Pen-Theon of Sheep
The Ouessant Sheep
Have you ever heard of an Ouessant sheep? If not, let me tell you a little about them. They are the smallest recognized naturally occurring sheep in the world! Averaging just 18-20 inches tall and 25-45 pounds they are the absolute cutest, pocket sized sheep. They are perfect for orchard maintenance and small landholding lawn mowers. They are naturally hardy against the winter’s cold, tracing back to the Viking age on the island of Ouessant. They are highly intelligent and very independent. There are only 7 registered farms/ranches with Ouessant sheep in North America. And you wanna know what? We are partnering with Midwest Mini Sheep to bring Ouessants to Western Michigan! Is there a better community to bring some truly amazing orchard keepers to? We think not!
The Ouessants have joined us here at The Wyldfae Wood! We couldn’t be more excited to share with you our new venture and bring you along with us. Help us spread the word on this fascinating little breed and let’s see what we can do together.
Pascal
Pascal has come to us from Midwest Mini Sheep in Bellevue, MI. He is one of only 5 original 7/8 Ouessant rams in North America and he is joining us and hoping to have you fall in love with him and his journey. He will be the herd sire that begins our Ouessant upbreeding program.
Arnemetia (Nemee)
is our very first lamb baby to make it here to The Wood. She is a twin and her mom rejected her. She came home with us at about 18-20 hours old and has been the sweetie we didn’t know we needed. She is 7/16 Ouessant-Shetland cross and will also be part of our upbreeding program.
Idunn
has journeyed the shortest distance to us from a cute little farm in Mears, MI. She is 100% Icelandic and will be part of our fiber project, as well as, our upbreeding program. She has the most beautiful fleece and is such a little peanut.
Cernunnos
also traversed from Bellevue to Hart, to be a part of our fiber project and upbreeding program. He has the most beautiful red fleece and is so calm and sweet. He is 7/16 Ouessant-Soay cross and he’s just a delight to have here
Manannán
rode with Cernunnos to join us here. He is 7/16 Ouessant-Soay/Shetland cross and we are looking forward to having this little boy be a wether companion to our rams. He’s got the cutest little koala face and we fell in love with him so quickly the day we picked up Nemee. We don’t need three boys, but there was no going back. He had to be a part of our journey.
The Jacob’s Sheep
Well, when you start one project, you might as well start two—maybe three. We acquired 2 Jacob’s sheep from an unnamed source, that we call Meth-any. When the sheep were delivered to us, we were so excited. A breeding pair, Vulcan and Minerva, how perfect to start a small fiber project??
Vulcan
Well, turns out Vulcan has parrot-mouth and we couldn’t possibly send him back where he came from because they would’ve bred him—bad idea for genetics. So, he will be our wether Jacob’s and he can keep Augustine company in the bigger sheep’s pen.
Minerva
Minerva seems to be pretty standard Jacob’s quality and we are picking up a beautiful 4-horn Jacob’s named Augustine from Sweetgrass Jacob’s in St John’s, Michigan. Peg and Joe are amazing resources and fountains of knowledge for this breed and we are lucky to have found them.
Minerva, Augustine and Vulcan will begin our Jacob’s fiber flock and we will breed Minerva this fall to Augustine. We may also see what crossing Idunn (our Icelandic ewe) with Augustine looks like in the future, but for now, we will stick with the three.