[sallyw]

Hello,

i would like to buy three (or so) sheep to keep an alpaca company and to have a few lambs from each year for our freezer. Not sure how to go about sourcing them but understand that Ryelands would be a good breed. We are in South Buckinghamshire (north London) so not in the heart of sheep country! We have a few pigs and chickens at the mo - oh and five children  hence the need to fill the freezer! I think it would be easier to buy 30 than 3!
Any links or thoughts appreciated.

Sal

[kaz]

Try looking at the Ryeland flock book society web site. They will have a list of breeders near you or if not pm to me and will try to help.

[sallyw]

Thanks Kaz - feel a prawn looking for such a small number! Will let you know.

Sal

[Padge]

don't feel a prawn Sally!!   We bought 4 to start with for similar reasons to yourself       due to a sudden loss of grazing tho we may have to cut right back down to 4  (it gets compulsive!!)
Good luck

[Rosemary]

Don't feel daft - we started with three and now we have eight! Actually, I did feel a bit of a prawn as well - our neighbour has 1500 sheep. But I know al mine by name, so that puts me one up on him!

[Anke]

Shetlands are also a very good breed, if you only want small numbers. Through the Shetland Sheep society you would easily be able to get a small number of ewes, and could probably arrange to bring them to someone for use of their tup.

If you only want small numbers you could/should go for some of the traditional breeds, not so high maintenance and although they grow slower you also don't need to put so much (expensive) feed into them. And if its only for your own use you can decide when they are ready for the freezer too. Also - easy lambers and usually twins!

[sallyw]

Thanks for the support guys! Will keep making enquiries and will definately kick this off this spring. All good advice. I will keep you posted.

Sal

[shrekfeet]

If you want to 'fill the freezer' then presumably you are looking for lambs to 'finish' rather than sheep?
You will easily pick up 'sucky lambs' that need hand feeding for very little money. They are expensive and time consuming to rear but very rewarding for the children. Alternatively you could get ewes with 'lambs at foot' ie young lambs which can then be fisished and killed for the freezer. Leaving you with the ewes to breed from next year.
You will need a holding number etc etc before you can keep sheep

[xnbacon]

Maybe not get hand fed lambs to kill if you have sensitive children.  Could cause ructions at kill/eat time.  My kids forbade me to kill ours!!  Didn't have a problem with the pigs though.  Must be the fluffy factor.  Having said that all kids are different and I personally wouldn't be overruled by them, but might be worth bearing in mind!

[sallyw]

Thanks chaps, I have five children (under 11) and run a business so not sure the feeding lambs is logistically a good idea. They have been fine with the pigs after initial wobbles but their ultimate size (pigs not children) and lack of fur I am sure plays a big part (and the sausages!). So much to go at though so will find something that works for us all. The local farmer route is probably the sensible option to begin with.

Sal

[VSS]

Alot of people with Ryelands have very small flocks - there are some with even less than 3!

(Incidentally, it is compulsive. The OH started with 3.....Now numbered in hundreds!)

[Elissian]

Have you considered wiltshire horn, they are quite large sheep but they don't need shearing which is a great benefit as finding someone to shear a few sheep can be quite tricky. we've only had ours just over a year so i'm not that experienced but they lambed really easily last year. don't know if that was a fluke.

[sallyw]

Great, I have looked at the Wiltshire horn and am quite tempted. i have also managed to encourage my husband to have the whole (3 1/2 acre) field fenced so may pucker up for a few more than three! How exciting. Just need to find them!

Sal

[sallyw]

Dear All, Well I think i have found them, three pregnant ewes and a ram arriving end of February - how exciting! Wiltshire horn as suggested and moderately local. Great! Can't wait. Now just need to find a gilt or two in pig! GOS or Oxford sandy and black perferably if anyone can help. I will put a note in the market place and have trawled the GOS web pages. We may have to settle for weaners again this year but will keep looking. Best wishes and thanks for the encouragement.

Sal   

[Elissian]

Hi Sally, I'm thrilled you went for the wiltshires, we fell upon ours through doing someone a favour, not always a good idea but it turned out well as we love them. I would however give the ram some serious thought before going ahead or at least get some expert advice first. I loan a ram for free from a contact from the local show, he's never asked for a penny but i always pay him with a pork joint, i suppose we feed the ram for 3 months so he's happy with that. I'm not saying i know a lot about rams just that i'm pretty sure you dont need to keep one yourself with only 3 sheep.
as for the pigs, we have OSBs, lovely easy going pigs and good mums. from a purely aesthetic view the litters are soo pretty and importantly the meat tastes good.
good luck, Helen