OUR SHEEP
Barney
Barney and Barty were both born in spring 2019 and arrived at Mossburn on the 26th November 2019. Barty was hand reared as a premature lamb and the lady who reared him quite rightly thought that he should not spend a life as a single sheep and she acquired Barney as his companion. Barney is an attractive Jacob x Valais Blacknose who has a gorgeous chocolate brown fleece, but we don’t know what Barty’s breeding is. Unfortunately for their owner she had health issues which meant she could no longer give them the attention they needed so was pleased that we could take the two young sheep in and give them a forever home. Barney has developed two rather wonky front legs but they currently do not inhibit his movement or affect him at all. As is always the same with hand reared animals they are very human friendly and Barty enjoys playing chase with any humans who will run with him!
Barty
Barty and Barney were both born in spring 2019 and arrived at Mossburn on the 26th November 2019. Barty was hand reared as a premature lamb and the lady who reared him quite rightly thought that he should not spend a life as a single sheep and she acquired Barney as his companion. Barney is an attractive Jacob x Valais Blacknose who has a gorgeous chocolate brown fleece, but we don’t know what Barty’s breeding is. Unfortunately for their owner she had health issues which meant she could no longer give them the attention they needed so was pleased that we could take the two young sheep in and give them a forever home. Barty was a premature lamb and so is quite small compared to most of the other sheep. As is always the same with hand reared animals they are very human friendly and Barty enjoys playing chase with any humans who will run with him!
Betty
Betty is a very cute little texel x cheviot sheep who arrived at Mossburn as a tiny lamb in June 2022. She was born in March 2022 and was the smallest of triplets. It is common for there to be a small lamb when a ewe has multiples but Betty was extremely tiny and needed to be hand reared. When she was a couple of weeks old, Betty had some problems with her eyes which, despite medical treatments, left her visually impaired. This, along with some sentimental reasons, meant Betty became very special to the farmers and they wanted to find somewhere Betty could go where she would get plenty of attention - she is very friendly and loves a fuss! Betty is still very small despite being fully grown now but she is extremely independent and has soon learned to find her own way around the farmyard, picking out some favourite quiet spots to sit and to graze.
Daisy
Daisy and Katie arrived here towards the beginning of 2018 – Katie is Daisy’s mum and they are both of unknown breeding. Their previous owners were about to move abroad and their future was in jeopardy. However a neighbour who knew there was a problem contacted us to ask if we would take them as they are very friendly sheep, they had struck up a bond with them and they didn’t want anything untoward to happen to them. Daisy is an independent sheep who prefers the company of Melvin and the flock to humans.
Felix
We were contacted by a young German lady doing work experience at a local organic farm who was very concerned that the sheep who had been introduced to children who lived on the farm to hand rear was about to be returned to the flock and eventually to market. Imagine our horror on collecting him to find that he was not only exceedingly thin but also suffering from a bad case of diarrhoea! Felix’s main problem was worms and once he had been wormed and given vitamins and digestive supplements along with a good healthy diet he soon improved and became quite a handsome little sheep. For some obscure reason, when he was castrated his tail was not docked so we now need to keep a very close eye on him to avoid fly strike in that area. Felix is a very friendly, playful little sheep who has now settled into the main flock.
Fly
Fly and Lily were both born in Spring 2019 and arrived here in December 2021. Their owner had rescued them but was struggling to find somewhere to keep them and care for them appropriately and so asked if we had space for them. They are both "easycare" sheep and so their wool comes out itself instead of needing to be shorn. Lily is the smaller of the two and is a bit more people oriented than Fly.
Fraydo
Fraydo arrived here in October 2020 along with Longinus and Olivia. These three rather rotund sheep were rescued, hand-reared and much loved pets but a change in her circumstances forced their owner to rehome them. Fraydo and Longinus are castrated males while Olivia is the lady of the bunch – they are all different breeds.
Gracie
Gracie arrived here in March 2019 along with Lola. These two much beloved sheep are only here because their owner lost the use of the field where she grazed them. They are very friendly and make a useful addition to our flock when children want to get up close and interact with the sheep. Lola is a texel sheep and Gracie is a texel cross.
Jenny
Jenny & Jock were both born in April 2019 and arrived here together in April 2022. They were pet sheep whose owners were struggling to find the time and resources to commit to giving them as much attention as they felt they should have. They are both large, friendly sheep who settled in well with the rest of the flock.
