[bigchicken]

It would be shetland that I would recommend, Can be very friendly, come in a few colours and patterns, usually easy to source, a good support group the club is very friendly. If I was you I would buy a few ewe lambs or young ewes who are bucket trained and very friendly so you get to know them and they get to know you. When the time comes to breed hire in a tup then you won't have a tup to look after and that could be better with children about as some tups can be a bit cantankerous, that would apply to most tups. What ever you choose the very best of luck.

[Graemscifi]

best of luck with the move. I want to recomend Castlemilk Moorit sheepies. I got a couple to go with my comercial Cheviot sheep this summer and they are great. It seems everyone likes Shetlands, and yes they are an ideal sheep for the area. But if you are seriously looking for a rare breed that needs your help as well as being easy to handle(escpecialy compared to some others), charming in character, very very pretty to look at and are also very tasty if you want to eat them as well as look at thier lovelyness Castlemilk could be for you. They are "Vunerable" according to the rare breed society, less than 700 regesterd, and the only sheep listed more endangerd then them are Borarey and they are very hard to manage for the beginer. i am certain there is a woman who has a decent flook in the Aberdeen area, i do not have contact for her but the breed scociety might, and there are a very few folk like me in the North who mave a couple, and are always looking to add to this select/mad group.

as i say best of luck, and whatever you get sheep wise will give back everything you spend and expend upon them and then some, good luck.

[beagh-suffolks]

i no they aren't exactly rare..(maybe rare to the uk) but are real friendly and easy kept sheep are ile de france, there are a good few breeders up your end of the country,they are easy kept and are great for meat, fast growing too and weather conditions dont seem to bother them much

[Womble]

Plenty of suggestions for you there, LOL! I'd narrow it down to a few different breeds, then try and visit some flocks to see what you think of them. Beware that different flocks of the same breed can behave differently though - for example some Castlemilk Moorits are really friendly, wheras others are very nearly wild sheep!

What you've said is pet lambs, rare breed, showing, eating, easily handled, placid and good with kids. The Shetlands tick all of those boxes except the rare breed, as they're not considered rare any more.

The other thing that hasn't been mentioned is cost. We bought two Zwartble ewe lambs this autumn at auction, but they cost five to eight times what we'd have paid for two Shetlands. In fact, for the average Zwartble price, we could have bought the show champion Hebridean ewe at the next day's auction.



Zwartbles are lovely BTW - very placid in nature, and popular as companions for ponies.  They can also be finished for meat in the same season they're born (unlike Shetlands, which wouldn't finish until the next Summer). I think the downside of them for you is their size though - they're flippin' huge! So whilst they're ever so friendly, they'd still knock a child flying to get to a bucket of coarse mix!

[Brucklay]

I agree with Womble - I have shetlands and Castlemilks and my shetlands are super friendly compared to my Castlemilks and they are all treated the same - although one of my castlemilks is very friendly as we took her to shows etc. Once penned I can manage all jobs on my own which is great.


My neighbour has Zwartble, Hebs and a few Gotlands, the Gotlands are friendly and a similar size to the shetland - the hebs are wild but as said before that can greatly vary from one Heb flock to another. The Zwartbles are friendly but I struggle to deal with them due to their size but they are nice sheep.


I had Jacobs when I started but due to the size and strength of my 4 horned tup I had to change and was advised to go for shetlands and I am very happy with them. I got the Castlemilks because of their rarity but am glad I did a lot of learning with the shetlands first.


Enjoy looking at all different breeds at the end of the day you have to like the sheep you choose.

[SallyintNorth]

I'd agree that the temperament varies within any breed - I've known extremely flighty Shetlands as well as very tame ones, and my first Castlemilks never became very tame but the later ones arrived totally soppy, having been born in a Children's Farm Park.  (Pic attached.)

Once you have some tame sheep, it's easier to get others to join in (second pic - the Manxes, who were not from the same origin, didn't want to be missing out on the treats the Castlemilks were getting!), but some will remain naturally more wary than others.

A lot of the natives will jump fences and walls if they want to be somewhere else, which can include when you are wanting to get close with them for treatments etc.  So far, I've found Castlemilks less likely to scale walls than Shetlands or Manxes - but that's on a very small sample of each breed. 

One thing that may be a factor with children in the equation is that most Shetland ewes are polled (not horned) whereas many (if not all) Hebs, all Manxes and all Castlemilks are horned in both sexes.

If you are looking at other breeds, be aware that, as Womble highlights with respect to the Zwartbles, some very docile breeds can nonetheless be quite dangerous especially to small persons.  Blue-faced Leicesters, and many crosses thereof, are really quite affectionate sheep, but they love their food and will dump you to get at what's in your bucket.  They'll do it with no aggression whatsoever, but you're still dumped!

[daveh]

I'll add my bit about Castlemilks. My four originals came from Cotswold farm park and only one has become tame enough to approach me. The others will sometimes be very daring a take a bit of food from my hand. Castlemilks I have bred or bought in from three different sources are all very friendly some to the extent of getting under your feet when you are working round the farm in a never ending search for a tit bit.

I have had my ten Cotswolds ewes for two months now. They were a bit on the suspicious of me at first but now come when they are called. Three of them will take food from my hand and I expect this number to increase when they are brought in for lambing in three weeks time.

I have no dog and am the wrong side of old age pension entitlement so having sheep that come to me is essential.

Regards, David