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Anything special I need to know about Soay sheep?

 
pollinator
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Location: Northern Puget Sound, Zone 8A
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A friend needs to re-home her Soay sheep flock and I'll be getting them for a pretty screaming deal.  I'll be getting 4 ewes, a ram, and 2 lambs.  She's being told by the county to either make major changes to her fencing to keep their waste out of a river drainage, or get rid of them.  She chose the latter, as the fencing is beyond what she can handle right now.  Anyway, is there anything in particular about that breed of sheep I need to know about?  I know they're hair sheep, so they'll shed annually, though I might have to help them out a little.  They're supposed to be very hardy and parasite resistant, so with my intention of regular rotations I'm hopeful that I won't have to do much with parasite control.  My understanding is they're pretty good mothers, so when lambing should be fairly hands off.  I'll be doing all the normal sheep stuff like providing free choice minerals, hay when needed, I'll train them to come to a shaken bucket of grain, etc.  One thing I guess I'll need to learn is hoof trimming.  There's not a lot of rocks for them to wear their hooves down naturally on my property.
 
gardener
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There's a person on Twitter who is a big Soay sheep enthusiast: @NeolithicSheep.  The Twitter account ranges over a wide range of topics from Soay sheep to Kerry cattle to ... well, let's just call it a bit of a carnival ride and leave it there.  There's also a Patreon that I think may have more sheep stuff on it.  You might find something useful perusing their links and media.



 
Andrew Mayflower
pollinator
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Location: Northern Puget Sound, Zone 8A
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Got the Soay on Saturday.  They seem to be settling in.
soay.jpg
[Thumbnail for soay.jpg]
 
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