# 1st year moms- wont shut up!~



## L J (Apr 11, 2016)

My 2 ewe's are first time moms.  They weren't much of noise makers before, but now they baaa out of control. I as soo much look at the pasture, and they go off....and on and on and on.
Its like they think I'm going to steal their babies at any moment.
I can't even walk to the chickens (in a barn the opposite direction of the sheep) and they won't stop baa'ing. 

Is this normal?

Really glad we don't have neighbors too close, its getting a bit annoying !


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## Latestarter (Apr 11, 2016)

sorry... had to  @Sheepshape @Roving Jacobs @secuono @purplequeenvt  Others?


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## Roving Jacobs (Apr 11, 2016)

One of mine actually baa-ed herself hoarse this year yelling about her baby. 

As long as they are getting appropriate amounts of food and they aren't yelling about an actual issue I'd just ignore it. One of my shearing clients managed to teach her sheep to scream at her until she went out and fed them so I would recommend not paying any attention to them and definitely don't feed them while they're hollering their heads off.


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## Sheepshape (Apr 11, 2016)

Giving birth seems to make some sheep find their voices.....some of them continually baa at their lambs and some lambs do a lot of vocalising,too. It seems some mums cannot let their lambs out of sight and some lambs cannot let the ewe out os site....others barely respond.

The ewes are probably begging for food....they're very hungry whilst making milk. Make sure they are well fed....and then ignore them!

First timers are often the noisiest....they like the world to know about their birth success.


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## Baymule (Apr 11, 2016)

Mine yell at me all the time. They have eagle eyes, bloodhound noses and the sonic hearing of a bat. They also have some kind of physic brain waves when I even think about going outside. I adore them. They follow me like a litter of puppies. Annoying? Not in the least.


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## SpringCrkFarmTN (Apr 11, 2016)

I love that sound, especially when they pair up in the evenings to be fed. It's crying time at my house! All the mamas are calling out for their babies & babies running around frantically hollering for their mamas. Then as sudden as it started, sweet silence when they are all paired up. Love it


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## Sheepshape (Apr 12, 2016)

My lambs have found a hole through the fence which I haven't been able to find. Every night for the last 2 nights, when it has gone dark, there was a horrendous panicky noise of bleats from ewes and lambs who are on different sides of the fence. So out I go with torches to scale the fence and push my way through the thick undergrowth and over the very slippery rocks in the stream to catch up the 2 or 3 lambs. At night they are quite co-operative, but by day they are not....and I start to wonder who will die of exhaustion first.....

Today they moved fields...enough is enough.


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## frustratedearthmother (Apr 12, 2016)

That does NOT sound like fun.


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## Latestarter (Apr 12, 2016)

So, you've thwarted them henceforth! They've played their diabolical little game once too often it appears. I sit and wonder what the little miscreants will come with now? I also picture in my mind; Sheepshape out after dark, fighting her way through the dense underbrush and wading the stream wearing nothing but jammies and slippers, covered with a bathrobe flapping in the breeze, her flashlight sweeping the darkness ahead as she moves toward the sound of weak bleets.   Yeah, smiling and glad it's not me  Hope you find their escape route and get it buttoned up. If they can escape, it seems to me that something else could use the same opening to get in.


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## L J (Apr 12, 2016)

I feel like they are gettin ga lot of food, extra grain, alfalfa and a nicely grassy field to graze all day.  I'll up it a little more just in case. 

Lucille sounds like a machine gun, hence her nickname, "Machine Gun Lucille"  her baby is a mini machine gun LOL


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## secuono (Apr 12, 2016)

I have a yearling that is always calling her head off randomly. No grain until this year, so that's not the cause. She always sounds horrible at it, too and I make faces at her and tell her to chill out, it doesn't work, obviously. Lol. IDK why she does it, she's done it since I got her and her mom, never been separated, but she still whines. =/

Mine all line up by the gate and sing their heads off for lunch this time of year. It starts in February and by April, I start ignoring them until they quite down some. Sure makes them friendly, but also very noisy and I'm not a fan of noisy critters. Some of them call with their mouths full, I like to turn towards them with a face and comment on how rude it is to talk with their mouths full and that they sound dreadful. It's more for my sanity and fun than for them.  

I don't think you mentioned if you feed them or not and that's when they do most of the calling. But yeah, if your sheep is like my first one, there isn't much you can do other than ignore her and buy some ear plugs.
If she's like my others, than ignoring her and not rewarding her with food and attention will _eventually_ work.


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## L J (Apr 12, 2016)

secuono said:


> Mine all line up by the gate and sing their heads off for lunch this time of year. It starts in February and by April, I start ignoring them until they quite down some. Sure makes them friendly, but also very noisy and I'm not a fan of noisy critters. Some of them call with their mouths full, I like to turn towards them with a face and comment on how rude it is to talk with their mouths full and that they sound dreadful. It's more for my sanity and fun than for them.
> 
> I don't think you mentioned if you feed them or not and that's when they do most of the calling. But yeah, if your sheep is like my first one, there isn't much you can do other than ignore her and buy some ear plugs.
> If she's like my others, than ignoring her and not rewarding her with food and attention will _eventually_ work.



Oh yes when one starts the chorus begins.
And since I only have four adults I can absolutely tell them all apart. Especially my ram. He sounds like a 12-year-old boy in the middle of puberty. It's the funniest damn thing you've ever heard

Ahh good to know I'm not the only one who talk to them … although It is pretty hilarious when they baaa their mouthful.

I'm taking up all of the advice to be careful and not feed them while they are yelling at me. Yes I feed them, they get a combination of Timothy hay Timothy pellets alfalfa and grain… Not all at once and not in that order  
The pasture grass is also filling in nicely for this time of year.


