# Do you clean your stalls?



## Fowler (Jul 8, 2008)

I clean my stalls everyday in the summer to give my sheep a nice clean/cool place to lay.
But in the winter I tend to be more lazy and allow the fallen hay to lay. Until I start to smell ammonia/or too much poop then I clean and lay down fresh bedding. I also put down fresh bedding right before lambing.

My question is: should I be cleaning them just like I do in the summer? I hate to have to throughout their uneaten dropped hay, only to provide more bedding.

Am I a bad shepherd? Please tell me I'm not the only one?


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## wendle (Feb 22, 2006)

I don't stall the sheep in summer. Lambing time I clean jugs between ewes which is usually 3-7 days. Lambing barn depends on build up.


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## Fowler (Jul 8, 2008)

Thanks wendle

My stalls are outside the barn and I have industrial fans in them for the summer. And I keep the stall doors open for them to go into. So I like to keep the ground fairly clean for them.

I have to stall them up at night, we have way too many coyotes lurking.

I will eventually be able to leave them out at night as soon as my LGD's get more mature. But the girls are accustom to going into their stalls at night. And I am too.


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## lambs.are.cute (Aug 15, 2010)

summer mine wouldn't come into the stall for all the grain in the world. Winter I usually wait until it either gets too deep or smells. I do toss straw down in between cleanings but I when I cleaned it out regularly the would go lay on the manure pile so this way I keep them cleaner and less work for me. My lambing stalls are temporary and the go in where the hay was. Each ewe gets clean straw for their jug.


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## plowjockey (Aug 18, 2008)

What some people consider "lazy", I like to consider "deep bedding". 

I work long hours, so day cleaning, is not an option, I actually went a couple of years in some areas of the barn with no problems. Too much for a wheelborrow and I did not have a tractor/loader then. I do have a loader now, so I just need some time.

I have never really noticed a strong ammonia in sheep manure/urine, anyway.

Deep bedding is also well on it's way to compost, when I finally get it out of the barn.

You're doing fine, IMO.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I don't stall them in summer at all- just a lambing time or if it is terribly cold and close to lambing time. They have a tarp shelter that I don't clean out unless necessary. I don't add hay, but will add straw for bedding if it gets too packed down. However, I find that they will still choose to sleep out in the snow and rain.


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## Fowler (Jul 8, 2008)

Thanks everyone, I too let it build up during the winter. I lay fresh hay when lambing. We dont have straw, so I buy really cheap hay that they wont eat for bedding, however now the really cheap hay for bedding is now considered gold in these here parts!!...LOL
Last time I found straw bedding, one of my ewes ate too much of the wheat that was left on the straw and bloated and died. Hard lesson to learn. I work alot too plowjockey and with the days shorter it's hard to get everything done. Last year I let it build up in some of the stalls then I found that the ground was soaked with urine which took for ever to dry out. I sprinkle lime in the stalls and closed the doors to not allow the sheep back in till it dried up. I have always used lime in the stalls with my horses I use to raise. *So is this wrong to use in the stalls with sheep?*

Callieslamb, when I lived in Minnesota the sheep stayed in the fields and they never came in the barn until lambing season. So I understand everyone when they say they dont stall their sheep  However, raising Babydolls I cannot afford to lose any due to preditors so that is why I stall them. I lost one to a coyote and another to wheat straw. So I am kind of over protective of them. I hope y'all understand and dont think I'm a wussy shepherd....LOL!!! and if you do that's okay my princess's love me....LOL


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

My sheep had a run in shed and I kept that clean. If they peed in the Shed, would use, Stall Fresh or something like that. Less likely to burn their feet like some lime can.
Luckily they did not use the shed that much.

I did Jug my ewes when they lambed, just to be safe.
Would sprinkle a little shavings over the Stall Fresh where they peed, cleaned that out every day.

Can understand you wanting them in at night Fowler. Babydoll's are spendy.
Knew someone that forgot one night, many years ago.... to bring her black Babydoll's in and lost the whole flock to a couple of German shepards. 15 years of breeding for color and quality, gone in one night. She never had sheep again.

Right now I just have that one Katahdin wether. He is in with the horse's and their new run in shed has rubber stall mats. If he goes in there, will just sweep it off.


