[Bramble&Rose Dairy]

Hi all! Hope everybody is well 
I would like to hear everyone's advice and opinions on keeping Badger Face Welsh Mountains. Previously we've kept commercial i.e Mule, Suffolk, Texel e.t.c, we've had Herdwicks and pedigree Ryelands. I'm supposed to be reducing the flock to just the ped Ryelands but in the market the other week I saw some Welsh Badger Faces. What beautiful little sheep! I restrained myself      However, ( and don't tell my oh), I'm so taken with them I'm considering getting some....... 
Who else has kept them and what was your experience?
Many thanks 

[roddycm]

A neighbour of mine kept badger faced welsh, I kept black welsh. They seemed very similar in management to be honest. Clever, hardy little sheep that require very little work. Make sure you buy quiet stock is the only thing, if you buy them off a hill you will find they are incredibly skittish, so you want to start with a nice quiet bunch. They were a tad more flighty than my blacks but I think because I showed my sheep I probably spent more time with them. The badgers needed to get to know you to be friendly (even with food bribes), where as my blacks were friendly to anyone (for a digestive biuscuit).

[tommytink]

I have Torddu Badger Faces and they’re a bunch of hooligans. As roddycm mentions, buying them off the hill is asking for trouble. I know because that’s exactly what I did! They were skitty, jumped everywhere like springboks, and liked to headbutt each other. They’d rather try and run through a fence than go through an open gate. When we saw the guy we bought them from and mentioned they seemed a little nuts he said “no, no; they’re just healthy!” On the plus side they are lightweight, good on various types of terrain, happy to forage, and as you say they are beautiful! Even though they were hard work I went back and bought more from the same flock.
After spending time with them sat in the field, bribing them with ewe nuts, and getting them in and handling them, they are slowly improving. They still act like a**holes sometimes but now it just makes me like them more; it’s all part of who they are.
Like any mountain sheep (or just any sheep!) if you can get them well-handled/bucket-trained it would obviously be a bonus!
If you wanted them to produce commercial lambs I know someone that used a Charollais tup and reckoned it threw a good lamb without the potential problems something like a Texel may cause.
I reckon you should go for it,  and your other half will probably love them 

[Bramble&Rose Dairy]

Thanks tommytink and roddycm,
You've both given me plenty to think about!
Hmmm if I get any more sheep I think my OH might love them but get rid of me!!