Decibel level.........

[Mona Howard]

This year my pastures are all burnt up and I have been feeding hay at a time when the sheep are usually up to their

bellies in grass. Unfortunately my sheep now associate me with the green stuff and everytime I set foot out of the

house there are one or two that start blaring at the top of their lungs. Usually this is incentive for others to join in.

It's not that they don't like the hay, a few talented individuals can even make quite an impressive noise with their

mouths stuffed with hay. Kind of like a fog horn through a pillow. I have taken to sculking around the property on my

tiptoes but I am usually picked up on their radar anyway. We've had some rains lately and the grass is growing in the

other pastures, I can't wait to put them on it again. Where did I get the idea that sheep are quite little animals???

[Sue R]

The cows not only know Ed visually, but his voice and even his cough. There are times of the year when he can't go out the door, or has to sneak to his car (or into the house after work) if he doesn't want the chorus to begin.

 

I, on the other hand, are considered "the mean dog lady" and they rarely give me a second thought.

[ThunderHill]

I usually get that in the winter. They don't even wait for me to surface in person. As soon as the lights go on in the house (well before dawn), the sheep cluster to wherever I've been feeding them and start bellowing for room service. When I come home from work, they follow my van along the driveway fenceline, or mob the empty grain pans, raising cain. They don't actually like *me* all that well (up close and personal associations are mostly with Those Dawgs, pointy things, and bad tastes) but they sure do know the signs of an impending meal. And they sure can make a din.

 

Do you ever get a sheep who just seems to like to yell a lot, for no particular reason? I've occasionally had a "bawler." And they've occasionally gone to market ahead of schedule. (Once I've had plenty of opportunities to observe that there is no discernable reason for them to be deploying their vocal talents.) Sometimes it's an older sheep who just decides to sound off a lot. But there's nothing like a March lamb who gets you out of bed at 3:00 a.m. every three nights for a couple of weeks making a very authentic "lost/distressed lamb" ruckus, only to discover (in your jammies, parka, bed-head and sockless muck boots) that she's standing in the middle of the flock at her mother's side, happily nursing between temper tantrums. Tender, and goes well en brochette with mint sauce.

 

Much sympathy on the burnt pastures. Hope you get decent rain soon.

 

Liz S (yadda)3

[Mona Howard]

"Do you ever get a sheep who just seems to like to yell a lot, for no particular reason?"[unquote]

 

Yes, I have a lamb this year that never bothers to find her mom after she takes a nap. She just wakes up and starts yelling. By this time the ewes are heartily sick of their lambs and don't bother to call back. So baby bigmouth will just go on and on. Usually I have to let one of the Border Colllies

out to make her shut up and start looking for mom. I usually get one or two a year and I'm convinced this is payback for when I was a lazy child and I

would yell for my Mom instead of looking for her. Now I know how she felt.

[rushdoggie]

The cows not only know Ed visually, but his voice and even his cough. There are times of the year when he can't go out the door, or has to sneak to his car (or into the house after work) if he doesn't want the chorus to begin.

 

The thought of him tiptoeing to his car in the morning made me LOL...

[Sue R]

The thought of him tiptoeing to his car in the morning made me LOL...

You should hear me holler when he forgets and coughs or speaks, and they all start bellowing!

[NorthfieldNick]

You think sheep are bad?! You should hear our (Bill, stop reading now) Nubian goats! They SCREAM when they want food, or when the dairy does decide it's time to be milked, which is whenever they us outside. Nevermind that they are in belly deep grass & weeds. They still holler. We're surprised no one has called CPS on us- It sounds like someone is injuring a child.

 

"Foghorn through a pillow" I like that. It's perfect:) (Yep, I know that sound well, too- "I'm eating but I'm still HUNGRY! And whatever YOU have is BETTER!")

[Tea]

Oh dear God! Nubian goats.........

 

 

AAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

 

Runs away towards closet

[mjk05]

We're lamb marking at the moment, and that's a noisy time of year! You can't hear each other even at a shout over the din sometimes.

[Gloria Atwater]

You guys all crack me up! (Tea, get out of the closet! Sweep is trying to steal the car!) Right now we have 5 Dorper-X sheep borrowed to mow the weeds for the summer, 4 yearling lambs and a lead wether named Leo. Most of the time the youngsters follow whither Leo leadeth, but at least once or twice a day, Leo will go marching off somewhere and only belatedly realized nobody's following! Suddenly I'll hear him bawling his fool head off, still being ignored, until finally he comes back to his reluctant flock.

 

I won't even start on my trainer's sheep, who start bellowing as if they haven't been fed in days the minute they see any human.

 

~ Gloria