So many sheep breeds to choose from!

[Latestarter]

Greetings @Girlies' Mum and welcome to BYH (almost a year after you first signed up! ) Glad you finally got around to posting! Good to have you with us Please make yourself at home! Always room for more good Sheeple here

 

[Girlies' Mum]

Thank you so much for the lovely welcome, latestarter! Not as much of a latestarter as me it would seem, as you noticed my joining date!!. I will go now with my tail between my legs to the joining thread and explain why.....though I will be back as I am definitely Sheeple

 

[secuono]

I have hair sheep. But if I were to have a wool sheep, the Cotswold would catch my eye because of those long lovely locks. I don't have wool sheep because that would lead me down a whole new road.......I'd have to get a spinning wheel and learn to spin, knit, crochet, probably toss in weaving to that, and I already know how to hook rugs. Do not have time for all that right now.

Cotswolds are big and you want small. @secuono has small wool sheep. She can tell you all about them.

I've got Babydoll Southdown sheep.
Most don't grow much wool, but a few breeders around the country are breeding for longer staple length, myself included.

Babydolls are short, wide, stout sheep, not fine boned like Mini Cheviot or Shetland, who both also grow a lot of wool in comparison. Babydolls also have a lot of lanolin, which is a pain to get it all out. But they are very tough little things with lots of personality. What they look like also varies from breeder to breeder, some go for the large, thick shape, while others prefer a leaner, more feminine look to the body. Same with how woolly faces, ears and legs are.
Being so short and stout, they can be tricky to flip, so a sheep chair is a good investment or you can teach them to stand for routine things like vaccines, hoof trimming and crutching. I only flip mine when they refuse to stand still for me. I pull the far hind leg out from under them towards me, while turning the head in towards me. Once on the ground, I roll them over and onto their butt or on their butt and leaning against a corner.
All being naturally polled was a huge thing for me.
Be aware that true, non greying black is very hard to find because it's hard to tell if they will grey or not. Most go grey within a few years. So if you want black wool, be very picky or buy an older black ewe. I have a ram and an ewe who have both remained black, others are all slowly greying out and even had a lamb born who started to grey before summer was even over! But grey is very pretty, at least I sure like it for spinning.
Being the pony of the sheep world, they get fat easily and usually can't or rather not jump a fence to escape. You should be able to haul them home shotgun style, lamb or adult. They are 80-150 pounds, height and how fat they are play a big roll in that.
Babydolls are not very fine in wool, this also varies greatly and diet can play a large part in how nice or cruddy the wool is.



For crossbred sheep, you could choose two different breed of ewes, so they have company, and breed them to a 3rd breed of sheep or even use 2 different rams.

 

[Baymule]

Thank you so much for the lovely welcome, latestarter! Not as much of a latestarter as me it would seem, as you noticed my joining date!!. I will go now with my tail between my legs to the joining thread and explain why.....though I will be back as I am definitely Sheeple

Glad to have more sheeple here! Glad you are joining in the fun!

 

[Girlies' Mum]

Thank you Baymule, nice to be here!

 

[cedarhillfiberfarm]

Hi All, I have been meaning to introduce myself but not got round to it, so apologies. But this post was too interesting to me to keep quiet! I have 4 beloved pet sheep and 2 are Shetlands - a gimmer and a wether lamb, and Shetlands seem to fit your requirements perfectly unless I am totally missing the point. Look at the Shetland Society page http://www.shetland-sheep.org.uk/page.php?Plv=1&P1=6&P2=&P3=
Is that any help? Will do a proper intro shortly on the intro page! And I support "latestarter" - do be careful not to accidentally copper poison your sheep, they are very sensitive.

Girlies' Mum! Although you are an older member thank me

There actually are a lot of Shetlands around here, and they do seem like great little sheep! Their wool isn't exactly what I am looking for, although I have used it, and it is a nice wool.

 

[cedarhillfiberfarm]

Always room for more good Sheeple here

Sheeple...I love it!

 

[cedarhillfiberfarm]

I've got Babydoll Southdown sheep.
Most don't grow much wool, but a few breeders around the country are breeding for longer staple length, myself included.

How much wool do Babydolls usually produce? And does the longer staple length affect that much?

I'm hoping to find a breed with high wool production, but Babydoll sheep seem so sweet!