Bully Sheep

[rodandstafffarm]

I have five shetland ewes of differring ages. For the last 60 days the 3 mature ewes have been with the ram and the two ewe lambs (one of whom is from a different flock) were in with my wether.

Even before putting them in with the ram I had tried introducing the new ewe lamb to the flock (after the 30 day waiting period--she was in with the other ewe lamb during that time) and two of the girls were monstrous to her, not even letting her eat. So back out she went again with her other ewe lamb buddy.

I had hoped after a period of time I would be able to put everyone back in together again, however not so. It's way more than a pecking order, it's a refusal to let her near food and one in particularly being downright aggressive.

I'm not confident this will end anytime soon as the wether was originally in with the mature ewes and ram per advice of a more experienced sheep person so that they wouldn't have to fight through a reintroduction later on. The ewes were just as bad to him an he finally got sick of it, broke through the fence one day and refused to go back in with them. So I let him stay with the ewe lambs until today.

Incidentally the ram and wether are back in again together and just fine and seem to care less about any of it. Not even any head butting.

Anyone else had any experience with this? Is there a minimum or maximum time I should give it? It sure would have been easier no to have to shift everyone around through two separate stalls again over the winter, but if they're going to make her life miserable, I'll have to catch the other ewe lamb again and pair them back up again to have any harmony until spring. She's by far our favorite ewe, very people oriented and gorgeous to look at. She hides behind me in the stall. I'd prefer to have good natured, people friendly sheep and the two doing the bullying definitely aren't. I'm thinking after lambing in the spring-----freezer camp; they're so mean.

Thanks,

June

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Can you separate all of the ewe lambs so they can bond, and then try to re-introduce the group of ewe lambs to the mature ewes? You may also have to put a feeding area away from where the bossy ewe eats, that way the timid one can still eat. Hopefully they can learn to get along, if not, the young one will learn to avoid the mean one.

 

[rodandstafffarm]

I originally had the ewe lambs together for the last 3 months..... I then added in the wether which was fine. However, he needed to go back and be with the ram. The problem is, the ewe lamb she was in with is an offspring to one of the other sheep so is a member of their flock. And doesn't seem to care a fig that she spent the last three months with this lamb. She's a turncoat

She was so miserable this morning I separated them out again and will just have to deal with the logistics until Spring and then get rid of the two biggest bullies.

 

[bonbean01]

I have to agree with Aggie to add another feeding place...sometimes the bossy ones are so intent on keeping the new ones away from the feed that they spend their time running back and forth instead of eating serves them right

We had this problem with bossy ewes when we introduced a new ewe lamb. Ended up putting one bossy gal with the new ewe in a small area and they had to share food and water. Watched them carefully and was ready to separate them if it got bad, but it didn't. They were fine pretty quickly and after two days and one night, put them back in with the rest and that originally bossy ewe actually put herself between the new one and the other ewes. Didn't take long for them to all get along.

You might try putting just one bossy ewe in a small area with the new ewe and watch closely that she doesn't hurt her. If that works out and they go back in with the rest, two feeding places works well.

Good luck and hope it works out!

p.s...our sheep don't take as long to get the "pecking order" figured out as our chickens do!

 

[Chickie2378]

yup I never realized how horrible goats/sheep and more could be

all about 'the herd' and pecking order

when we pull from herd we eliminate and one comes higher in order. we introduce back and and wham the horror starts

seen it a bunch. That is one reason I kidded out my goats fast and threw them back in the herd before the order was changed.
time off to kid, recover a day and back out on pasture.

not enough time to allow the problems mostly


freezer camp is good. no problem there but you will always have a herd. any new introduction is just that. throw then out and let them figure it out. rough sure but it is what it is.

I did the 'way far away' feeding also. the alphas could not leave their feed troughs to go way down the pasture to bully the others so yea that works if you make that space wide.

 

[goodhors]

Got any place you can tie them up, face to face and let stand a while? All our sheep tied
well, so having a "hitch rail" or solid cattle wire panel between, could have the sheep and
lambs getting tied facing the others. Spending some tied up time face-to-face, to know
each other but not allowing butting.

The other suggestion of isolating new lamb with ONE mature ewe for a couple days, see
how they work it out with no other sheep "butting in". Ha Ha. The one to one, is how we
introduce new horses to the farm horses. We just cycle the horses who live here in and out
with the new animal. New one meets each horse individually, they work out status. After new
one has met everyone, we put two of our farm horses out with new one, give that a couple days,
add a third horse from the farm to the group. FINALLY we will have the new horse in with
everyone, without much of any fuss. We start with the top horse in with the new one, big field,
plenty of room to run and no corners to get trapped in.

Sheep have a very strict herd status, so one on one, sounds like a good plan. Mature sheep will
be a bit lonesome, so might be friendlier quicker. Do feed in two places, so lamb has enough
to eat safely away from the bigger sheep as they learn to get along better. You may need two
feeder spots with the group of 5 combined. Just more footage to go and pull their hay from and
not be in the way of a mature sheep. I always put out an extra pile for group with a new horse, so
they can rotate around and there is always more spots to eat from than can be protected from "the stranger".

 

[Thistlefield]

Hi rodandstafffarm! It's me with Cora ThunderBum the Shetland ewe! I came over here to see if there were any folks with bully ewes and here you are.

For the others...Cora is a roughly 4 year old Shetland ewe from a shelter that I adopted to keep my teeny disabled Finnsheep ewe company. Cora was introduced and that went well but she started stalking Tuuli. She literally hunts her down to slam her and if Tuuli goes to hide Cora will deliberately look for her to attack. Cora even ignored me to come around me to try to get Tuuli. I watched her eyes closely and she's quite intent. I had to push her away. That surprised me because I'm new to Cora and normally she's very hesitant to approach me.

Tuuli is safe in her dome home with a fence across the opening. They can see each other and sniff but all Cora wants to do is go in for the kill.

It's a shame and I don't think that time will cure this one. Cora has a bee in her bonnet. It could be because Tuuli is obviously disabled and perhaps it's nature's way of culling the weak from the herd?

It's been delightful otherwise to meet Cora. She's a communicating sheep and she looks me in the eye and listens and is obviously using her noggin. She will, however, probably have to go back to the shelter. It's not a bad fate for her at all. They have lovely pastures, lots of friends, great vet and hoof care and yearly shearing. They don't get one on one attention but when there she really didn't want it because she had all her friends.