Why do sheep need so much help?

Your garden will need to be free of toxic ornamental plants and very, very securely fenced to make it a suitable place to keep sheep - they are good at finding escape routes... your garden unless it is a large and well managed set of paddocks is unlikely to provide them with all the nutrition they need, so some thought/ research may be needed there, also think about whether you can provide them with adequate housing for winter, storage space for feed and bedding, etc.

You might need to know somebody who is willing to teach you or help you re good trimming, shearing etc, as it might prove impossible to find professionals who are willing to travel to you for the sake of 1 or 2 sheep rather than a couple of hundred (financially not worth it for them!).

But yes, not breeding from them will remove one method of killing themselves/ causing trouble!

I do know a farmer (not a sheep farmer) who ended up with an (eventually) elderly pet sheep which was pretty amusing and worked out well, although bearing in mind she had a full farm to live on.

I guess I'm asking because it's anonymous and I don't want my brother to laugh me out of the house. He has a small holding.

So, if I wanted to keep a handful of sheep... (I wouldn't be wanting to eat or breed them).

I'd need them sheered and there's no market for the wool.

If I wasn't breeding... say I was rescuing...

Can they potter in my secure garden, eating everything they can get at?
Will they still need lots of vet attention if they are kept shorn and not bred?

I dream of a return to the country with chickens and a handful of low maintenance animals. Do sheep fit the bill? Will they keep my lawn mowed?

Loving this thread. Grew up in Devon, surrounded by farmers sheep and yes I always thought they were just really dim. He was forever pulling them out, saving them, next day....

And I can't recommend enough Sandi Brock on YouTube and Instagram. She's a Canadian indoor sheep farmer. Lovely to watch.

This year was pretty catastrophic for lambing for us. I have a small herd of Suffolk and Suffolk crosses, with never more than 12 ewes. Naturally bred so lambing over 2 months in the coldest part of the winter. Often one gets rejected but as long as I do the bottle bit Mum will take care of it.

I spend a lot of time in developing lead sheep as they are crucial to easy management. Often it's me. They won't go over into anything dark cos it might be a hole. They'll follow me into a dark barn.

When they get sick they are very resistant to getting better. The vet comes a lot some years.

They are stupendously greedy.

I can manage them by myself for most things unless they find an unanticipated treat on route.

Sheep are stupid

I live rurally in Cumbria and there are pleas on Facebook at least once a day to rescue a sheep that's got itself stuck somewhere, or who has escaped and wandered into someone's house or garden.

Often you rescue them and they wander straight back to where they got stuck so you have to do it all over agin 🤣

Our local Facebook page usually has a plea for the farmer to go check on some sheep, this particular flock seem to escape through a fence then as soon as the farmer goes to rescue them,nip back again😀

some pigs escaped the other week which was new

Loving this thread! My townie dh never believes me when I tell him that sheep are the thickest animal out there, hell bent on suicide!

We've noticed in the U.K. that there quite often seems to be a Lead Sheep, though whether she's a real leader or the others are just following one at random I don't know, (always is a she, of course - Rams are few and far between.)

Sometimes we walk by a few fields which contain some unusual creatures - llamas and emus (or possibly ostrich... not sure). On one occasion, one of the fields contained a dozen or so sheep and a white emu. The latter was running around, with the sheep running flat out following it. Given that afaik those big birds have brains about the size of walnuts it probably doesn't say much for the sheep...

Haha yeah, they spend the summers free range in the highlands so they can't really avoid mountainous terrain. Apparently these leader sheep have a great sense of direction and they can keep the flock safe in storms as well. I've heard stories of Icelandic sheep who miss the autumn round up surviving the winter near hot springs, so in general they seem to be quite good at not dying.. maybe better than average!

Oh dear...shouldn't laugh but...

The video which follows is a rescue which doesn't go quite to plan though I think the sheep was ok

I meant sally urwin, aka pintsizedfarmer.

I'm a bit obsessed with sheep and lambs. Follow anyone on Twitter who does sheep.
Recommended Sally Unwin

Of course if they were really intelligent they'd avoid the dangerous terrain and lead the flock over safe ground...maybe that's not an option in Iceland.

I always feel like this short video sums up sheep perfectly.

I don't know all that much about it, but the Icelandic breed has a strain within it called leader sheep. Some of them are just born more alert and intelligent and will lead the rest of the herd over dangerous terrain. It's quite interesting!

This!

I have a small flock of Valais Blacknose wethers. They are the sweetest little things. Come to call, literally sit on you knee if you sit down in their field. Far more responsive than my lazy dogs and easier to train than my stubborn horses. I'd recommend them to anybody wanting to start with Sheep.

We used to go camping on a farm and one day my Dad went with the farmer in a boat to rescue a sheep which had fallen half way down a cliff. They then rowed the sheep back to the farm.

This has got to be my current favourite thread on MN 😊I've got a soft spot for sheep, especially the old British breeds like the Hebrideans and Jacobs, although the Valais Blacknose are gorgeous! The Lincoln Longwools are quite something too! 😍Please keep the sheep stories and info coming 🤗

seeingadistance. I really hope you enjoy the book. I don’t know how the writer managed to make a flock of sheep into characters that are so believable. It’s one of the most different books I’ve read.

Sheep are probably supposed to die more but we insist on farming them and keeping them alive 😆

@Honeyroar

I can confirm that we are 😁