Sheep manger

[joshuabardwell]

Well, folks, I set up the camera to take a nice time lapse of this build so I could put up a video for y'all to enjoy, but when I was done, I realized I hadn't put a memory card in the camera. So all you get is the finished photos.





Until recently, the sheep have gotten by without any dedicated shelter. They have some trees they can go into if they want to get out of the sun. The rain and cold doesn't bother them much, what with the wool coats and all. But we recently lost two lambs just a few days after birthing, because it was simultaneously really cold and really wet, so I decided to build them a manger.

Took about 6 hours start to finish, and boy am I sore all over from lugging all that wood from the truck back to where the manger is. Total cost was just under $300, thanks to the neighbor with a sawmill who sells rough-cut lumber much cheaper than a big-box. He was fresh out of one-by pine, so he sold me maple at the same price. Hope the sheep appreciate it!

 

[LJH]

Now that's a nice day's work, looks great. Did you build the feeder too? And what kind of sheep critter is that?

I have a neighbor with a WoodMizer. We scrounged/recycled about half the lumber for our goat barn and he cut the rest. It's a handy resource to have in ones community.

 

[joshuabardwell]

I did build the feeder also, although now that I have a tractor, I have switched to feeding full round bales instead of having to fill that thing up every day. Not sure what you mean about the sheep critter--are you asking about breed?

 

[J35]

Looks OK, I would close up the front except for a entry way, block more wind and wind driven rain, sleet snow plus in the summer the sheep can escape the biting flies. Maybe leave two entries one on each end then with a simple divider you will have two lambing jugs if you ever need them.

FYI a manger is what you put feed in, like what you built for the hay.

Good luck-- J

 

[LJH]

I did build the feeder also, although now that I have a tractor, I have switched to feeding full round bales instead of having to fill that thing up every day. Not sure what you mean about the sheep critter--are you asking about breed?

Right, the breed of that one, just curious. She looks like a big girl.

 

[joshuabardwell]

I'm not 100% sure of the breed. We got these sheep from a fellow who buys them up in big lots and then trucks them up north every year near the end of Ramadan. (Apparently, sheep is a popular dish in their end-of-month feasts.) Anyway, the point is we didn't really know their lineage, but we were having real trouble finding anyone to sell us sheep at the time, so we bought them anyway. All the sheep were described as Katahdin mixes, but most Katahdin are white. The other two that came with her are classic Katahdin (you can see the ram behind the gate in the 2nd picture). Katahdin do come in black too, but the other thing about her is that she doesn't cleanly shed her wool like the other two do. It sort of hangs in a big jacket and needs help to come all the way off. So my best guess is that she's at least part Katahdin, but part something else, more of a wool breed. The other breeds that were mentioned when we bought them were Dorper and Barbados. Both are full hair sheep, though, so that doesn't explain why she doesn't shed easily.

 

[RichZ]

To me, it looks like shes got Border Leister in her, as well.

 

[joshuabardwell]

What traits specifically, if you don't mind?

 

[Loren49]

Nice job. It will be good to have a place to get out of nasty weather.

Loren