Welcome, Sounds like you are going to have quite an adventure with your new ranch. What town in NE WA will you be near??
Garland and I started raising horned, blackbelly sheep about 5 years ago. Although we have had horses for years, we'd never owned a sheep of any kind and got into Am. Blackbelly sheep quite by accident. It's been some interesting journey! I really like them for all the reasons listed in their breed descriptions, plus they are funny! We raise breeding stock and stock to butcher so we get the wonderful, tasty meat as a bonus, plus have fun sharing the babies with the local school kids. These sheep can be extremely timid if unhandled...or they can be so darned tame that they drive you nuts. Just depends on your situation and their individual temperaments. We dry lot feed so we have a lot of hands on contact with them. Ours come running to a small bucket of sweet feed and love treats. They are stunningly marked and the rams have awesome horns... Having said all of that...they are not for everyone. If you don't have patience to deal with them...they can be a challenge. They are smart, and can jump over you or through you if they are startled. If you are interested...you are welcome to visit our flock in central OR. It might be interesting to visit several flocks of different hair sheep breeds and see how people handle theirs, as everyone's situation is slightly different. Beth Stamper Sierra Luna Am. Blackbelly Sheep Powell Butte, OR _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
