Thank you everyone - quick responses
As a breed, Hebs are long lived, easy lambers (large pelvis compared with body size), good mothers, milky, they have slightly better feet than white hoofed breeds, can live on rougher pasture than commercials with a few more per hectare and their meat is, as the others have said, very tasty - slowly matured so fine grained and low in fat, thought to be high in conjugated linoleic acid (helps break down cholesterol or something like that)as other primitives. Someone referred to 'the skinny legged breeds' on another thread which would include Hebs, but the quality of the meat is so superior to commercial fast grown lamb that the smaller size of joints is not a problem. A gigot from a 16 m hogget will weigh about 2- 2.5 kgs which is plenty for a modern family meal with enough to have it cold the next day. There is more meat on than expected too as the bones are smaller and lighter. Hebs don't give cuts such as 'scrag end of neck' or even just 'neck' as they don't have meat there.
Handling has it's pluses and minuses - they are small so easy on the back but both sexes are horned, sometimes with huge sets as the chap on the left so they can be a bit awkward. How friendly they are depends on how they are handled - when we got our first ones it took us all afternoon to round them up when we collected them, but now we have worked out an easy system which they are used to so it's a doddle as Karen said. Lambs born here are much easier to handle compared with some bought-in animals. The trick is never to chase them but walk them slowly and peacefully, otherwise they will scatter. If they break out of a round-up, don't run after them, just start at the beginning again. Learning about your sheep's psychology will make handling them a pleasure instead of a constant battle - we learned that from an elderly shepherd who couldn't break into a trot, but didn't need to as his sheep did what he wanted them to. Ours, in southern Scotland at 1000' but good soil give us about 165% lambing percentage ie 2/3rds have twins but triplets are not unknown if you live on the fat lands of Cheshire.
We use our Jack Russell to help bring them in - he has come to an agreement with them where normally they are all the best of friends, but when he starts on at them with his annoying yip they know it's business so in they go - usually
. A sheepdog which has never worked with Hebs before will find them confusing to work with, but if the dog and the sheep are both used to the system they can be herded with dogs very well.
As Rose has said, the lambs are very lively. They are up and running usually within 15 mins of birth so catching ours for ringing involves a chase and a rugby tackle. In fact we rarely ring them now as we wait to see which tups may be good for breeding. There is no taint to the meat from these entire males when they go off at 16 months. Hebs are born with a thick and resilient birth coat which means they can be born into the teeth of a blizzard and survive, as long as they are licked dry. We lamb outside in all weathers although if there was a couple of feet of snow we might have to rethink. Adult fleece is double coated and is claimed to be popular with craft workers - I love it, especially the softer fleece from older ewes, but I don't exactly have buyers flocking to my door to buy the fleece. The finished products (jumpers, socks etc) are very popular though, as the wool is very lightweight but warm and of course doesn't show the dirt
In 15 years of breeding them we have lost only one set of twins (in our first year and down to our inexperience) and have helped one other texel cross lamb with it's legs back. Two horned tup lambs can be a bit of a squeeze for a first time lamber and may need extra lubrication but mostly we just let them get on with it. For shepherds who like to have immediate access to their lambing ewes, lambing outside is scary as if you do need to intervene you will have to catch the ewe first - but that does tend to help the lamb out. Many Heb breeders lamb indoors and they cope well with this, so you don't have to do the outdoor lambing thing.
Hebs are very alert and aware of their surroundings - all sheep are, but the primitives more than most. They are certainly eye-catching and a pleasure to have around. We do keep other breeds and have kept more in the past but we do love our Hebs
The breed soc is very friendly and small, with twice yearly get togethers and Hebs can be shown to good effect, although we don't do that much.
Take a peep at our website and that might tell you more, also about why we breed the rarer multihorned, topknotted and polled types.
Topic: Fleecewife, what are hebrideans like? (Read 6747 times)
