BAYMULE FINALLY HAS SHEEP!!!

[baymule]

Did her pasted home have sheep? If not you can't blame her. Like everything it will take time and hard work. Have you had the puppy in with them yet?

Paris's previous home was 3 acres with free range chickens, they left her unsupervised all day while they were at work . At about 10 or 11 months of age, Great Pyrenees get an attack of stupid, she started playing with all those "squeaky toys" and they came home to dead chickens. They punished her terrible, when i got her, she HATED chickens and would charge the coop, snarling at them. It took 2 years to undo the damage done to her, but she became the best chicken guard you ever saw. So, no, she has never seen sheep. I am not blaming her and I am not mad at her, we just have work to do, that's all.

Trip is one year old now and a 104 pound playful idiot. He is so sweet, but he wants to play with the chickens, play with the pigs and would more than likely do some damage to the sheep. After I get Paris squared away, Trip will get more lessons. And he is deaf whenever I say NO!

Today I got a small enclosure made for the sheep. I was worried about them at night, they stayed up close to the road. There is a ranch across the road from us with cattle and we can hear the coyotes howling at night. So tonight they are closed up, closer to the house and not on an outside fence. Paris is still on a chain, on the outside of the small enclosure, but still in the pasture. I thought I would turn her loose in the pasture, but on my 10:30 check last night, (in the dark, I didn't take a flashlight) when i got to the gate, I stepped off in a hole that was knee deep to me. Paris had tried to dig out, but the chain kept her from escaping. She really does not like change, and this is a big change. Did I mention that she is a bit physco?

This morning, i had to fill the hole, ever notice that you NEVER find all that dirt? Does it vaporize? Do Aliens suck it up into the stratosphere? I laid a sheet of plywood under the gate and half of another sheet, it's a 12' gate. I put her in the old chicken coop while i worked on the enclosure and put her back in the pasture after I fed the sheep and closed them up for the night. I'll go check on her later tonight. She is chained to a post that is part of the enclosure fence, so she is right up against the sheep. I have petted her and told her the sheep are hers to take care of, all day. We walked around the pasture again, she peed and marked it as her territory several times. Maybe she'll be nice and share it with the sheep.

 

[thistlebloom]

I like your solution of penning the sheep at night and switching them and Paris during the day. She'll learn what you expect of her, she's a smart girl, psycho or not.

 

[Nyboy]

City boy here so take this with a grain of salt. I read donkeys and mules hate K9 will defend herd from them. Why don't you try putting your mule in with sheep.

 

[bobm]

City boy here so take this with a grain of salt. I read donkeys and mules hate K9 will defend herd from them. Why don't you try putting your mule in with sheep.

Don't believe everything that you read on the internet or especially on Craig's list eather. One of my neighbors in Cal. owned 30 ewes + lambs as well as a donkey thet he baught to protect the sheep 7 months prior to this event and thaught that the sheep were well protected from coyotes. Well, one early morning that @#$%^ donkey killed 3 ewes and 2 lambs right in front of the neighbor by grabbing them by their necks , biting down breaking their necks then throwing them into the air and all the while chasing the sheep and braaaaying next.

 

[Ridgerunner]

A lot of things you read on the internet are possible, they "can" happen. But when you are dealing with living animals "can" does not mean "will".

Some donkeys, llamas, mules, whatever hate canines or at least some canines. Some become best friends. Some might bond with the sheep or whatever animals you want them to protect but there is a fairly good chance they won't. There is a chance they will be in the far end of the pasture when coyotes show up, so even if they hate coyotes they are not offering much protection. Even if they attack a coyote they are not protecting the sheep. They just hate coyotes. Certain animals "can" offer some protection, but they don't come with guarantees.

Certain dogs are bred with the idea that they will be protectors of their "pack", which can include chickens or sheep, but as Bay has shown, it still takes training. She's not the first one that's had trouble teaching one of them what is friend and what is foe. Once they are trained they are great but chickens and sheep are in danger from them until they are trained. A friend had a goat killed by a yearling LGD. It was a very playful pup.

