# What kind of sheep to get?



## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

What's even better than your own sheep? Friends with sheep, of course!

So, my friend is looking for some sheep. She really doesn't know which sort, yet, but she wants some small woolly ones. Does anyone know which would be the best? The Ouessants, are supposed to be the smallest and have wool good for fine yarns, but they don't seem to be available in the United States. 

Baby Dolls? What's a really small sheep - something in the miniature zone, that has good wool?

What else should we be asking? She has about five to ten acres with fencing and there's already five "temporary" sheep there. Mostly Clun Forest with enough Katahdin to add odd dark hairs to the fleece as well as coarsen it. Not exactly sheep we want to multiply. So, she is looking for some sheep of her own now that she's had the practice sheep for awhile.


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

The Original Leicester are rather small,,, with very soft fleece. They are trying to save them at places like Colonial Williamsburg.

Some Shetlands have very soft fleece and they are very small.

Only problem with Babydolls, is their fleece is so short, it can be a challenge to handspin.

My Finn ewe is small, smaller than I was expecting and very refined. Think she is a year old now. She is from a line of Finn's that only have 2 or 3 lambs at a time.

If you want a more medium type fleece....ie .. not next to the skin soft...
You can look into Brecknock Hill Cheviots...now called Toy or Mini Cheviots. 
They are the original sized, border/southern Cheviots the Hudson bay company brought to the NW in the 1880's.

There are also Black Welsh Mountains. 

If you can... what ever sheep you are interested in, go to the flock and run your hand through the sheep's fleece, to see if it is what you are looking for. 
Or ask for samples.


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## Miz Mary (Feb 15, 2003)

I was going to suggest Shetland ... but you may want to look into climate, and which breeds are easier in your climate .....


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## lambs.are.cute (Aug 15, 2010)

Romney is a great breed ( or course I'm biased because I raise them). I don't know how much it rains there but they she'd water nicely. Lovely fleeces (especially the New Zealand blood lines), med size, and sweet personality. 

And besides they are soooooo cute


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## romysbaskets (Aug 29, 2009)

I just want to hug that sweet little lamb....oh my!


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Get the sheep to match your climate, most importantly. English winters are nothing like our winters ... English sheep breeds have some trouble in our cold. Iceland is like here. Icelandics do well!


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## betty modin (May 15, 2002)

I would suggest shetlands as small, easy keepers. However, not all shetlands have soft fleece and calm manners. My suggestion is find a sheep show, visit and TALK to every breeder that has anything remotely like what you'd like to have. When you have narrowed the field down to 3 or 4 breeds, buy fleeces from the breeders and spin them up.

That's how I chose shetlands,and the breeders I bought them from. My little ones are friendly, curious and more like dairy goats (or even dogs) than most. They know their names, follow me around, and let the neighborhood children feed them 'cookies'. AND, best of all, I get lovely fleeces every year.

Take your time; don't fall for the first wooley face you see, and enjoy the process. Sheep live awhile (not long enough though) so you want to get what makes you happy.

betty


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## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

We are 2,500 miles away from the nearest sheep show so it will be difficult to get to one. Or even to visit different flocks and farms. It would be best to try to narrow the field down so if a mainland trip is in order it will be to go to just one area. 

If a breed of sheep is brought in that isn't already here, reselling them if we don't like them wouldn't be a problem, but it would be nice to get the right sheep the first time. 

Hmm, the breeds of sheep on this island that I know about:
1. Merino - too big and too hard to shear, plus prepping their fleece is a huge chore
2. Clun Forest - too big, but nice fleece. 
3. Katahdin - hair sheep and too big.
4. Romney - too big and not enough sproingyness in the fleece, at least for my preferences.
5. Mouflan - feral sheep and hairy
6. Southdown of some sort. I've not seen them yet, don't know details.

There's also a few more that have been brought in and inter-bred with some of the Merino/hybrid flocks here, but those were all big sheep.

The climate for these particular sheep will be up in Pauuilo Mauka. So, it will get down to maybe the upper forties in winter. Never freezing. It will get up to maybe - rarely - the mid nineties during the summer. There's grass year round, shelter and water. If anything too much water, it can rain a bit in the winters.

Hmm, maybe Shetlands if we bought some from a spinner who knew which ones had the best fleeces. We're not looking for a lot of sheep, probably at most three ewes and two rams. Better would be two or three ewes already bred and a ram. With the ewe bred to a ram other than the one that was sent. That would give a wider range of genetics to work with.

Are Shetlands small enough to ship in a large dog crate? Can you fit more than one in a really large dog airline kennel?


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

I used to ship my Brecknock Hills and Babydolls in giant dog kennels all over the US. Shetland lambs are tiny like the Brecknock Hill lambs. I shipped when they were 5 to 6 months old.

Shipped two lambs per giant dog kennel, they had more than enough room to move around and lay down. 
Two of the airlines had pressurized cargo holds, so they always arrived healthy.

