ewe brutally attacking and butting ram

[dwbonfire]

Hey dwBon, these Jacobs I have seem to have a lot more attitude than the other sheep I have. I'm going through the same kind of power struggles with mine, although not exactly as you describe. I guess because they are horned, they have to establish some kind of pecking order, and they usually do it viciously with those horns!

If it were me, I would be afraid she would hurt him. She's quite possibly bred and trying to make sure he should not try to pull anything funny on her. Is there a way you can keep them separated by a fence or gate and let them see each other for a while without being together? That way they can kind of get used to each other, but not interact.

My young Jacob ram Uriah is a head butting maniac,he's about 10 months now. Lily, the oldest ewe of the bunch, has been head butting him, but they go head to head. He starts it, but she won't take it and she goes after him. She's trying to keep him in line. I'm quite sure she is bred (by him) and doesn't want him to hurt her, so she fights violently with him, head to head. Eventually he walks away. Your guy just sounds a little shyer and meeker, so he's getting beat up.

Just this week I introduced my flock to the new Jacobs I got. I was worried Uriah would head butt them, especially the one who is a whether. But instead he is trying to breed them all, even the whether. The Jacob ewes were running... running away from him! I don't know if they were in heat, but they would not stand for him and let him have his way. But fortunately, there was no head butting. BY about day two everybody had calmed down and I guess they established some kind of agreement between them all because they are calm.


Good luck!

i have been keeping her tied, shes got plenty of room to move about, and the other ewe and ram are loose in the pen. this morning they were fighting over the food but he seemed to have a little more to say than before! im glad to see this. now that ive got him pretty well trained to the grain im going to let them all out tomorrow since i will be home all day, and hopefully he has bonded with them enough to come in in the evening. i am thinking when they are out he will have much more room to escape her if she bothers him, which i doubt she will unless he gets too close. i guess time will tell, if she comes into heat i think ill see a big attitude change and hopefully he is old and bold enough to breed them. its much easier to tell with my goat when she is in heat than it is the sheep, i havent seen them mount eachother at all or do any of those behaviors. ill be watching closely for it now though.

p.s. i am still wanting a ram lamb from you! do you have all jacobs?

 

[Bridgemoof]

Good luck Bonfire! I hope they all get along today.

I have a flock of Jacobs, a flock of Finn/Shetlands and a flock of everything else! I have a darling Tunis/Cormo ram lamb from this past year that I haven't been able to find a home for yet.

Uriah has bred 6 Jacob ewes so I'm hoping for some nice Jacob babies in March

 

[Southdown]

My Suffolk ewe can be a mean old thing. She is "tough" and can really hold her own. When we used to keep her with our ram, she would butt him all the time. Although she never butted him hard enough to truly hurt him. I think it was more to put him in his place. It seemed also like she got tired of him trying to breed her. I was never concerned about the ram's safety because he is tough right back. But never enough to be worrisome. Now, the problem is that the Suffolk ewe will ram at my other smaller, babydoll sheep; so much so that I can't have them together. They are separated by fence. In fact, she recently dented our metal gates that separate them in their winter pens. We couldn't believe she dented those gates! She just seems to hate the babydolls and is constantly ramming them "through" the gate. We may have to sell her if we can find a good home. :-( Ironically, she is great with people, just not other sheep. I also have one babydoll ewe that likes to ram. It is very odd behavior (to me) for a female. She is the smallest one we have, but she is more aggressive. I wonder if it's the black sheep, because all of my white ones are mellow? You're lucky to have a mellow ram anyway. I am guessing he is just so young and the ewes are more mature than him. But I would play it safe because you don't want to hurt the young ram. It's funny this forum came up, because I was recently wondering myself how normal is it to have ewes ramming? I never thought it would be an issue for females. I'm also wondering if the time of year/daylight/weather pattern is affecting flock behavior? All of my sheep have been acting very rambunctious lately and it is not "normal" for them. I assumed their pecking order is being established, but not sure.