[Startingout]

You all gave me great advice a few months ago so I thought I'd give an update.

The setup was that a friend owned land and was offering to be the financial backing for sheep, with us doing the work, in exchange for half of any produce.

We started by planting hawthorn along the perimeter of field 1, then putting a line of fencing inside of it. We also put a line of fencing a few metres in from the path, with two gates, so that we have a strip within the field that we can move them in to if we need to.

In March we got 5 Zwartbles (2 wethers and 3 ewes). We kept them in field 1 for quarantine for 6 weeks and the 2 existing texel x sheep had the other fields to roam in.

Within 2 weeks, 2 of the ewes went lame. We investigated thoroughly and felt that the cause was overgrown hooves. We trimmed them back and although they sulked for several days (actually thought one of them might die, she looked awfully sorry for herself!!) they were fine after that.

They have now mixed really well with the 2 existing sheep and they pretty much move as a flock. One of the must shy Zwartbles has teamed up with the most shy texel x, which is funny to see. They are always the last two to come.

We had them all sheared on 30/4, which was very exciting. We found a man who offered £10 per head including foot trimming. He brought his own generator and was willing to talk us through, let us video, and gave helpful tips.

We're so pleased with how they have taken to us. They greet us when we arrive. They will follow a bucket, which makes moving them around easier.

The only issue we have is that one ewe keeps managing to put her head through the stock fencing to get the longer grass that's growing beside the hawthorn, then gets stuck. It's always the same ewe - she doesn't learn!