# Leaving Sheep Alone



## IndianaShepherd (Mar 25, 2014)

I struggle with this a lot and I wanted to see if anyone would chime in with an opinion. I have recently bought sheep from a friend of the family, but I keep them on a farm at which I do not live. I am there every day to feed them, but they are by themselves a lot. I spent a lot of time/money building a very good fence to keep them in, but I still worry when I am not there about predators and other problems. I eventually hope to build a house on the property but it is not in the cards financially at the moment. I spend most of the weekends there working on other things, but again they're unattended quite a bit. Is this irresponsible? I'm looking at it from the viewpoint that most people have their livestock where they actually live, but I live in town away from them. The neighbors are friends of ours and are retired so they check on them every once in a while. I did take off a whole week for lambing so I was there pretty much all the time at that critical point.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

It's generally not a good idea to leave animals alone. However, you are probably with yours as much as someone that works all day. It seems to be working for you. How long before you expect to move out there?


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## IndianaShepherd (Mar 25, 2014)

but I couldn't say for sure. They have good pasture and I feed them some grain every morning. I forgot to mention I have a guard donkey who seems to be working out ok. They of course always have plenty of water. The main thing I worry about is predators. I have a radio going, the donkeys, and these "night guard" blinking red light things I found online. I'm there twice daily and then spend pretty much all of Saturdays/Sundays there.


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## PNP Katahdins (Oct 28, 2008)

How many adults and lambs do you have? I would worry as much about 2-legged predators as 4-legged ones in your situation.

Peg


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## IndianaShepherd (Mar 25, 2014)

11 adults 6 lambs


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## dlskidmore (Apr 18, 2012)

I work all day. I see my flock twice a day, once in the morning to let them in out of the barn, and in the evening I muck out the barn, refill indoor water, put supplemental feed out, call the sheep in, and refill outdoor water. At night they are enclosed in the barn which helps with the predator issue. I've only been at this a year, but so far so good.


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## ashleybooker (Apr 16, 2014)

I let mine out first thing in the morning and bring them up in the evening when I get home from work. I I have a fan that runs in the barn that I keep them in at night.


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## dlskidmore (Apr 18, 2012)

ashleybooker said:


> I have a fan that runs in the barn


We have a leaky barn (with lots of windows) and a very windy location.


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## longshot38 (Dec 19, 2006)

IndianaShepherd said:


> I struggle with this a lot and I wanted to see if anyone would chime in with an opinion. I have recently bought sheep from a friend of the family, but I keep them on a farm at which I do not live. I am there every day to feed them, but they are by themselves a lot. I spent a lot of time/money building a very good fence to keep them in, but I still worry when I am not there about predators and other problems. I eventually hope to build a house on the property but it is not in the cards financially at the moment. I spend most of the weekends there working on other things, but again they're unattended quite a bit. Is this irresponsible? I'm looking at it from the viewpoint that most people have their livestock where they actually live, but I live in town away from them. The neighbors are friends of ours and are retired so they check on them every once in a while. I did take off a whole week for lambing so I was there pretty much all the time at that critical point.


well, i don't have first hand experience but, around here people who have sheep, cattle, etc. put their animals on community pasture and leave them there for the summer/fall and pick them up before the winter for slaughter or for overwintering on home range or dry lotted. the animals get checked on regularly but i don't think they are watched every day like a Sheppard or a herdsman would


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## dlskidmore (Apr 18, 2012)

longshot38 said:


> put their animals on community pasture and leave them there for the summer/fall


I'm sure there is a tradeoff there, I'm sure they have some losses but find it acceptable for the lower input. This is the traditional way, but for a very small farmer where the loss of a single head is difficult to bear, it is not the best option.

That said, if I could afford a second property I'd do it.

The larger your herd, the more you can afford to lose an animal or two before you realize you have a problem that needs addressing.


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## Twobottom (Sep 29, 2013)

I guess there's more than one way to shear a sheep. I live on location and I put them out, check on them at mid-day, bring up water a couple of times, and then drive them back to lock-down in the barn at night.

I'm worried about predators here too much to leave them loose at night...especially the lambs. Small herd, I just cant afford to lose any right now.

I recently saw a documentary about iceland and how they let the sheep out free range for a good part of the year and then round them up by the thousands once or twice a year.


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

Iceland is very lucky, they don't have the predators the US has.


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## ErikaMay (Feb 28, 2013)

The thing about predators is they some when you least expect it. I had a whole flock/herd/mob/gang/city of coyotes who ran in the woods next to my sheep. Always had to keep an ear open. One night their calls sounded different and we went out to invesitage: the sheep were so used to the coyotes the ram was being lured into the cattle chute by them and he was following! Other than the night they attack a lone ewe who just lambed and separated from the flock (sigh I said we should've put her in that night) , we didn't have any other trouble. They never got a chance to develop a taste for sheep.
HAD they been successful that night i think we would have had more losses, but we moved and never took that flock with us. they did fine for 6 months alone. We were lucky, though. I'm not sure how they fared through lambing, though....I have a feeling it didn't go as smooth. (peronsal stuff got in the way)

Its do able, but a risk. One thing about coyotes is they learn patterns so if you do the same thing everyday they figure it out and strike when you are comfortable and unsuspecting.


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