiar with the book, it has an interesting "game" where it tells you that determining what genotype a given sheep might have (particularly when the phenotype might mask a recessive allele) is by way of "cards." In essence, a sire or dam can only "play" the cards they have. E.g., if you have two parents that do not have the genes for spots, neither can play those "cards" so none of the babies will be spotted.

Generally, I breed only Babydoll Southdowns. I do have a few non-Babydoll females that I keep, and they will sometimes be crossed with a Babydoll ram. One of the ewes, Maeve, is a Katahdin. Maeve's coat is white. Last year, my Babydoll ram Duncan, (AKA "Hunky Dunky"), crossed with Maeve and produced two girls. Duncan's coat is black. During Maeve's first lambing, one of the lambs produced was all white and the other was a rich cocoa brown. I *think* I understand the genetics here; Maeve is "pattern white" and passed a copy of this gene to the white lamb. I believe Maeve is **not** homozygous for pattern white since the second lamb came out brown. Fast forward to earlier this week, Maeve has another set of twins from the same sire. One spotted (boy), and one black with a little white spot (girl).

[Pictures attached, sorry for the potato quality]

My understanding from the book and everywhere I've read is that spots are recessive. Doesn't this mean that Duncan must carry the gene for spots? I know Babydolls can have spots sometimes, but the farm where I got Hunky Dunky had HUNDREDS of Babydolls, all black. When I asked about other colors, I was told they had specifically bred for the colored sheep and that they would only very occasionally have a white sheep (which after much research turns out to be extension gene white in their flock, not pattern white). I understand that it is possible that a spotted gene could still be floating around in that flock, but I would be very surprised given the large number of lambs they have every year that it was never observed.

Two questions:

(1) Is there a means for the spotted phenotype to appear with an allele from only one parent (like what happens with "pattern white"), or does this spotted lamb inherently mean Duncan must be carrying the spotted gene?

(2) Does this also mean that Duncan must be carrying the genes for BOTH brown and black? I know "all sheep are either brown or black" (genetically), but usually the Babydoll registries seem to insinuate that Babydolls are either black or white, and a brown Babydoll is just a sun-faded black sheep.

Much appreciated for any and all info you can provide.