air gun ant 1,666 Posted October 14, 2015 Report Share Posted October 14, 2015 There's a small flock for sale near me and I've just applied for my chp number for my parents house. Has anybody any experience with this breed? Are they hard work or quite suited to a newbie in sheep keeping? There a ram, and 5 ewes (unrelated) and 5 of this years lambs all for £300? I thought that sounded good to get started? Any help appreciated Cheers ant Quote Link to post Share on other sites
trapperman 474 Posted October 14, 2015 Report Share Posted October 14, 2015 I kept a small flock for about 8 years, nice to look at not to fussy for good ground but a real bugger to catch when you need to do anything with them They lamb fine on their own are very hardy and independent but if you want something you can handle if you have kids etc then maybe something more docile 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
moxy 617 Posted October 14, 2015 Report Share Posted October 14, 2015 They make good eating. Some of the best hogget we get. Not the biggest but by far one of the tastiest. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ideation 8,216 Posted October 14, 2015 Report Share Posted October 14, 2015 Good points - Hardy, look after themselves, easy lambing, good feet, don't eat much, live on poor grazing, few medical issues, good mothers, nice to look at. Bad points - Twats to gather in unless you bucket train them, don't flock when worked with a dog, small carcass, don't 'finish' till hoggets, no value in the market. Interestingly the meat is more akin to venison I've found. 6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
moxy 617 Posted October 14, 2015 Report Share Posted October 14, 2015 Aye good point. Don't be expecting a good return on the meat. £70-£ full, killed out and butchered. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ideation 8,216 Posted October 14, 2015 Report Share Posted October 14, 2015 (edited) And that would be at around 12-18 months plus I think. . . . . ? Edited October 15, 2015 by Ideation Quote Link to post Share on other sites
moxy 617 Posted October 14, 2015 Report Share Posted October 14, 2015 And that would be at around 12-12 months plus I think. . . . . ? Thereabouts. They can be run on a little further being lean. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
leegreen 2,173 Posted October 15, 2015 Report Share Posted October 15, 2015 There are much better options if you want a freezer filler. You will need a good fence, nifty feet and hands like a goal keeper. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
trenchfoot 4,243 Posted October 15, 2015 Report Share Posted October 15, 2015 I've got to agree with all said. Easy to keep, but a bugger to keep in or catch. Taste great, just not enough of it. Be a bit of fun if you are just rearing it for your own table. By the way, they are not from Bolton are they? Just that somebody there offered me some last week 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CraignTod 278 Posted October 15, 2015 Report Share Posted October 15, 2015 What are you planning on doing with the flock? Because as said previous theres not much meat on them, and as for pretty i think they look rougher than a tramps dog, especially when therr shedding. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Blackdog92 2,047 Posted October 15, 2015 Report Share Posted October 15, 2015 There's a small flock for sale near me and I've just applied for my chp number for my parents house. Has anybody any experience with this breed? Are they hard work or quite suited to a newbie in sheep keeping? There a ram, and 5 ewes (unrelated) and 5 of this years lambs all for £300? I thought that sounded good to get started? Any help appreciated Cheers ant Give me a shout when your going to go look at them ant i'll come and look them over with you if you need a hand. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
budharley 945 Posted October 15, 2015 Report Share Posted October 15, 2015 i did all this in the end I settled on Rylands seem easier to handle , they arnt great escape artists and I really like the look of them Quote Link to post Share on other sites
air gun ant 1,666 Posted October 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2015 Cheers for the replies lads, and thanks joe that would be great! I've done a fair bit of sheep wrestling on a mates farm so I'm fairly used to catching the buggers lol it's good to no that you can run them on a bit aswell. We would just be doing it for our own freezer and home killed and butchered. Plan is just to keep the ram and 5 ewes and have a crop of lambs every year for the freezer really? And trenchfoot not in Bolton mate, they are in milnthorpe near Carnforth, Lancaster way Quote Link to post Share on other sites
air gun ant 1,666 Posted October 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 15, 2015 http://m.preloved.co.uk/m/showadvert/113898292/small-flock-of-soay-sheep-for-sale.html Quote Link to post Share on other sites
perthshire keeper 1,239 Posted October 15, 2015 Report Share Posted October 15, 2015 I kept a small flock for about 8 years, nice to look at not to fussy for good ground but a real bugger to catch when you need to do anything with them They lamb fine on their own are very hardy and independent but if you want something you can handle if you have kids etc then maybe something more docile like he said! easy and hardy...and very good eating...i had a culling contract on some Christmas trees once for roe and red and used to let clients go their if it was hard going elsewhere...this one day a rather excitable German shot a fresh clipped ewe thinking it was......well f**k knows what he thought it was but it could have caused a lot of shit had i not eaten the evidence! real good eating 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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