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Post by Stella on May 8, 2006 7:49:08 GMT 1
The old sheperd who taught me my sheperding once told me that in the old days, shepherds used to think that black sheep were bad luck, so they would cull them at birth. Obviously that was only in areas where the flock was usualy white, & has been said already, Suffolks & Herdwicks change colour with age. He had come from Sussex, altho I was working on a farm in Wales at the time.
The main reason for not keeping the black ones now is the fact that you cant dye the wool. They tast just as nice tho - specialy Herdwicks - yum ;D
Would like to have seen a shepherd scratching his head about the black lamb situation in a flock of Welsh Black ewes ;D ;D
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Kirstie
Intermediate Poster
Park Farm Animal Sanctuary
Posts: 146
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Post by Kirstie on May 8, 2006 19:32:01 GMT 1
We have black sheep, well mainly black, we have one lamb that is pure black. The others are Dutch Zwartbles and are black with a white tip to the tail, a white blaze and four white socks, they are gorgeous and the good thing as well is that you don't have to dock their tails. I also like black jumpers so the wool is cool as far as I am concerned. These are lovely sheep as well as a number of people on the DG will vouch, one was used as a companion for a miniature horse, and the amount of people that wanted to take the sheep home is unreal, even though he was a tup. All ours have names and have characters.
Also taste wise if we go into that if you cross a Dutch Zwartbles with a texel or something like that you get a very sweet meat which apparently is very tasty.
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Post by Karon on May 9, 2006 11:23:57 GMT 1
If you're the YO of the yard next to mine, you keep the black lambs because they are cute and your kids won't let you get rid of them There's a few Zwartbles behind my flat, very distinctive and very cute lambs, too!
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miggy
Grand Prix Poster
Posts: 1,208
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Post by miggy on May 9, 2006 20:42:04 GMT 1
I used to have a pet black sheep called "Barley", and my friend has 6 black and 6 white sheep
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Post by Native Ponies on May 10, 2006 14:23:03 GMT 1
The sheep roam all over the place up on Dartmoor. Why is it that when you approach them in your car and they are lying in the middle of the road they wont move, but when you get out of the car they scarper!
Why are they afraid of you but not your car?
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Post by Stella on May 10, 2006 15:07:44 GMT 1
Coz a car isnt a preditor, but people are
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