Airlines are picky about the time of year they will ship sheep though. But it is do-able.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I'm a fan of finnsheep. They are small and can do well on decent grass and hay. I feed grain in the last couple of months of gestation. 

Don't rule out some of the crosses either. I have a CVMxBFL and she's gorgeous! She'll be larger, but not too large. A BFLxFinn cross will be smaller yet have a nice strong but soft fleece.


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## MDKatie (Dec 13, 2010)

If you liked the Oessants, I'd also recommend looking at the Black Welsh Mountain sheep. If you need a small breed, really Icelandics or Shetlands would be the best breed. Katahdins aren't all that big, and if you need something smaller I'd go with the previously mentioned ones. 

Babydoll Southdowns wouldn't have good enough fleece, I'd think. It's usually very short staple length. I have American Southdowns (standard sized) and I love them, but they'd be too big for what you want and fiber isn't desirable enough.


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## southernmom (May 1, 2013)

I have Katahdins, finn and wooly florida cracker sheep. I love my crackers, the are parasite resistant and have wonderful wool. But my most well mannered and calm sheep is the Finn. She also has great wool.


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

Katahdins are hair sheep.... no wool to spin.

The purebred Katahdins I have, are running about 250lbs so they are not small! 
My Doper/stCroix/Katahdin is even heavier.

If anyone is interested in Black Welsh Mountains, talk to Oogie about bloodlines.
Way back when, when I had mine... they were a genetically dead breed...and having issues because of it. Reason, I started crossing my BWM ewes with my Brecknock Hills... made some outstanding crosses for handspinning flocks.
Anyway...
Oogie and some of the other breeders found a way to bring new blood into the US via semen. 

Have to say my black Finn ewe was super easy to tame and halter train, very friendly, easy to handle and at a year old... she "might" be 80lbs.
And her fleece... my goodness... it is sooo soft!


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## betty modin (May 15, 2002)

How about a trip to Oregon for the Black Sheep Gathering? It's the 4th weekend of June, and not only is it a fiber festival, it's a nice sized sheep show. There are lots of wonderful sheepy folk that would talk for hours about their breeds....that's where I did my research and found my little ones. It's a three day event, so you can make the rounds and talk to all of them. (if you do come over, let me know-I'm only an hour away and already am signed up for workshops on two of the days)

If it sounds like something doable, you can go on line and look up the details. They also have lots of great workshops. (I'd put in a link, but I'm rather technologically challenged. The tech guy at work hates to see me coming...he knows it'll be some question everyone else can probably figure out by themselves.)

betty


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## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

Hmm, I wonder if I could go to Black Sheep? We're already going to be in Colorado for DH's teacher conference, but I don't have to go to the teacher conference. It shouldn't be that expensive to get plane tickets from Denver to Oregon? Maybe my sheepie friend wants to go, too, I could meet her in Oregon and we could split car and hotel expenses.

Hmm, $250 for airfare, figure a car for three or four days and some sort of hotel, motel or someplace and it could be done for less than $400 possibly. Get me away from the teacher meetings!


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## betty modin (May 15, 2002)

Having been to teacher conferences, I think the Black Sheep Gathering would be more interesting....
(and I'm a teacher)

betty


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## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

Oh, hands down, I'd MUCH prefer to go to Black Sheep than to be anywhere near a teacher convention. They get into talking teacher talk and then they get into worse acronyms than the military. 

Well, I have found out that some other Friends of mine are also considering bringing in sheeps and they may want some Shetlands. So, I'll see if I can introduce the friend and Friends together and see if they can consolidate their sheep shipping. They'll want to swap genetics, so they may as well help each other pick out sheepies.

Someone at quilting was thinking of going to Black Sheep, I'll see how they're thinking of making arrangements. It's always more fun in a group.


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## lambs.are.cute (Aug 15, 2010)

hotzcatz said:


> 4. Romney - too big and not enough sproingyness in the fleece


Don't discount Romney until you have seem a hand spinners flock. Here's my springiness


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## Kasota (Nov 25, 2013)

LAC - simply beautiful!


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## betty modin (May 15, 2002)

Romney fleece is wonderful! However, sheep the size of big dogs are easier for me to keep, and shetlands have a certain 'something' I've not seen in the other breeds I've looked at. They're just a bit more curious.

betty


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## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

We already have Romney here and they are too big. I do buy the occasional Romney fleece to spin, though. The last one had tons of luster but not a lot of sproing, so perhaps it was just the specific critter it came from. Made some lovely yarn for shawls, not so good for socks. At least, that particular fleece. Had some lovely shine, though.

A Clun Forest ram not overly related to the Clun Forest cross sheep that she has did just show up on Craig's List locally, but I don't know if she's gonna want to breed more Clun Forest because of their size.

It turns out Black Sheep Gathering is June 20-22, so I won't be able to go since that's also the Telluride Blue Grass Festival weekend and we're already going to that. Sigh! No fiber festival for me. It's really depressing.


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