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## Baymule (Apr 12, 2016)

I call mine with a banshee shriek of SHEEP SHEEP SHEEP!!!! Their heads jerk up and they start baa-baaing. I move them from one pasture to another on the opposite side of the driveway just by calling them and shaking a little feed in a coffee can. They would enter a lion's den if the lion had a coffee can of feed.  On the plus side, I didn't latch the gate one time and they got out. I just called them and they ran to me baa-baaing all the way. 

Mine talk with their mouth full too. It is so funny to hear those gurgling baa-baas. I talk to them and spoil them. They came off a 300 acre ranch and were wild when I got them (4 ewes). Two are in my pocket, one is coming around and one is not cooperating. The 5 lambs have tiny little maa-maa voices, they are so cute. I talk to all my animals, dogs, horses, sheep and chickens and they talk back to me.


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## secuono (Apr 12, 2016)

Mine see me carrying their white bucket and come running and singing. Or I yell out SHEEPIEEEEEESSS, HURRY UP BEFORE TWINKLE-TOES EATS IT ALL!!! She's the tall Cheviot, she can fly! But I've been shooing her off after a couple mouthfuls as she's fat! =0

I have 13 sheep and I can tell them all apart by sound and looks. Same for my horses and all the different barks my 3 dogs have and the different sounds my 2 cats make. My family doesn't understand how that's possible, lol.


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## Sheepshape (Apr 13, 2016)

I shout Girleeeeeeees and my sheep start up the chorus of assorted baaaaaas and gurgles and come belting over to see what I have for them (Sheep this side of the pond have no manners,either, and 'speak' through a mouthful of cud). How their bleats vary from the high pitched whine to the guttural grumble....single, double and triple-noted. I have Me-ertyl. E-urmintrude, etc, based on their bleats. Some don't sound like sheep at all....Minnie repeats Aaaaargh every couple of seconds, and one of the rams,Goliath, has a bleat so low-pitched it sounds like an unearthly rumble.

My chickens all come galloping over to the "Chickens" call, and sheep and chickens, cats, dogs etc never get mixed up as to who I am calling.(only hubby does that!).

I quite agree, secuono, all my chickens sound different,too.


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## Baymule (Apr 13, 2016)

I never could whistle loud. My husband can whistle like a tornado warning-loud, carries for a mile and quite distinct. Me--not so much. So to call my horses, I belt out a high pitched HEE! HEE! HEE! They snap to it and come on the run. For the chickens, chick, chick, CHICK-ENS!!!!  they run as fast as they can lurch from side to side. The sheep have their own call, but they answer to the horse call, and the chickens call, hoping I will give them a treat. Heck, they even answer to me calling the dogs.


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## Ponker (Apr 21, 2016)

Athena whines the most. She just had twins for her first lambing on her first birthday. Awww. My Katahdin cross has a bass bahhh bahhh that you can feel in your chest like when one of those cars goes by that has the bass all turned up and is thumping the windows of your car loose. I shake a white bucket with a little grain in it and they race to see who can get there first. Athena can't remember from day to day where the pasture is so she gets lost trying to win... and ends up last every time because she wanders around tasting the clover forgetting what she was doing int he first place. I usually have to go get her and bring her back. She has ADD; I'm convinced.


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## Latestarter (Apr 21, 2016)

Doesn't everyone need that one "special" animal?  just to keep life interesting?  and give us funny stories to share?


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## samssimonsays (Apr 21, 2016)

It is a very good thing you don't have goats 

Mine holler at me if they see me. If they hear me. If they want me. If they want food. If they want treats. If they want to. If a car drives by. They can also see us in the dining room window if it is dark or we have the lights on. They holler then too. We just yell GOATS or what back at them. We feed into it. I am sure our neighbors wonder what is going on because my newest doe has a DEEP "voice" and it sounds like a man yelling "HELP"  

Hopefully they will quiet back down once babies are weaned and gone. But I can bet you anything that it will get much worse at weaning time and when babies first leave. I am not looking forward to weaning one bit over here.


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## L J (Apr 21, 2016)

Samantha drawz said:


> It is a very good thing you don't have goats
> 
> Mine holler at me if they see me. If they hear me. If they want me. If they want food. If they want treats. If they want to. If a car drives by. They can also see us in the dining room window if it is dark or we have the lights on. They holler then too. We just yell GOATS or what back at them. We feed into it. I am sure our neighbors wonder what is going on because my newest doe has a DEEP "voice" and it sounds like a man yelling "HELP"
> 
> Hopefully they will quiet back down once babies are weaned and gone. But I can bet you anything that it will get much worse at weaning time and when babies first leave. I am not looking forward to weaning one bit over here.



Yeah I wonder what my neighbors think sometimes, when the chorus begins.  Last night, moments after everyone got dinner, and mouths full I went back into the hay shed.   OMG!!!! Hollering up a storm, mouths full and all.   I just had to laugh.  




Ponker said:


> Athena whines the most. She just had twins for her first lambing on her first birthday. Awww. My Katahdin cross has a bass bahhh bahhh that you can feel in your chest like when one of those cars goes by that has the bass all turned up and is thumping the windows of your car loose. I shake a white bucket with a little grain in it and they race to see who can get there first. Athena can't remember from day to day where the pasture is so she gets lost trying to win... and ends up last every time because she wanders around tasting the clover forgetting what she was doing int he first place. I usually have to go get her and bring her back. She has ADD; I'm convinced.



    Hilarious.   I love all the different personalities.


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## samssimonsays (Apr 22, 2016)

Hahaha! I love when mine, "goats" , try to yell mouths full and all. They sound so dang pitiful.


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