Hi there,
I'm replying prematurely, since we're about to take our first sheep to 'the seaside' on Monday and wont know the associated slaughter/butchery costs until afterwards (too hopeless to ask, but less than two pigs - £155 for us - I suspect...)
But, since I know the delight of feeling someone's out there I thought I'd reply anyway!!!!
So, as I can figure it, the pay back from a very small flock of sheep is the perverse pleasure of having them.... we started last year with five ewes with lambs at foot (ie lambs at about four weeks old), and we went through lambing this year with the five ewes, to get six lambs.... we have a rare mountain breed, so they are small, and so you don't get a lot of sheep at 6+ months. We've read how lovely 'hogget' is (sheep between one and two years old, some say, though I know definitions trigger huge debates...) so we've kept last year's lambs and they're the ones (well, a couple of them, we got attached to the others...) about to go...
Costs: our ewes around £50 and lambs around £25 each....; minimal bedding for shelter and could have managed without additional feed since no snow and the grass 'good enough'....
Vaccinations costly, however, since about £20+ for the smallest bottle available, and for us novices the first time we vaccinated we got vet over to show us (expensive(ish) but got private lesson and subsequently we can do all injections for either vaccinations or anti-biotics since we know where to give the intra-muscular and sub-cutaneous injections)...
You need to factor in another £30+ if you have lambs born and you need to ear tag them (cost of tags & applicator).
The ewes might need 'drenching' to give them treatment against liver fluke (another £30+ for the treatment and equivalent for the applicator)....
And the flock might need treatment for worms depending on your luck (we've been lucky so just spent £6 on poo tests and not had to take it further...)
Oh, and shearing a very small flock costs a disproportionate amount (I don't dare admit what we paid...)
I'm estimating the above figures, they're written down somewhere but it's been a long day....
Oh, and sheep hurdles are pricey,
and if you start the lambing stuff there's more kit.
Our mountain sheep are pesky and untrusting and very flighty, but if just one, occasionally, deigns to take a nut from our hands then we're pathetically grateful...
And when they're "your sheep" it can all be rather lovely... even if you have a dastardly end in mind for them....
Not a financial venture then, I guess, but if they live with you then their provenance will be better than anything you will EVER buy....