Hello from hopeful sheep mom

Good afternoon! I joined BYH because my family and I are considering getting started with sheep on our little farm. We are chicken people and I have had horses so we are not entirely new to livestock management, but are definitely new to sheep. I live in the Hudson Valley and am an avid knitter and new spinner -- hence the sheep as our next potential animal acquisition.

There are a lot of sheep people on the forum and like sheep and goat people everywhere, they are always wanting to help.

Welcome and I look forward to seeing your adventure in sheep begin.

Greetings and welcome to BYH ummm, errr, Alice? So glad you joined us. We have some really great sheeple here. Also, there's a wealth of info, knowledge and experience shared in the multitude of threads. Browse around and see what interesting stuff you can find. By all means post away when the desire strikes you, especially if you have questions (provide as much detail/info as possible and pictures truly help)... With all the great folks here, generally someone will respond in no time at all. Please make yourself at home!

Hope you enjoy the site!

Thanks, guys! I already love this site -- I was a BYC user for many years and the wealth of info I have learned there was tremendous. Looking forward to a similar experience here.

(Alice is actually the name of one of my favorite chickens and the partial name of my business. )

Ahem... not that I'm LAZY mind you... But Typing out ASheepCalledAlice gives me hand cramps... Ummm I mean, it would save time if I did ASCA or just Alice... if that's OK... Maybe you live in Wonderland? Hope you like it here. There really are some great folks.

Welcome to the forum from Texas! We have Dorper/Katahdin hair sheep. Have you decided what breed of sheep you going to raise?

Baymule said:

Welcome to the forum from Texas! We have Dorper/Katahdin hair sheep. Have you decided what breed of sheep you going to raise?

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Why thank you! Not sure yet, but for various reasons the breeds with lots of horns are at the top of my list since we have a ton of coyotes around here. I started a thread on Jacob sheep in the breeds section. Talk to me about Dorper/Katahdins, though!

Ahem... no NOT count on ANY sheep, horns or not, to stop a coyote (or pack thereof). I can pretty much guarantee you'll never find a sheep killed coyote, while the opposite end result is quite common. Your 1st best defense against predators is proper fencing (including electric) and secured shelter for night time use. Second would be LGDs.

Hair Sheep grow a winter wool coat, but shed it off for spring/summer. They are a meat Sheep. Low maintenance and easy care-just my style!

As a spinner, they might be a disappointment to you! If I were to have wool Sheep, I’d have to look hard at Cotswold, they are a long wool breed.

There is a spinners guild in Mineola, 9 miles from us. I have stayed away... If I inquired further, I would have to learn how to knit and crochet. Then I’d have to buy a spinning wheel and learn to spin. Of course I’d have to get wool Sheep. They would need to be coated to keep cedar needles out of the wool, coats must be changed frequently to allow for wool growth. I’d probably want alpacas too..... You see where this is going don’t you? LOL

We have two Great Pyrenees that guard our sheep. Coyotes would wipe us out otherwise. Study the LGD forum for lots of good information, they are very different dogs. Love them!