[Jacob-list] loose sheep...

[Mary Hansson]

Julie and all,
 
Any self-respecting Jacob sheep can clear a 3 foot fence without even stopping.  My Jacobs will jump on top of the big round bales of hay---and that is over my 52 inch fenceline.  I have yet to get one to hop down to the OUTSIDE of the fence from the bale, but have definitely worried about that.
 
First ram I ever saw do it didn't wait 2 minutes from the time he was put in a pen with a 3 foot fence partition to the ewes.....Talk about feeling STUPID......I certainly did.  Learned a valuable lesson.
 
I use 52" cattle panel and have never had one clear it.  
 
I did have a neighbor who got tired of curious and nibbling lambs one spring.  She took her blank gun out the back door and shot it off.  Told of how this particularly rotten little black Shetland ram lamb CLEARED the 52" fence and kept going.  We never saw him outside the fence again following that incident and I was ever so thankful she did that!
 
Mary Ellen

Julie Barber <jules3452 at hotmail.com> wrote:
Hey everyone! I am writing because our three sheep decided to escape from 
their fence this morning and go on a little adventure. When I went out at 
6:30 this morning, much to my suprise the fence was empty. We have a 33" 
fast fence. We had them in a 42" fast fence for about 2 weeks, and they 
were fine. However, we just moved them into the smaller fence on Saturday. 
The fence was still standing when we went out this morning, but there was a 
little sag in one part of it that they must have gotten out of somehow. 
Well, after a very long, wet, it was pouring, pursuit, we found the sheep 
walking up the road, and coaxed them back to the yard with oats and hay. 
After another very long attempt to get them into the fence, we finally got 
them back home securely! =) So my questions are...Do we need to stick with 
the taller fence? Does anyone have any ideas of what may have happened? We 
are pretty clueless. They have always left the fence alone and kept a very 
good distance from it, so we don't know what happened. Any suggestions on 
how to keep this from happening? We thought something may have spooked 
them, a deer or something.

Thanks in advance for all the help on this!

Chad and Julie

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Mary Ellen Hansson, MEd, RD, LDN
ISeeSpots Farm
Jacob Sheep:  Lambs, adults, wool
www.iseespots.com
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