Sheep Chat Thread

[kuntrygirl]

I woke up this morning to more twins born. :/ Anyone want to guess if they are male or female? :/ With my luck they will be 2 males.

 

[The Farm]

HAHa

I guess a ram lamb and a ewe lamb?!?!
But I really hope for you that they are both lil ewe lambs.
Let us know

 

[kuntrygirl]

HAHa


I guess a ram lamb and a ewe lamb?!?! 
But I really hope for you that they are both lil ewe lambs.
Let us know 

And if you had to use that guess to win the $400 million lottery, YOU WOULD BE THE WINNER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Better pic of the twins that were born.

Male

Female e

FINALLY GOT A FEMALE !!!!!!!!!!!! 6 males and 1 female. *sigh*

I'll take 1 female !!!!!!!!

I noticed that the little ram has a few drops of blood (slow drips) coming from his little private area but I hope that stops. I will keep an eye on it.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Id take some tasty lambs off you if you were closer! XD

 

[kuntrygirl]

Id take some tasty lambs off you if you were closer! XD

And I would love for you to take them off of my hands. :/

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: Animals don't have private parts, they're all public.

Good for you, getting a little ewe lamb!

 

[Drache]

I am so glad I found this thread!

I just started with chickens this year, but next year I am going to do bees and possibly sheep. I have been kicking around the idea of keeping animals for milking, and I was originally looking into goats, but I just like sheep better and a friend told me that sheep can be used for milking as well.

As far as selecting a breed, I have discovered through Google that there are a handful of milking sheep breeds. I was hoping that one of them would be a black-faced breed, since those have been my favourite since I was a little girl. Suffolk and Scottish Blackface are so darn cute. These are meat-production breeds, but can they be used for milking also? I would probably start with three ewes and only expect enough milk for two people. We go through maybe a gallon per week.

And when it comes to shearing, I am not scared to do it myself, but I'd have to invest in some tools. Do you think it would be better to just hire someone? Can someone give me and idea of how much this might cost? Also, if you only have three sheep, what do you do with the wool? lol

Thanks all. Your pictures are all so cute!!! <3

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: If they're not dual purpose or milk bred then you could probably forget about getting enough milk for two people from three sheep. Temporarily you might, but it would be most likely short term and might not meet your needs.

Nobody says you have to keep only one type of sheep. Why not get some proper milk bred sheep and also some blackfaced breeds?

As for the shearing it would possibly be best to get someone in to teach you (and the sheep if they've never been shorn before). I've got a ram lamb who has obviously succeeded at escaping his previous handlers whenever they did something he didn't want; he's got it planned to a fine art and leaps bang into your guts (or face, if he can) whenever he doesn't want to be handled. So far, he's not caught me out, but I won't let him reach full size with that attitude. He has absolutely no fear, he's tame as anything, just a little brute whenever he thinks it will result in his say being the final one on whatever matter is at hand. If he'd been handled properly he wouldn't think it was an option. Proper fence training, handling, etc are all necessary to some extent with sheep, more so with goats though, to ensure they are not excessive troublemakers later on in life.

Best wishes with your flock.

 

[Drache]

Thanks for the info. I know it's possible to keep more than one breed, but I am not sure that I will have the space for extra animals, so I wanted to get the most bang for my buck, so to speak. Given the choice (due to space issues) between having sheep that will produce the milk I want, and having some that I love looking at (the black-face breeds), I'll probably just suck it up and get the milk breed. I was just hoping to have my cake and eat it too. ;P

 

[WallabyOfChaos]

Thanks for the info. I know it's possible to keep more than one breed, but I am not sure that I will have the space for extra animals, so I wanted to get the most bang for my buck, so to speak. Given the choice (due to space issues) between having sheep that will produce the milk I want, and having some that I love looking at (the black-face breeds), I'll probably just suck it up and get the milk breed. I was just hoping to have my cake and eat it too. ;P

Why not buy dairy breed ewes and breed them to a Suffolk ram? You would have your milkers and could raise some nice speckle-faced market lambs to sell or put in your own freezer.