Jock
Jock and Jenny were both born in April 2019 and arrived here together in April 2022. They were pet sheep whose owners were struggling to find the time and resources to commit to giving them as much attention as they felt they should have. They are both large, friendly sheep who settled in well with the rest of the flock.
Katie and Daisy arrived here towards the beginning of 2018 – Katie is Daisy’s mum and they are both of unknown breeding. Their previous owners were about to move abroad and their future was in jeopardy. However a neighbour who knew there was a problem contacted us to ask if we would take them as they are very friendly sheep, they had struck up a bond with them and they didn’t want anything untoward to happen to them. For some obscure reason we haven’t got to the bottom of, Katie decided soon after arriving here that she would much rather be a cow and hangs out with the cattle at every opportunity!
Katie
Kuzu
Kuzu is a sheep of indeterminate breed and, unless she decides to tell us one day, it will just have to be a mystery. Kuzu arrived at the farm in July 2013 aged just 9 weeks old. Her owners bought her from a man selling lambs, probably for meat, but they wanted her as a pet. Unfortunately, a week after her purchase their landlord gave them 2 months notice to leave his property and all they could move into was a council house and the council were very definite about the lamb not joining them. She will be looked after here for the rest of her life and we think is much happier here with a spacious field and other sheep for company. Kuzu, for those of you who don’t know, is Turkish for lamb.
Lily
Lily and Fly were both born in Spring 2019 and arrived here in December 2021. Their owner had rescued them but was struggling to find somewhere to keep them and care for them appropriately and so asked if we had space for them. They are both "easycare" sheep and so their wool comes out itself instead of needing to be shorn. Lily is the smaller of the two and is a bit more people oriented than Fly.
Lola
Lola arrived here in March 2019 along with Gracie. These two much beloved sheep are only here because their owner lost the use of the field where she grazed them. They are very friendly and make a useful addition to our flock when children want to get up close and interact with the sheep. Lola is a texel sheep and Gracie is a texel cross.
Longinus
Longinus arrived here in October 2020 along with Fraydo and Olivia. These three rather rotund sheep were rescued, hand-reared and much loved pets but a change in her circumstances forced their owner to rehome them. Fraydo and Longinus are castrated males while Olivia is the lady of the bunch – they are all different breeds.
Matthew
Matthew does not show a wild nature, but neither does he tend to approach people, although he is quick enough to come for food! He is always a bit of a challenge to handle, especially when shearing, as he is so big, but he is amenable enough and we just about manage. This very large Suffolk sheep arrived in summer 2015.
Olivia
Olivia arrived here in October 2020 along with Fraydo and Longinus. These three rather rotund sheep were rescued, hand-reared and much loved pets but a change in her circumstances forced their owner to rehome them. Fraydo and Longinus are castrated males while Olivia is the lady of the bunch – they are all different breeds.
Sally
Sally used to live in a nearby village and enjoyed daily visits from local people, who would bring her biscuits and treats. When she first moved to the farm, she was very disappointed that we didn't all bring her biscuits every time we came near. She has slowly become more like the rest of the sheep and less human dependant; in fact, she is now not that keen on interacting with us at all (probably due to the lack of biscuits).
Cedric
This very cute lamb arrived at Mossburn on the 1st of May 2023, just five weeks old. He had previously been living in a house and so it was very exciting to come here and learn all about being a sheep! As a young lamb still on the bottle, humans are very much one of his favourite things however it was great to see him strike up an instant friendship with Betty who, although technically an adult now, is not much bigger than him! Betty has taught Cedric all about how important grass is and how quickly you should eat it! They do like to play together too, although eating is definitely the top priority for the pair!
"Z" sheep
A lady originally asked us to take three of her sheep which she didn’t want to sell along with the rest of her flock. She then changed that into six sheep, three of which had to be castrated before we agreed to take them! None of the sheep came with names or breeding and they don’t seem to have had much in the way of human contact. These six are the wild part of our flock, definitely not human orientated but useful grazers. As we already had a Bungle and George at Mossburn we had decided that the next unnamed animal in would be Zippy so on arrival we gave all six sheep names beginning with Z – Zippy, Zena, Zoe, Zeus, Zorro and Zak!