Starter flock of Icelandic sheep

[Boondox]

Well, Tamara and I visited a farm near the coast of Maine this morning and picked up our first two Icelandic sheep: Fudge Baa and Bunnihaven. Both are ewe lambs about six months old. After having their ear tags installed and their ears tattooed, deworming meds and selenium paste shot down the gullet, we stuffed them in an extra large dog crate in the back of the Subaru and started home.

I never realized sheep got gas, but my gawd did they let loose some winners on the way back to Vermont! [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] Anxiety, I guess.

So we got home and drove up the back way, hoping the dogs wouldn't notice our arrival. Unfortunately, the house/dog/cat/chicken sitter had them out for play, so all four rushed up to greet us. Between crying for joy and barking over the excitement of new arrivals, the poor lambs were terrified and steadfastly refused to come out of the crate. So we just put the crate into the portable sheep shelter, brought over a couple of lawn chairs and a bottle of champagne...and toasted the newcomers. After a while we forgot all our woes, and apparently so did the lambs. They came out of the crate and started chowing down on their hay.

At the farm in Maine I sat down near a flock of thirty adult sheep. For a while they eyed me suspiciously, but then a big ram came over and rested his shaggy old head on my shoulder. I rubbed his ears and all the places I figured a sheep couldn't scratch. Very, very cool old ram! In time, with patience, our little ewes will be that tame.

Pete

[GaryM]

Pictures, we need pictures! Please?

[wiltat2]

Ditto, Pictures please.
Good luck, we have had little luck in getting our Barbado ewes to gentle down. The rams on the other hand enjoy getting scratched around the ears and back, and run to the fence to meet us to get a little attention.
Best of luck.
Wil

[EJB]

Congrats. What are your plans for the sheep? Are you going to use them for wool? meat both or just "pets"?

[egon]

Pete:

Ethan would really look good with a set of nicley varnished wooden stock racks and several animals in the back.

Perhaps he'd even start grinning with joy at being able to work again.

Egon

[Boondox]

Not too sure about Ethan this year, as I've pretty much run out of time to work on him, but Semper (the red truck with flathead six) has been a real workhorse this summer! He's hauled firewood, loads of hay, lumber, drainage pipe...and even participated in the Moscow, VT July 4th Parade! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

That old engine has loosened up nicely...but I sure would like to drive Ethan and see what that V8 feels like!

Pete

[Boondox]

Fudge and Bunni will live to a ripe old age, as they are our seed stock. Two more animals coming this year -- one of them a pregnant ewe -- so it's wool for the first few years. According to our calculations we won't have spares till 2005, at which time we'll start eating the ram lambs.

But they sure are fun! Pete

[EJB]

>>According to our calculations we won't have spares till 2005, at which time we'll start eating the ram lambs.

Boy, talk about a long preparation time for a meal [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] ...

Sounds like a fun project though...did you get the sheep at Frelsi Farm in Maine? Just curious..you had mentioned getting them in Maine, and this was a place I had heard of before on my sheep quests.


As far as the wool, are you planning on using them yourself or selling it? From what I read there is basically no market for wool, and usually costs more to shear/prep than you can get for it selling it....in fact, where I buy my hay the guy also raises sheep, he offered me piles and piles of the stuff for free and told me to use it as mulch on my garden! (I declined because I prefer mulches that I can turn back into the soli at the end of the season)

[Boondox]

Wow, small world! My wife did the Webpage for Frelsi Farm and yes, that's where Bunnahabhain (white) and Fudge Baaa (brown) came from.

Still no pictures by the way. We sit with them so they acclimate to human presence, and only after I get past the electric mesh do I remember the camera! And since I have a history of electrical trauma where that darned fence is concerned, I am loath to straddle it more often than absolutely necessary. Hence, no pics yet.

Why sheep? They are mobile little mowing units. From my point of view that's probably the biggest benefit. Using portable electric mesh, I can get them to mow all those difficult spots for me: around the graveyard, the slope of the pond, the edge of the forest, etc. And while my wife would like to make something of her very own wool, Icelandics are a primitive breed with only OK wool. Besides, I've seen how much work is involved and suspect she'll quickly tire of the endeavor. As for mulch, forget it, but as weed control between the raised beds, wool is unmatched! I also wonder if the smell will deter marauding deer..?

Speaking of deer, there was a nice four point buck in my yard this morning. Part of me was cautioning, "out of season!" but another part, sick of the lack of variety in the Atkin's Diet, was urging "no carbs in that entire animal!" Caution won the day, but you guys know what I was thinking of when I shot that half dollar at 300 yards last month! That's right, there's space for Bambi in the freezer! [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Pete

[Anjou]

I'm curious how the flock of Icelandic Sheep have been faring at your farm in Vermont. My wife, Debbie, and I are building a house in the midst of a 7 acre hayfield. Since I have no desire to spend much time mowing (unless I can get one of them Kubota Zero-Turn Diesels with a 60" mowing deck), I am considering various low-maintenance, edible, organic lawnmowers (livestock). I've recently decided that Icelandic Sheep are probably the best option for several reasons, although I'll probably need a goat or two to tackle the rampant poison ivy and scrub mulberry saplings. I'm hoping my youngest daughter, Maggie (a 5-year old English Springer Spaniel), will ignore them as she does the neighbors 5 horses. I'm somewhat concerned that sheep/goats won't intimidate her and she'll feel compelled to dominate or tirelessly harrass them. Maybe I'll take her to the PA Farm Show (the largest indoor event in the nation) next year and see how she reacts.

I'm hoping to become a weekend/evening homesteader, after the regular dull daytime office job. Sheep can be easily contained in a 6-stand high-tensile electric perimeter fence (I'm not so sure about goats). Icelandics apparently do not need any grain, lamb easily (on their own in the pasture), can endure the elements with little shelter and can get up to market weight (95-110 lbs) in one season (no winter feeding, except for the breeding stock. I'm figuring on fencing about 5 acres, so I imagine I can support about 20 small animals. Naturally, I intend to ease into this project very sloooowly... maybe just a ram and two ewes for starters (all horned for defense, although we don't have many predators in our part of PA -- 20 miles NW of Harrisburg, the Capitol). I'd enjoy hearing how your experience has gone thus far. There's 2 farms with Icelandics within two hours of our place that I'll need to check out. Of course, the rest of this year will be spent on the house so we can move out of the basement!