OUR SHEEP
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.
Cedric
Cedric arrived at Mossburn on the 1st of May 2023, just five weeks old and extremely cute. 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 were very much one of his favourite things however it was great to see him strike up a friendship with other sheep and at just over a year old Cedric joined our main flock in the field. He is still very friendly and will happily come over for a fuss in the field. He has struck up a friendship with Neville and has been teaching him how to be a sheep!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Neville
Neville is a very friendly sheep who arrived here in May 2024. He was handreared by a family who then couldn't help but keep him rather than give him back to the farmer as planned. Unfortunately they only had a small garden and realised that Neville needed more space to graze and the company of other sheep so they asked if we could take him. Life as a sheep took a bit of getting used to for Neville but he soon made friends with Cedric who had also recently been moved outside with the main flock. The two are still good friends but have integrated into the flock well now. They are both very friendly and enjoy a fuss in the field from visitors.
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.
"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!