My story is not as dramatic as Bob's but an intact male donkey is pastured right across the road from me with a couple of mares and several cattle. A neighbor's dog likes to roam the area, including that pasture. While the intact male donkey and the dog are not friends they both ignore each other.

I sometimes see coyotes in that pasture. I have never seen the coyotes when that donkey was around (I don't know how he would react) but I have seen them when the cattle were in the area. The donkey and two mares were with their individual "herd" far away while the herd of cattle were in a totally different area or scattered all over.

Keep it up Bay, you're doing fine.

 

[baymule]

Because my mule would stomp the living daylights out of the sheep. Basically she hates everything that is not a horse. She even stomps snakes. Chases deer away, dogs, possums, you name it.

 

[Nyboy]

Snake killing mule, I like her. Does she have big ears?

 

[baymule]

Snake killing mule, I like her. Does she have big ears?

She has lovely long ears. She loves me to rub the inside of her ears. She stomped on a coral snake once. All the horses shied away from the dead snake, but not the mule. She sniffed it and pawed it again to show me it was dead. Goofy mule.

 

[baymule]

Yesterday and today we got a sheep hut built. It is small, 8x8, but temporary. We are going to build a lean to off the side of our portable building, but we are weeks away from even starting on that project. Two of the ewes udders are bagging up, don't know when they are due, but it could be close and we wanted some sort of shelter for them now. Progress is being made, we have a small enclosure to put them up at night and now a small shelter to keep the rain off them. we wrapped it in tar paper. The shelter is right up against the portable building, but is small enough that when we build the lean to, we can go over the top of it and dismantle it after we build the lean to.

Paris is still being an idiot. I spent two hours with her in the pen with the ewes yesterday morning. She was on a leash. Yesterday evening i took her off the leash and she laid down next to me and wouldn't move. I stepped out of the pen and the white ewe, Lady Baa Baa approached Paris and Paris jumped all over her. Ewes were racing around the pen with Paris in hot pursuit. I ran back in and grabbed her, rolled her over, shook her and scolded a lot. Paris wasn't biting to draw blood, but a mauling that could get serious quickly. Out of the pen and back on the chain. Coyotes were howling at 4 yesterday afternoon and last night they were on the property next to us howling. When we get the lean to built, it will be secure and tight. Coyote proof, I hope.

Yesterday we had to pick our grand daughter up from school and take her to ballet lessons. I put Paris in the old chicken coop. Paris met us at the gate when we got back home. She dug a hole under the coop, there was a sheet of OSB plywood in front of the door and it looked like a shark took a large bite out of it. This morning we had to run to town, I left the ewes in the small pen and Paris on the chain. When we got back, Paris had dug a hole under the gate, (the same hole i filled back in and placed a sheet of plywood over to discourage her). She dug under the gate, then under the pen, climbed over the wire and was looking at us like she knew she was in trouble. Gheesh. I unchained her, unwrapped the chain, and moved her while we filled in the holes. What could we do? We just loved on her. We let the ewes out and worked on their shelter. Tonight the ewes are in their enclosure and Paris is chained outside the pen, but in the pasture. Two sides of the pasture are on the fence line, meaning that if she dug out, she would be running down the road. I am thinking about cutting the 4' horse wire in half and hog ringing it to the bottom of the fence wire to keep her from digging under. That would be over 400' of scooting on my bottom, hog ringing as I went.

Lady Baa Baa seems to be the perfect name for her as she is the spokesheep for the group. When we rattle a coffee can of feed, she is the one that talks to us. Hearing that first Baa was music to my ears! They have settled down, come to us when we have feed and hay. At least something is going right.

 

[thistlebloom]

Oh, your girls are lovely Bay!

400 feet is a very long way to be riding your pockets. The time might go faster if you sing that Butt Scooting Boogie song.