If your having problems with your boys doing this I would sure seperate them from the girls, ewes don`t need anyone or anything bothering them during lambing. Do you pen your ewes and lambs seperatly for awhile after lambing? My old girls don`t need to most of the time but young ewes that may not have lambed before need to, so they bond with their lamb(s) > Thanks Marc

 

Do y'all usually separate them? And if so, for how long

I keep mine seperate all the time except for about 60 days for breeding.

Ewes can rebreed in as little as 30 days after lambing

 

I'd be happy as a clam if she rebred a month from now, but right now I want them to focus on their current babies and I don't want sex-crazed males charging around trampling babies underfoot.

I don't have the facilities to keep them separated long-term, plus I like having the young ones interact with the rest of the sheep. I've always thought it was good for the ones who haven't lambed yet to see how the other mothers take care of the babies.

So far everyone who has lambed has done so without any problem. Just go out in the morning and find lambs roaming around. I did have one of the lambs die, but I think he just didn't quite have the gumption he needed to survive. I was worried he wasn't getting enough to eat but even when I held him to the teat he wouldn't nurse. He was up moving around later so I thought he'd gotten some, but the next morning he was laid out stiff as a board. That was discouraging, but I know they don't all make it.

 

We pull our Rams about 60 days before the first ewe is due and leave a wether with the ewes and lambs. All of our ewes are placed in lambing pens just before or at lambing and kept there for the first three days then slowly integrated back into the heard. This way we can make sure we see the lamb nurse and allow the ewes and lambs to bond. If they don't nurse in 3hrs we tube them with colostrum. My Rams are pretty good but theres no way I would want to deal with them at lambing time. I have three Rams who live together when they are not breeding so they are not alone.

 

I put new lambs with their mom in a jug away from everybody else for a few days to a week depending on how good they are doing. It also depends on how many are lambing at the time. After the jug they go to a maternity group with other ewes and lambs. Haven't had a problem with the rams so they are allowed to stay with the group that hasn't yet lambed. I would separate the rams at least until the lambs are bigger so they don't get trampled.

 

I remove ewe and lamb to the smaller area, the pen over the septic field, as soon as she drops. If I see a ewe acting like she is going to drop, I put her there, too. The rams and ewes will not bother a ewe and newborn, given a day, the ram may bother them. I put them back together when the youngest lamb is a week old

You can create a place for mother and child, or one for the rams. The easiest way is to use a double row of electric netting to separate the pasture. As long as the ram isn't left alone, he should be fine.