How to handle the heat?

[sunnyside]

Hello all!

Since this is my first year with our sheep...this is also the first year of worrying about the heat and what it does to them. They are supplied with fresh water twice a day (I add cold water to their existing troughs) and they have shade from the trees and shelters to go in if needed. Should I be doing anything else? We are in Pittsburgh and have just had the heat wave start within the past few days. (Thanks goodness!) Am I missing something? Should I be watching for signs of distress?

Thanks so much!!

 

[genuck]

I am pretty new to sheep too. Mine have been miserable. I do the same as you, make sure they have shade and I've been putting some electrolytes in their feed. So far so good. Lots of huffing and puffing though. Also try to make sure you don't do anything stressful for them in the heat of the day.

 

[jhm47]

I agree that you should not stress them at all. Actually, nighttime is very important too, as they need to have at least a few hours of coolness to get their body temps back to normal. A fan blowing over them in the night hours would be great, and you might try wetting them down a bit in the evenings. That, coupled with a nice breeze from a fan will help them immensely. Also, don't feed them in the mornings. Their rumens produce a lot of heat right after they eat. Feed them fairly late at night, and give them the coldest water you can.

We also had a very hot week here recently. Many of the large feedlots lost thousands of cattle. They probably would have been OK if it had cooled off at night, but it stayed in the mid-upper 80's with high humidity.

 

[boykin2010]

I keep a fan down at the barn and they LOVE that thing. They crowd around it all during the hot part of the day

 

[goodhors]

We shear the wool off our market lambs in hot weather. For Fair, we want lambs gaining weight, and they won't eat well if it is really hot.

Lambs in heavy wool get stressed, overheat, so it is best to keep the wool short, even if you have to shear them monthly. They eat and drink, cool
down better with short wool. They still pant, but like dogs, that is the only way they can cool themselves.

I no longer believe that having heavy wool or fur on dogs, keeps them insulated. Animals appear more mobile, rest easier, when that
heavy layer of wool or hair is shorn off.

 

[sunnyside]

Never thought of a fan in the barn! Great idea! Thanks for sharing!! As for the shearing...yikes, I would put them through too much stress right now for that! Not very good at it and it is really slow going for us. (I always think I am going to slice them open!)

Best to wait till next year on that one. However, it seems the more I read, the more people seem to shear during really hot spells. Love this forum! I get all kind sof great info here!!!!

 

[carolinagirl]

This is my first year with sheep and wouldn't you know it.....record high temps are here!! I have a small shed for them and no shade so I was worried. I have a fan in the shed that I keep on 24/7 (it's pretty warm at night too). The sheep are doing fine though! they go out to graze off and on all day long and don't seem to concerned about the heat. I do make sure I refill their buckets with fresh cool water every day.

 

[nsanywhere]

Shade and water for sure. They have some spots in the pen with shade over a rock "patio" that is there favorite spot. I hose it down in really hot weather and they spend most of the day there.

They have a salt lick, lots of fresh water, and no stress. I also make salt water popsicles for them to nibble on - they LOVE them. I hose them down once in a while, but they hate it so not often.

So far so good, but some of these days have had me worried.