sheep

I need a few more bales of hay stored up to get me through the winter as I have more stock this year. Anyhoo, there's a good deal on some local hay around my way - it's 'reed canary grass hay'. Any experience with this? Apparently some varieties can be high in alkaloids and prompt staggers...

...and loving it! Getting back into sheep in a small way and need a place to journal about it all. Starting again with Katahdins, my fave breed, and will keep a very small herd of one full time ram, a wether and a few ewes until I see what my pasture can support. Won't have the wether until...

Okay, so I'm going to be sending my two old rambouillet-suffolk gals of to butcher at the end of October, as they're getting on in years. Both needed intervention (only 1 of their 4 lambs survived), although both fostered a couple lambs. I'm wondering how to beef them up a bit between now and...

I got the basic Lixit nipple for the sheep but can't seem to train them in its use...smeared it with peanut butter and that disappeared but they still aren't drinking from that source, though they didn't have any other source. Drank like crazy after being penned in with the nipple as the only...

Hi all, I signed up about a month or 2 ago but have not been very active. I am very new to farming and have one garden (pretty small) and a flock of 6 chickens. I am hoping to start a farm someday and found this forum while researching. Now I have a question about sheep,: Is there a breed that...

5 days, 13 ewes, 16 lambs, and I'm done for the month. I've got a goat due later in the month because goats don't abide by anyone's schedules and 3 ewes that cycled again and are due in May but otherwise that's it. Way more singles this year than usual but I didn't flush and nearly half my...

As I've detailed in my previous post, I have an older first time ewe in labour right now, and not seeming to be getting anywhere. No waters yet, did an exam and cervix is not fully dilated, though lamb seems to be there waiting (either head or back - something hard at least was felt). My...

Is it realistic to have 2 milk sheep on 1/2 acre? There's already chain link all around. If the space is adequate, how would the fence need to be modified to keep them in? Thanks!

I've appreciated the assistance I've received so far since joining BYH's, as well as the lambing journals others have posted, so I thought I'd introduce my flock - especially with my first lambs due in just over a week! I fully anticipate some frantic posts during the lambing process, so here...

My family lives on 12 acres with another family. They have ~12 goats and a Pyrenese. We have ~6 sheep and were going to get an Anatolian to be with them at all times. We were told not to get the Anatolian and that they would get another Pyrenese to run free and gaurd the whole property. We do...

Hi all, this is my first post on this site. We are new sheep owners with no prior experience. We added a small herd of 4 katahdin to our homestead just before Christmas, 3 ewes and a ram. Two of the ewes have given birth to two female lambs. We are expecting the big ewe to birth twins. All...

Happy New Year! I had three Gulf Coast Native Sheep sheared last year, and am still processing the wool. :oops: I am using Kookaburra Woolscour, Valkyrie brand Extra Fine combs, Ashford hand cards, and a drop spindle. It works, but I don't know enough about wool to sort the parts of the fleece...

I'm in my second year of the sheep game, and this year I have 8 pregnant ewes. All took with first cycle exposure to my young (now 9 months) ram - yes! They were all bred between Sept 30 and Oct. 21st, making them between and 3.5 - 6.5 weeks pregnant at the moment. However, one of my ewes had...

Goats or sheep? Which do you prefer and why? And what are some potential uses of each? Know about some of the more obvious uses but curious to hear your thoughts/the less obvious ones.

Okay, so I need some help making a decision. I currently have a ram that I bought this fall for breeding. He's a nice Shropshire over Texel. Not huge, but nicely built, as far as I can tell (not an expert). He bred all my ewes (9) without a problem, and all took within the first cycle (all...

What thinkest thou? I have two rambouillet-suffolk crosses I've recently inherited, both about 5 years old, and both seem very fat to me. Their wool is actually not super deep (1 inch?) so, yep, that's all body. We've nicknamed them Hippo and Rhino :) I'm not yet at the stage where I can...

I’ve been battling the excess mud for years. I finally found a solution using mudstopper but they are discontinuing it! Looking for cheap, quick solutions. Single mom sheep herder.

So here is an odd situation that maybe some of you have experienced. I have a hermie sheep. She/he will be going to the sale barn at the end of summer because she has no purpose on the farm since she cannot breed, her wool is awful, and she is becoming aggressive. This lamb was born a Shetland...

Hi there, My name is Jessica and I have been reading posts on backyardchickens and backyardherds for a long while now but haven't posted before. My husband and I have lived in Enumclaw, Washington our entire lives (27, 32) but are looking to move out-of-state to the Whitefish/Kalispell...

I was planning on keeping the caul fats off our butchers this year and trying some recipes but I won't be using all of them immediately. What are some ways to store it so that it will remain intact? I know it's pretty perishable and I've read it can be frozen but are there certain storage...