I wrote this back in early November before I had a steemit account. I thought folks here might enjoy the story.
Had a two month old male lamb that needed banding (non surgical castration). I Built a pen to put him his mother and sister in while keeping an eye on him for a few days. Tried to coax mom with a grain bucket figuring if I could get her in, babies would follow. Could not get her. So put the grain bucket in the pen got her and a few others in there but no babies. No problem I'll get in there catch mama and put her on a lead and wait for babies to come in to nurse and close the gate. Get in there, have a hell of a time catching mama and she is hitting the fence like a missile. Finally I get a hold of her by the collar (luckily she had a collar from when we bought her) but can barely hang on. Damn she is strong.
I literally had to kinda of sit down on her and put her in a partial Jui Jitsu hold LOL. I Get a lead on her and tie it to a fence post. Let her up and she hits the fence a couple times and then the end of the lead and breaks the clasp. Stupid me didn't have the gate closed and she is out and of course very leary of me now sigh.
Ok plan B get the babies in on leads and wait for mama to follow. First I need to strengthen the fence though. I just had field wire and T posts with top and bottom tension wire and the way she hit it I thought she might break it. Fence is now doubled with sturdier panels, put more food in the pen let all the sheep go in and eat it. But mama would back out anytime I tried to approach. So finally babies are in eating with a few others and I get the gate closed. Go in and catch them and get them on leads. Little turds are pretty strong already themselves. I also set up a chain with heavy duty clasps for mama.
So l leave the gate open put some food in and wait for mama. She is having none of it. Babies are crying and she is talking back. But won't go in while I'm around. So I figure I'll back off leave them over night with the gate open. Feed all the sheep in there in the morning.
I Get up sore the next morning from wrestling mama not looking forward to doing it all again today. Put some food in there and they all go in...except mama sigh. She is eyeballing me. So I back off a bit and she goes and takes a couple bites and comes back out and looks at me LOL. She knows! So I go about my business and ignore her. Finally food gets the better of her and she goes in and starts eating with the rest of them. As I approach she sees me and comes out. We play this game a few more times. And I finally leave her be while she eats and gets focused on eating. I sneak up till I think I'm close enough then make a run for the gate, two of them get out and mama hits the gate just as I close it. I finally got her. But I still have to get her on a lead.
So I let them eat and calm down a bit till Brenda can help me. Finally I go back out give them some more food and hang out for a while to get them calmer with me around. Finally time to go in and get her on the chain so the others can go out and just her and babies are left.
It's actually easier with several sheep in there as they bunch up and make it harder for one to freak out. Still its tough to get a hold of her then hang on to her long enough to get a tighter collar and lead on her. Finally after a few more Jiu Jitsu moves I get her collared and on the chain, and was exhausted. Let the others out and moment of truth as she hit the end of the chain trying to go out with them. It held! Take the collars off the babies so they don't get tangled, band the male and the ordeal is finally over...I am beat what a workout!...
