Our New Farm Babies!

We added three new farm babies to our farm!  I am so excited to introduce Ada, Agnes, and Theodore, our Olde English ‘Babydoll’ Southdown Sheep.

Meet our New Farm Babies!

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Around this time last year Kurt and I decided we wanted to add sheep to our little farm.  We decided sheep would be the best fit for our farm after reading the comments from my post on Instagram asking about sheep vs. goats.  We both love both animals but decided sheep were the best fit for what we were looking for.  Since neither one of us had raised sheep before, we learned a lot from this book and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in raising sheep.

Kurt did a lot of research and found the Olde English ‘Babydoll’ Southdown breed of sheep.  They are miniature sheep that date back to the 18oo’s, the time our house was built.  I love restoring our house to it’s original glory, and in a way I feel like having sheep that originated from around the same time as our house is like a farm restoration.  We often wonder what animals were raised on our farm back in the 1800’s and it’s fun to imagine that these sheep could have roamed our property many years ago.

It was important to Kurt and I that we started our flock with registered sheep to be able to preserve the breed.  We found Susan from Daybreak Farmstead through NABSSAR’s website.  We first contacted Susan almost a year before we got our lambs and she was so helpful throughout the entire process.  She continues to be a huge support and is always there to answer any questions we have.  She raises Babydolls that are beautiful and friendly.  It was such a joy visiting her farmstead and bringing our lambs home, we could not be more happy with our experience buying lambs from her and already have another lamb lined up for next spring!

Meet our new farm babies!

Babydolls come in two colors, off white and dark brown.  We decided to start our flock with two ewes (female sheep) and one wether (castrated male).  Wether’s are known to be very friendly and make great pets, but they are also necessary when rams (male sheep) need to be separated from the flock during breeding times.  Since sheep are heard animals, they need buddies.  Our wether stays with the ewes for now but will serve as our future rams buddy.

Theodore (Teddy)

Theodore, or Teddy for short, is our wether and is the cute little brown lamb with a BIG personality.  He is the leader of the bunch and makes sure everyone knows it.  Teddy often leads the others and likes to be the first to get his grain (a treat for sheep) and chin rubs – he loves chin rubs!  He was the first to warm up to us and will even give me little sheep kisses on my nose.

Ada

Ada is one of our white ewe lambs.  She was a singleton, which means she did not have any brothers or sisters.  It took her just a bit longer to warm up which may explain the very noisy car ride home.  I will be sharing more about the process of bringing them home soon, but let’s just say Kurt and I got to listen to her bleat in our ears the entire hour and forty minute drive home.  She warmed up to us after about a day and a few handfuls of gain and now she comes running every time she sees us.  Ada also isn’t camera shy, hence the several pictures of her to follow. =)

Agnes

Agnes is our other white ewe lamb.  She is very easy going and loves to be with her flock.  Agnes also loves grain, chin rubs, and roaming the pasture with her flock.  She was also quick to warm up to Ari and Nala, our live stock guardian dogs (LGD).  Agnes is a bit smaller than Ada but just as full of joy and personality.

Lambs and Puppies

As you may know, we have two Great Pyranees LGDs who are just over a year old.  We added Ari and Nala to our farm last year in preparation for our future sheep.  LGDs work to protect animals, such as sheep.  It has been amazing to see Ari and Nala’s instincts kick in.  They instantly took Ada, Agnes, and Theodore under their wings and it has been the cutest thing ever to watch.  Looking out our farmhouse window to see our dogs under a shade tree with our lambs is such a dream come true.

Thank you so much for stopping by the blog to meet our new farm babies!  I am so excited to share more about our Olde English ‘Babydoll’ Southdown sheep and our growing farm.  You can find more behind the scenes and daily updates by following along on Instagram.