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## Carol K (May 10, 2002)

If I could figure out how to clean sheep poop up it would help. This is my first winter with sheep and I'm used to cow poop, which where I am at freezes, so it's easy to clean the barn if they use it. I don't use straw, but in the sheep shed there is hay, so spent hay is bedding, I have to peel that stuff up, but with shavings, those little sheep droppings just fall through the fork lol. 

Carol K


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## lambs.are.cute (Aug 15, 2010)

In 4H we used a rake and a shovel for those that fell through the pitchfork. The large metal ones which were thin at the end worked best.


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

I used one of those Llama/Alpaca rakes and a shovel.

Remember one year a lady looking to buy a lamb, asked, "why I did not clean the whole pasture up everyday"? I kind'a gave her a blank look. LOL
Could of said many ah... cheeky things ....but I was good.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

Fowler said:


> ...........Callieslamb, when I lived in Minnesota the sheep stayed in the fields and they never came in the barn until lambing season. So I understand everyone when they say they dont stall their sheep  However, raising Babydolls I cannot afford to lose any due to preditors so that is why I stall them. I lost one to a coyote and another to wheat straw. So I am kind of over protective of them. I hope y'all understand and dont think I'm a wussy shepherd....LOL!!! and if you do that's okay my princess's love me....LOL


I think every shepherd needs to do what makes them most comfortable with their flock. All situations are different and shepherds are different. I have mine behind woven wire fencing and cattle panels this year, so I'm more relaxed about them being out. They also have a 20X16 tarped barn to shelter in - rather than calf hutches. They hated the calf hutches. Last year was my first winter with sheep. I was really bothered going to the barn and seeing the 'mounds of snow' getting up and baaa-ing at me. I finally had enough and stalled them. They weren't happy about it. This year, I hope will be different...but we'll see what the weather holds for us. I do put them in if it gets below zero. For my peace of mind more than their actual protection.


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## Fowler (Jul 8, 2008)

Callieslamb said:


> I do put them in if it gets below zero. For my peace of mind more than their actual protection.



LOL...I remember going out in the mornings in MN to throw out hay, and when I would yell for them all these big white snow mounds would start moving. Snow gets quite deep overnite....LOL But they seemed to be happy. I always kept the breezeway open for them to go into. But not a one to be found in there...LOL It's funny I only had one coyote attack then. It was my bottle lamb I left her on the porch, she was suckling my dogs teet along with the cat and her puppies...LOL 
I thought she would be safe, needless to say.....:Bawling:


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## equinecpa (Mar 21, 2011)

I'm glad I'm not the only wussy shepherd -I thought I was the only one putting my flock up each night. I too have a young LGD who I'm waiting to grow up (I'm wishing I had got an older mature one). I hear the coyotes every night and I would feel terrible if I left the sheep out and one got killed.

We clean only when it gets really dirty.


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## Jcran (Jan 4, 2006)

We let ours deep bed through the winter then clean in the summer. However, we let last summer go and so the "boys" are coming Friday to clean out the REALLY DEEP DEEP mess. It is going to STINK in there for a day or two but they'll have an outside shed to bed in until its better. We'll sprinkle baking soda and new straw and start over, lol.


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## Fowler (Jul 8, 2008)

~wiping sweat off forehead~ This is all good to know, now I can stop feeling like a bad mom.


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## redroving (Sep 28, 2005)

We let ours decide whether to lay in the barn or outside since it is more mild here in CA. We don't bed down the barn so it builds up with sheep manure but it is always dry unless it is very rainy and the sheep bring in the water on their wool. Every two to three years we clean out the barn and after sitting a year spread it out on the pasture. We have a tall barn with at least one side open for some sun to shine in. Years ago we spread a layer of sand then let the manure build up, each time we clean out the barn we get stop at the sand layer. One year we had a water line break in a freeze so we had to lay lime to help dry it up. Lime will not hurt the sheep and we have add it to our pastures every few years while the sheep were grazing it with no ill effects.


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## redroving (Sep 28, 2005)

I also read about a way to rototill your barn by way of pigs. It was an article about housing cows in the winter and once the weather changed they let them out and put in pigs to root around in the manure for stray grains and hay which rototilled the ground up which made cleaning out the barn easier. They started out with feeder pigs and then had some nice pigs for butcher.


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